How many sparrows live in the city. Brownie sparrow: description. What is the difference between a house sparrow and a field sparrow? Reproduction and life expectancy

The sparrow belongs to the weaver family, and once the sparrow lived in Africa, then reached the Mediterranean countries, met people, and began its march around the world, and at the same time turning into a sparrow as we are used to seeing it. He no longer separated himself from people. Even when man began to populate Siberia - the sparrow followed him, man mastered the tundra - and together with people in settlements turned out to be a sparrow. In 1850, several pairs of sparrows were brought to America, and soon they firmly established there.

Sparrows live independently, but very many live in the very immediate vicinity of humans. Sometimes, unexpectedly, the sparrow remembers that he is from the weaver family, famous nest builders, and tries to build something original, something like a ball with a pipe-shaped entrance. But this rarely happens. Usually sparrows arrange primitive nests wherever they need to: under the roof of a house or under a cornice, behind a window frame or in an old drainpipe, under rafters or in the hollow of a tree growing in the garden. Sometimes he tries to brazenly seize a birdhouse or a swallow's nest (and sometimes the sparrow succeeds).

An adult sparrow has a varied diet: in addition to insects, it feeds on seeds and berries, grains and flower buds, food waste, and so on.

People know a lot about sparrows: what they eat, where they live, how they behave in different conditions. They do not know only one thing - a sparrow is useful or harmful. When sparrows appeared in America, they were very happy - newspapers wrote about the sparrows, poems were written in their honor, a "society of the sparrow's friends" was even created. But then the impudent sparrow, not appreciating the benevolent attitude, was so mischievous, having made devastation in the fields and in the gardens, that their number began to be limited.

A sparrow does a lot of harm in our country, destroying crops of grain, sunflowers, pecking the buds of flowers of fruit and berry trees, eating berries, stealing grain (at one time, apparently, he was generally famous for this, it is not for nothing that his name is a sparrow - "thief bey" ). He is also disgraceful in the gardens. This is how the sparrow behaves all over the world.

But in the same United States, where the number of sparrows is limited, in the city of Boston a monument to this bird was erected for saving gardens, vegetable gardens and fields from pests (in particular, from caterpillars).

In China in the 60s, after assessing how much wheat and rice sparrows destroy, they declared war on these birds. In some places the sparrows were completely exterminated. After a while, the Chinese had to buy this bird in Mongolia and release it in those places where the sparrows were exterminated. And all because sparrows eat not only cultivated plants or their seeds. According to rough estimates, a flock of sparrows (1000 birds) destroys 8 kilograms of weed seeds in one month. This is a significant contribution to the protection of cultivated plants. But this is not all, because sparrows destroy insects as well. And if we consider that sparrows are among the most common birds, then the number of insects they destroy is astronomical. Sparrows, in turn, eat useful predator birds and owls.

Therefore, scientists do not define their attitude to the sparrow in any way: what does it bring to a person more - harm or benefit. Obviously, it all depends on the place where the birds live, on their number and on some other factors.

Not everyone noticed that not one, but two species of sparrows lived nearby: brownie and field... They are similar in behavior, color, voice, only the field sparrow is somewhat smaller. But there are other differences between them: in the male house sparrow, the top of the head is gray, and the plumage of the female is more or less monochromatic; in the field sparrow, both in the male and in the female, the "cap" is brown, and on the light cheeks a dark spot is clearly visible at a distance.

The male house sparrow is colored quite differently, and in the spring it is a real dandy. Its forehead, crown and nape are gray with brownish edging of feathers. There are wide brown stripes on the sides of the head. The frenulum and narrow stripes above the eyes are black. The back is rusty-brown with wide black longitudinal streaks. The loin and upper tail are brownish-gray. Tail feathers are dark brown with narrow light edging. The wings are dark brown with a reddish border of feathers. The middle wing coverts have white tips that form white transverse stripes on the wings. The chin, throat, goiter and upper part of the breast are black, in a fresh plumage with narrow light edging, which are worn out by spring. The underparts are white or light gray, darkening on the sides. Legs are brownish, beak is brownish-black in winter and bluish-black in spring. The female is colored much more modestly. The top of the head and the loin are brownish, along the sides of the head there is an ocher stripe. The cheeks, ear coverts and the sides of the neck are brownish gray. The back is brownish-buffy with dark feathers. The belly is light, brownish-gray. Young birds look like a female, only there is more brown color in their color.

