None of the forest is not complete without this bird.Loud and rhythmic sounds of the woodpecker shot heard all around, this is especially noticeable in the spring.If we carefully look at the trees, we can see it.Bird, this is not easily frightened and sometimes flies "make some noise" in the gardens, trees under windows or telegraph poles.It is very remarkable and bright, confused her with someone else is impossible.But woodpeckers can not distinguish at a glance.Especially prevalent in our country, a great spotted woodpecker.Let us dwell on it.
Great spotted woodpecker: description
fact that this bird at all difficult with someone confused, primarily due to its specific appearance and method of production of food.Greater Spotted Woodpecker size is often compared with thrush, they are about the same.The length of the body generally varies from 22 to 27 centimeters, the females are usually smaller than males.Mass poultry small - only 60-100 grams.Great Spotted Woodpecker is not for nothing was so named because it has a very bright, contrasting color of feathers in black and white and red (sometimes pink) podhvoste.
males from females can be distinguished in color neck.All juveniles have a red cap on his head, it disappears with age.Red spots on the back of the head is only in males.The top of the head becomes black.Cheeks bird, the forehead, the belly - white, depending on the habitat can change their color from bright and clean to almost beige or brown.Great spotted woodpecker has very decent wingspan, is nearly two feet (42-47 cm).It is worth noting also the shape of the tail.He pointed (tapered), has an average length;very hard as playing the role of support when the bird moves on the tree.The structure of the legs, typical of woodpeckers - zigodaktilnoe, there are two front fingers contrasted two back.The life expectancy of a bird is about 9 years.
Great spotted woodpecker: habitat
This is a very common bird, which has a wide habitat - from the Canary Islands to Kamchatka and Japan.The most common birds are sedentary, less - wandering.The latter is mainly due to habitat that is unfavorable in terms of food supply, so the birds are forced to make migrations (invasions) in neighboring regions.Great spotted woodpecker (photos can be seen in the article) is very undemanding to the residence and take root almost everywhere there are trees - from the boreal forest to the city's parks.What is surprising is that the choice depends not only on the country in which they live poultry, but even from region to region.For example, in Siberia and the Urals woodpecker picks and mixed coniferous forests, but with a predominance of pine trees, and in the north-west of the country prefers pine Boram, spruce forests.
The woodpecker feeds the summer?Many
from school remember the so-called sanitation forest.These include the wolf and the woodpecker.Bird prefers to live in the woods, where a lot of old and rotten trees.Woodpeckers have a very varied diet.Predominance of plant or animal food depends on the season.It is noteworthy that the males and females to earn their living in different areas, and sometimes even in some woods.Spring-Summer diet consists mainly of insects and their larvae.The first is, of course, various bugs, including those that feed on wood, as well as their larvae: long-horned beetles, bark beetles, stags, weevils, ladybugs, borers.Great spotted woodpecker makes 130 beats per minute with its beak.This is quite a powerful force, any bug or worm will not go unnoticed.Also included in the diet of birds butterflies, including Shaggy, their caterpillars, aphids, ants.Great Spotted Woodpecker is not squeamish and carrion if the opportunity falls.It was also found that sometimes these birds ravage nests of small birds singing.
The woodpeckers feed on fall and winter?
In autumn and winter the dominant vegetation, high-protein food.It includes the seeds of coniferous trees, acorns and nuts.Of interest is a way of obtaining seeds from the cones.It is characteristic for all woodpeckers, but this kind of brought it to perfection.Initially, a woodpecker picks lump, and then carries it in its beak to a pre-selected site - the anvil, which is, in fact, is a clip or a gap in the top of the tree trunk.Bird with all the force has a beak on the bumps, and then proceeds to a meal - otklevyvaya scales, remove seeds.One great spotted woodpecker can make for themselves about 50 of the anvil, but uses, as a rule, two or three.Therefore, in late winter under one tree can accumulate an entire slide bumps and scales.
When it's mating season woodpeckers?
These birds are characterized by monogamy.They reach sexual maturity at the end of the first year of his life.It is noteworthy that the pair may after mating season to stay together until the next spring.Either they fall and winter separately, but the following year the newly reunited.
behavior of birds during the mating season is very remarkable.His first symptoms appear in late February - early March and continues on the rise until the middle of the first spring month.The birds begin to pair selection.Males behave very noisy, loud and aggressive tokuyut cry.Females respond to them, but less markedly.Around the middle of May, when the couple were already defined, begins the construction of nests.
nesting woodpeckers
Tree, which will be located in a hollow, chooses the male.It should not be rotten, but with soft wood (for example, aspen or alder, oak or less birch, larch).
Great spotted woodpecker (pictured above), who lives in the woods redkolistvennyh prefer to make a new yearly hollow.If its habitat - dense conifers, the bird returns to the old.Hollow, usually located at an altitude of up to eight meters and has a depth of about 25-35 cm and a diameter - about 10. The construction is mainly engaged in the male and the female only occasionally substitute for, the time it takes up to two weeks.Woodpeckers lay eggs in mid-spring, about the end of April.The clutch is 5 to 7 small egg white, glossy.At hatching, both parents take part, but at night - only male.Chicks hatch naked, blind and helpless in the 10-12 day.
Small and great spotted woodpecker: differences
- By the nature of color feathers. have small type transverse black stripe on the cheek does not reach the back of the head and a white spot interrupted.In addition, he has a pink or reddish undertail.But in the mind of the woodpecker has a small hat - red with a black border in males and white females.
- Great spotted woodpecker and small spotted woodpecker different in character to make sounds. The first type of shot is very short and takes about 0.6 seconds, includes 12-13 strokes, but is almost impossible to distinguish them, as they merge into one continuous sound.Moreover, it quickly loses its sonority begins loudly, but quickly fades.Great spotted woodpecker makes 130 beats per minute, his shot is heard often at a distance of one and a half kilometers.Sounds made small woodpecker, more like a voice singing birds, they are more lingering.And he also shot a long, but not as sonorous as that of the first type, lasts an average of 1.5 seconds.
- Lesser Spotted Woodpecker several smaller , its length is about 14-15 centimeters.
- preferences differ by choice habitats. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker prefers deciduous and mixed forests, coast ponds, swamps.Try to avoid dark conifers.
Do woodpecker enemies?
It would seem that a bird can not in principle be enemies, because, with its powerful beak, he can stand up for themselves.But the reality is somewhat different.Data on attacks on woodpeckers, birds of prey and even a little, but still they are there.In general, they are exposed to danger from the Sparrowhawks, goshawks, on flat terrain - the peregrine falcon.
from land-based predators should be noted marten and ermine.Even woodpeckers nest, which seemed to be hidden and protected, are sometimes subjected to devastation by the protein-polchka dormouse and red vechornytsi (species of bats).It so happens that woodpeckers are forced out of the old hollows starlings.
fitness of the woodpecker to environmental conditions
Almost all the animals and birds have a certain set of characteristics that have arisen as a result of adaptation to the factors of the external world.No exception and great spotted woodpecker.Features of adaptation to the environment are listed below.
- Tenacious claws on the feet to help you easily keep in the trunk of a tree or on thin branches.
- hard wedge-shaped tail prevents sliding down the trunk;He is more suited to climbing trees than for flight.
- Long strong beak helps pierce the bark of trees and make them hollows for nesting, as well as search for food.
- Long, thin and sticky tongue helps to extract insects from the most remote places.