Not everyone distinguishes between brownies and field sparrows by appearance, especially since sometimes they keep together in common flocks. Meanwhile, the differences in these species are quite significant. First, the field sparrow does not have such a pronounced sexual dimorphism as its house cousin. Males and females are colored exactly the same. Secondly, it is significantly smaller than the house sparrow: its weight ranges from 20 to 30 g, while the mass of the house sparrow is from 28 to 38 g. The color of adult field sparrows is quite elegant. Top of the head, cap, brown. Frenulum, stripe under the eye, throat and ear coverts are black, on the white cheeks there is a dot - "dimple". The sides of the neck are also white. The plumage of the back, wings and tail is brown, often with dark trunks and light ocher edging of feathers. The abdomen is whitish, darkening towards the sides. The bill is black in summer, brownish-black in winter with a yellowish base. Legs are pale brown. The plumage of young birds is significantly dimmer than that of adults. The top of the head and back are grayish-brown with dark streaks. The abdomen is off-white, the throat, frenulum and ear coverts are gray.

The sparrow can rightfully be attributed to the most common birds due to its extraordinary adaptability to living in the immediate vicinity of human habitation. Their caution plays a significant role, high ability to study and other features of behavior.

Most house sparrows nest under roofs, behind window frames, behind wall cladding, etc. They are also comfortably located in hollows and birdhouses. True, starlings often survive from their nesting boxes. In similar places, the field sparrow also arranges nests. But he prefers hollows of trees more.

Field sparrows tend to gravitate more towards countryside, which can be assumed from their name, and in cities, most of them live in squares and parks. The house sparrow, on the contrary, is more a city bird than a rural bird. However, these attachments do not prevent both species from often settling side by side. Both the field sparrow and the house sparrow in winter feed on everything that they can profit from near a person. In summer, food of animal origin is in first place - various insects that birds collect in vegetable gardens, gardens, squares and parks.

Sparrows are social birds. This is especially striking from the spring, when the sparrows, as if on command, flock to one bush and, interrupting each other, begin to chirp together. "Group singing" is an essential element of their pre-nesting behavior. Its meaning is to attract as many birds as possible to a specific site. He also synchronizes the mating behavior of future reproductive partners, clarifies relationships, etc. After singing, courtship begins: the male lowers his wings, lifts his tail, chirps and jumps around the female like a cock.

Sparrows are mostly sedentary birds. Only in some, as a rule, border areas of the range - Central Asia, Yakutia, Western Europe, more or less regular flights are noted.

In the central part of Russia, house sparrows usually have three broods of chicks per season. Nesting begins in March, at which time the birds are actively adjusting the nests. The first eggs appear in April. Laying times depend on the climatic conditions of the year. Thus, the beginning of clutching can occur both in the first and in the third decade of April, and many (mainly one-year-old) females begin to nest in May. The nesting season ends in early - mid-August, when the post-nesting molt begins in birds, during which they completely change their plumage. AI Ilyenko in his book writes: "for a female to lay eggs (4-5 days), incubation (11-12 days), feeding chicks in the nest (13-15 days) and raising them after leaving the nest (at least 12 days) only takes about 41 days. " After the chicks leave the nest, care for them, for the most part, lies on the male, while the female adjusts the nest and makes the next clutch. The number of eggs in a clutch varies from 3 to 9. In the tropics, it is significantly less than in the temperate climatic zone. It is interesting that in rural areas there are always more eggs in a clutch than in urban areas. Both male and female take part in incubation and rearing.

As a rule, sparrows nest in pairs - monogams. The male and female remain faithful to each other throughout the nesting period, and possibly throughout their lives.

Sparrows manage to place their nests in various places. In terms of the variety of nesting sites, they hold the lead among birds. In burrows made by birds (coastal swallows, wheaters, bee-eaters) and animals (ground squirrels, gerbils, hamsters), and under the roofs of buildings, in cracks in adobe buildings, cliffs, rocks and in wells, in tree hollows and hollows of stumps, in old nests of small birds and birdhouses, titmouses and other artificial nest boxes, at the base of the nests of some large birds and, finally, just on tree branches.

P.N. Romanov, who was on expeditions in Western Kazakhstan, said that about 30 pairs of field sparrows settled in the nest of the burial eagle. Here the birds felt reliable protection from the mighty eagle. Sparrows also nest in the walls of the nests of rooks, crows, magpies.

In sparrows, eggs are distinguished by clearly visible pigmentation in the form of numerous brownish spots on a light olive or cream background.

The sparrow successfully frees the hollows occupied by titmice, flycatchers, redstarts, nuthatches, small variegated woodpecker and small animals - hazel dormouse, sometimes even killing weaker hosts. A field sparrow can be evicted by a house sparrow, a starling, a swift neck and a swift. Swifts and starlings occasionally capture the house sparrow's nests.

The sparrow also has enemies of a different kind, which destroy its nests, eat eggs and chicks. These include marten, squirrel, great spotted woodpecker.

Sparrows can be used as nurse birds for breeding some rare or valuable bird species. It is known that experiments in nature on replacing sparrow eggs with eggs of such hollow nests as tits, redstarts, and even flycatchers have often been successful. With the help of sparrows in the forest and park zones of cities, it is possible to breed new, desirable species of birds. Sparrows feed their broods mainly with insects, so they can also feed the offspring of some insectivorous birds.

There are many sparrows. there is black-chested sparrow... It is found in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and generally in Southern Europe, Africa and Asia. He really has a black chest and also settles near human habitation. there is saxaul sparrow... there is deserted - he is much lighter than his fellows and does not chirp like them, but rather loudly shouts. there is earth sparrow - in our country he lives in Altai and Transbaikalia. It is interesting in that it nests and spends the night in abandoned holes of rodents (sometimes even at a depth of about a meter it arranges its nest). there is stone sparrow.

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1. The sparrow is one of the most famous birds living in the neighborhood of a human dwelling. In Russia, there are two types of sparrows: the house sparrow, or city, and the field sparrow, or village.

2. A sparrow weighs only 20 to 35 grams. Meanwhile, the sparrow belongs to the order of passerines, which, in addition to it, includes more than 5,000 species of birds. The largest representative of the detachment is the raven (its weight is about one and a half kilograms), the smallest is the beetle (weighing up to 10 grams).

3. About a billion sparrows live on Earth. That is, approximately for every six people there is only one sparrow.

4. Due to the fact that the sparrow is cunning and stealing, the version about the origin of the word “sparrow” from the phrase “thief - beat!” Has become widespread. In fact, in the Slavic languages \u200b\u200bthe word "sparrow" has the same root as in the word "coo". The basis of this verb, like the verb "grumble", was the word "work" that has not survived. So this bird was nicknamed for the constant chirping that never stops.

5. The male sparrow differs from the female by the presence of a large black spot covering the chin, throat, goiter and upper chest, as well as a dark gray (not dark brown) top of the head.

6. The life cycle of a sparrow is short, although there have been cases of both 9 and 11 year old sparrows, most of them do not live up to 4 years. Many young birds die in the first winter, so the average life span of sparrows is 9-21 months.

7. There is an opinion that the house sparrow, as one of the closest feathered neighbors of man, can act as a "biological indicator", and the state of the population of this species can be judged on changes in the environment.

8. The sparrow's heart beats 600-850 times per minute at rest, and during flight - 1000 beats per minute. At the same time, a strong fright is fraught with even death for a bird, since it significantly increases blood pressure.

9. A sparrow spends a lot of energy per day and therefore cannot starve for more than two days.

10. Most members of the family move on the ground by jumping because of their short legs.

11. Sparrow - Monogamous, birds in a pair are faithful to each other for years. Anyone who has not had a family since the fall or a female died during the winter is doomed to spend the next season as a bachelor. Of course, such a male will use every opportunity to persuade a lonely female to live together. However, this is not easy, since by the beginning of the breeding season, there are significantly more males than females (there are one hundred and fifty sparrows for one hundred sparrows).

12. Sparrows are very prolific and during the summer they breed two broods in the northern regions and three broods in the southern ones. The second oviposition takes place in the second half of June, chicks emerge in July.

13. A sparrow's clutch consists of 4-10, more often 5-7, white eggs with brownish specks and spots, the incubation of which takes 11-13 days.

14. In 10 days after hatching, sparrow chicks fly out of the nest.

15. Sparrows feed on seeds. They love hemp, sunflower, wheat grains, but bread crumbs will also bite. Watch how they skillfully fight pigeons in the yard for their piece of bread. But sparrows feed babies with tender meat of caterpillars, butterflies, and the benefits of sparrows, which are in the destruction of pests in kitchen gardens, vineyards and orchards, balances some of the harm caused by grain eaters. Feeding a brood of four or six chicks, sparrow parents put about a thousand different insects in the orange mouths of their children.

16. As a man's cohabitant, the sparrow has settled all over the world, it can be equally found in rural and urban areas, in the settlements of the Far North and Central Asia. However, in Central Asia, he usually keeps away from a person.

17. There were no sparrows in America until the 60s of the last century. They were brought from England to fight caterpillars.

18. Sparrow meat is hard and tasteless, therefore it is rarely eaten.

19. The normal body temperature of a sparrow is 44 degrees.

20. Due to the peculiarities of the structure of the eyes, sparrows see the world in pink light, and in a sparrow's neck there are twice as many vertebrae as in a giraffe.

21. Young sparrows with their yellow color around the beak are popularly called "yellow-mouthed". In colloquial speech, the term "yellow-mouth" can mean a young, inexperienced, naive person.

23. There are known facts of the installation of monuments to a sparrow, erected by man in gratitude for the help from this bird in the fight against insect pests. The first such monument was erected in the middle of the 19th century in Boston. Well, the most famous in Russia is the Chizhik-Pyzhik monument in St. Petersburg. Yes, siskins also belong to the sparrow family.

24. In 1958, at the initiative of the great helmsman Mao Zedong, a pest control campaign was launched in China. Sparrows were declared the main enemies, since, according to his calculations, they ate tens of thousands of tons of rice in the fields a year. Since sparrows cannot be in the air without rest for more than 15 minutes, the Chinese were instructed to scare the birds in every possible way so that they would not sit down and fall to the ground dead. According to statistics, almost 2 billion of them were destroyed in a year. And although a year later the harvest improved, it was heavily eaten by caterpillars and locusts, the numbers of which were previously regulated by sparrows. Environmental imbalances have exacerbated famines caused by Great Leap Forward and natural disasters, killing more than 20 million people. Vorobyov had to be imported from abroad again.

Until now, the answer to the question is not exactly given, is it useful or harmful? How does a sparrow feel in modern world, what are their types, what do they prefer in food and how long is the passerine age?

Origin, species, where they live

Birds from the weaver family, very similar to sparrows, lived in Africa, then penetrated through the Mediterranean into Europe. Another version of the origin of the sparrow is that its ancestors were seen in the north of Europe.

There are many types of sparrows:

urban:
field;
african:
stone:
white-headed:
redhead:
indian.

Moreover, indian and white-headed, contrary to the opinion that sparrows are settled, they are migratory.

A companion of human life since antiquity, the sparrow is unique in that several of its species can live on the same territory. This, for example, urban and field. Urban residents live under roof platbands, in attics, and rural ones nearby, in parks and squares.

During the day they can gather in common flocks, and only a specialist will distinguish an urban sparrow from a rural one. The city is larger, and in the field, males and females look almost the same. Urban males are brighter.

How do they reproduce

Sparrows are conventionally monogamous. Some create a family only for the season, while others of the same species can live in pairs all their lives.

Sparrows, remembering their kinship with weaver birds, can build nests both very neat and sloppy. Or they can generally settle in someone else's nest. For example, they can drive out swallows and even climb into abandoned gopher burrows.

They settle in wells, in the openings between houses, and field sparrows are so cunning that they can build a nest next to an eagle. Sometimes they even stick their home to a large eagle's nest in a secluded place and live peacefully under the protection of a formidable neighbor.

Having laid from 5 to 10 eggs, the female incubates them, the male carries insects and worms to her. As soon as the chicks appear, both parents are already looking for food.

At the age of 10 days, the sparrows leave the nest, and immediately the female can begin to lay eggs again. During the summer, 2-3, sometimes 4 offspring are born.

What do they eat

The adult sparrow initially preferred plant foods: grains, seeds, fruits and berries. Males carried small insects and worms only to females, and then both - to feed the chicks.

Due to the fact that sparrows live side by side with humans for many centuries, they become omnivores. They eat what people feed them in the cold. Mainly bread. They live in food dumps, eat any edible waste. You can read more about that in another article.

The more cities urbanize, the more the urban sparrow's diet changes, because there are less and less trees, plants and insects.

The field sparrow has preserved its food addictions, it is a thunderstorm of gardens and fields. And if there are no crops nearby, the field sparrows get food in meadows and along the edges of the forest.

In the spring, they can do great harm to trees by pecking off the buds. There are no fat reserves in the sparrow's body at all, so it must constantly feed.

The lack of food for a sparrow in winter is very dangerous. Hypothermia and hunger lead to quick death. In summer, a sparrow also cannot be hungry for a long time - he who constantly spends energy will die if he does not eat for more than a day.

Enemies of the sparrow, the duration of his life

The most sworn enemies of the sparrow in the city are cats. All predatory birds hunt him. People also kill sparrows, especially in rural areas, to protect crops, and strike at their numbers in cities using chemicals. Many sparrows are poisoned with mixtures for melting snow in winter.

The average lifespan of a sparrow is difficult to establish. In urban and rural areas, too many enemies and negative factors shorten the life of these birds. On average, a sparrow lives next to a person only about 9 months. But in the wild, sparrows can live for 10 or even 20 years.

Benefit or harm

The answer to the question whether a sparrow is useful or harmful is not unambiguous. Sparrows primarily destroy pests and save trees. Therefore, in cities, they are often guarded. But the raids of sparrows on crops and gardens can completely destroy the crop.

Neighborhood with sparrows forces people to fight with them if there are too many birds. On the other hand, in cities they need to be protected and fed. After all, except for sparrows, there are almost no insectivorous birds that eat beetles and caterpillars.
Watch the video about the beautiful sparrow.

According to ornithologists, crows and eagles are about the same - 80 years old. However, such statistics apply exclusively to life in captivity: without enemies, with a varied diet, without hungry seasons, not always with hatching of chicks. In the wild, eagles and ravens have a maximum age of 20 years. And yet the tale of the longevity associated with carrion in the diet has a foundation. One of the longest lives in the avian world is the scavenger, the American turkey vulture, which lives up to 118 years in the wild.

Sources of information about bird life

Biologists use the results of observations in zoos and data from ornithological stations to provide information on the maximum age of birds. Specialists-ornithologists, ringing migratory birds and fixing the next migrations of marked individuals year after year, keep records that make it possible to determine the average of birds. And although there are so many opinions as there are observers, the average statistics rarely differ.

The value of freedom in the form of life in the wild is emphasized exclusively by a person who preserves the diversity of species of the planet's inhabitants created by nature. Captivity in the form of a cage or zoo aviary is a guarantee of peace and a well-fed life with periodic supervision veterinarian... Human tutelage cancels the laws of natural selection, and birds break records, living for 10-20 avian centuries, released by them in the wild.

The most famous facts about the life span of birds

A relatively short life distinguishes birds of the order of chickens, or chickens, - hazel grouses, pheasants, black grouses, and others. On average, their "age" is about 14 years. Among the record holders are chickens, which occasionally cross the 20-year threshold. Quails - an alternative to delivering eggs to the table for humans - live for 5-6 years. Representatives of the duck family - geese, ducks, swans, geese - also have a lot of chances to live up to 2 decades. Even in the wild, bird watchers have reported cases of 18-20-year-old mallard ducks.

A 70-year life expectancy in the zoo of a mute swan is noted by statistics. But in general, duck and chicken do not differ much in terms of age limit.

The existence of the birds of the American continent, the blue mosquito and hummingbird, is short-lived - 4 and 8 years, respectively. The age of a wild pigeon is short - 3-5 years, while birds live in dovecotes and open-air cages of zoos for 15 and even 30 years. Rooks live eight years, 9 - common and polar owl, whose appearance is known from Boucle, Harry Potter's postman. In captivity, such owls live up to 28 years. Owls in the same are able to live 60 years. Up to 24 years old singing favorites of man - canaries live in cages.

House sparrows live extremely little - 3-5 years, and most of them die at 1 year of life. However, the maximum period under favorable circumstances is also fixed - 23 years.

Than larger bird, the higher its longevity potential. Emperor penguins live up to 25 years old, the largest of the flightless seabirds... The rest of the penguin family is assigned from 7 to 20 years old. For several years more emus and cassowaries live in captivity - up to 40 years old, pink hummingbirds can "celebrate" this anniversary in freedom. Among the African ones, there are 75-year-old specimens against the usual 40-year-old background. The flightless kiwi ratite birds, endemic to New Zealand, rejoice in their flightless existence for 50-60 years. Parrots, gray, and red macaw often cross over half a century - this is also evidenced by observations of ornithologists.

There are many species of birds in the world. Some of them amaze the mind with their beauty and uniqueness, others - with their miniature size. There are also such individuals that do not quite look like birds. They are terrestrial, however, they reach the largest sizes. We are talking about the African ostrich.

The largest living bird is the African ostrich. He is of a stout build with a flat head and a long neck. Has a straight, flat beak. Also, this bird has the largest eyes of all land animals - their diameter reaches five centimeters.

This bird has underdeveloped pectoral muscles and wings are not developed at all. Therefore, the ostrich is a bird that cannot fly. But she knows how to run perfectly, developing speeds up to 70 kilometers per hour.

The head, neck, thighs and "pectoral corns" are free of plumage, which is curly and loose in the ostrich. Most often, males have mostly black plumage, but a light tail and wings. Ostrich females are smaller in size and are characterized by a more uniform color (usually a gray-brown basic tone and dirty white wings).

Ostriches settle in dry, treeless areas in Africa or the Middle East. They can be found in the savannah or semi-desert, in the north or south of the equatorial forest zone. Previously, the African ostrich was actively hunted, which is why there are not many places where ostriches live in the wild. The bird population is saved by numerous ostrich farms around the world.

Ostriches are mostly herbivores. They feed on shoots, flowers, fruits and seeds. But also these birds will not give up small insects, reptiles and rodents. Due to the lack of teeth, the ostrich swallows pieces of wood, tiny stones, pieces of iron in order to grind food in the stomach.

Habits and intelligence

The raven is a bird and has a very varied diet. Of course, he is essentially a scavenger who feeds on city dumps, making the crow a sanitary bird. But these birds do not disdain small insectivorous mammals and rodents, their eggs and young chicks. The raven can feed on fish, invertebrates, and seafood. In Russia, in addition to garbage, the basis of the diet of birds living outside the city limits is the vole mice, which are widespread throughout the country.

Pairs of ravens are permanent, and the birds build themselves not one, but two nests, which they use equally. Such ravens "" can be used even for several decades, and in the event of the loss of the nest, the couple builds a new one in the immediate vicinity of the destroyed one. The maximum height at which a raven couple with masonry was found is 2 thousand meters in the Carpathians, but they also live in the highlands of the Caucasian reserve, Altai and other mountainous areas.

Many legends accompany one more property of ravens - to reproduce sounds, words and whole phrases built by man. Birds of this species have a very loud and trumpet croaking. Due to the large number of possible memorized words, the raven is considered not only a long-liver, but also one of the smartest birds. So British scientists put forward a hypothesis that he had intelligence, which was confirmed after a large number of experiments.

The crow and ancient cultures were also distinguished. So, he was a companion of the god Apollo in Ancient Greece and an attribute of the cult of the German-Scandinavian Odin, with whom he flew to the places of battles and bloodshed.

Birds living in captivity

Data on the age of birds that are kept in captivity cannot fully reflect the actual picture of their real life expectancy, because they live in conditions very different from their natural habitat. Here, all the problems associated with living are borne by the person. It protects birds from hunger, enemies and cold.

At the same time, in captivity, especially large-sized birds are limited to swimming, flying or running. In addition, the food they eat does not match the food they get in their natural habitat. And the climate in captivity is often very different from the usual climatic conditions. All these factors cause various diseases in birds - tuberculosis, vitamin deficiency, obesity of the heart, which leads to their premature death.

Ringed birds

The data on the lifespan of ringed birds also cannot be considered completely reliable. The caught and ringed bird is released into the wild, but no one knows when it will be caught next to register its age. In addition, chicks do not always fall into the hands of ornithologists for ringing. Quite often these are adults whose age has not been established.

But despite this, with the help of mass ringing, scientists managed to find out the approximate age for several species of birds. It was found that out of 10 thousand banded ducks, only one survives to twenty years. For the most part, commercial bird species die at a young age. The human factor plays an important role in a number of common causes of mortality of game birds.

Official centenarians among birds

Today there is information about the lifespan of about 70 species of birds. It is so reliably known that the African ostrich lived for 40 years, the herring gull for 44 years, the albatross for 46, and the white-tailed eagle for 48 years. The fifth decade of life was exchanged by the royal vulture - 52 years, the raven - 51 years, the owl - 53. The gray goose reached its advanced bird years 65 years old, the macaw parrot - 64 years old.

The best known case of bird longevity to ornithologists is the large condor predator of the South American Andes. In 1892 he was brought to the Moscow Zoological Garden when he was old enough. It was registered that the male condor fell in 1961, having lived for almost 70 years in the Moscow Zoo, and if we take into account that the adult plumage is obtained by predators only by the fourth year of life, then the long-lived condor must have lived at least 75 years.

In almost every courtyard of Russian cities you can find flocks of small chirping sparrows. They also live near villages, villages, often fly to the courtyard to feed themselves. What unites these two species of birds is that they all settle near human habitation. But few people know that the usual little palm-sized birdies are from North Africa.

A small bird of brownish-brown plumage with gray, white, black blotches gave the name to the numerous species of passerines. It also includes small birds - finches, goldfinches, singing nightingales, brightly colored orioles, a tiny kinglet (weighing up to 10 grams), and subspecies that outwardly unlike sparrows - black crows, chirping magpies, field attendants jackdaws. The Exotic Lyrebird is an Australian bird that is considered a symbol and a national treasure of the country because of its beautiful long tail males, also belongs to the passerine species. This species includes birds of paradise of unusually beautiful color, tropical inhabitants of the islands of Indonesia, New Guinea. There are only about 5,000 passerine subspecies.

Physiological characteristics

The small weight and size of a sparrow determines certain physiological and behavioral characteristics. Due to the short tail, wingspan, the bird can be in flight for up to a quarter of an hour. This feature was used to fight sparrows in 1958, during the time of Mao, the Chinese. They figured that a large population of birds eats a lot of rice and grains. A massive movement against birds began. With the help of various kinds of noise effects, they were not allowed to land for 15 minutes, and the birds died. The harvest in the first year really increased, but already in the second year it was almost destroyed by the locusts and caterpillars that the sparrows ate, which led to hunger and millions of deaths of the Chinese.

Physiological characteristics of sparrows:

weight - up to 25 grams;
bird length - 16-18 cm;
average body temperature - 44 ⁰С;
the pulse reaches 860 beats per minute;
accelerated metabolism (food is digested and excreted in the form of droppings in an average of 15 minutes);
plumage has up to 1300 feathers;
life expectancy under normal natural conditions is on average up to two years.

The bird's high heart rate (14 times that of humans) has given birth to the saying "trembles like a sparrow."

Kinds

Sparrows make up a large population of approximately one billion individuals. In total, ornithologists distinguish 22 species. The most common subspecies are urban and brownie.

Brownie

As the name suggests, these birds live next to a person, his home. Everyone knows the plumage of a sparrow: light gray breast and abdomen, brown back, wings with longitudinal stripes. These birds have adapted to life in urban areas. They live in flocks, nest in pairs. In winter, they hide from the cold under the roofs of sheds, houses, garages. Often they make nests there. Birdhouses, pipes, nests of other birds, hollows of trees, swallow holes are suitable for these purposes. At the same time, they serve as a shelter for them in cold weather. The house sparrow is not picky about food, the main thing for him is to survive the winter (many individuals die). Good fertility saves the population - three clutches in the spring and summer seasons (they lay up to 7 eggs at a time).

The house sparrow has become an integral part of the urban landscape, like the pigeons. It also has significant benefits. In the spring-summer period, sparrows mainly feed on insect pests, thereby saving parks and gardens.

Birds of different sexes differ in plumage color. In the male, on a light breast with a transition to the chin, throat, goiter, there is a black spot. Above the head, the color of the plumage is gray. In the female, this area is also gray, like the breast. A gray-yellow stripe stands out in the superciliary part.

Field

Unlike the house sparrow, it can be considered a wilder relative. They live on the outskirts of settlements, villages, dachas, in bushes, near fields. They live in a permanent place or roam in search of food. Often they fly into a home courtyard to feed themselves with the remains of pets.

Two types of birds differ in appearance. The field sparrow is smaller (up to 14 cm). With the similarity of the color of the plumage, the field differs in the chestnut color of the head and nape. It has brown wings with two white stripes. The black spot on the breast of males in the form of a small tie is smaller in size than that of a house brother. The difference in plumage color in heterosexual individuals is not so pronounced, only the color intensity differs.

The village sparrow destroys a huge number of pests of insects, but during the ripening period of the crop it flies to gardens, to fields. It is for this reason that they try to scare him away by exposing stuffed animals and noise traps.

Start mating season, the construction of the nest, which lasts up to a month, depends on the climatic conditions of the region of habitation.

Habitat and lifestyle

These birds live on almost all continents, with the exception of Antarctica and the Arctic. Although sparrows are sedentary, they do not fly away to warm lands, they migrate in search of new places to feed. They often follow in the footsteps of a person to new cities, settlements, and newly plowed lands. The migration routes of sparrows in Russia reached Karelia, the Murmansk region and even some regions of Yakutia.

In behavior, this bird is noisy, constantly moving, you can hear its chirping. Sparrows have a somewhat absurd nature, often arrange small fights for food, during the mating season. At the same time, the sparrow, which first found food, gives a signal to the rest. In case of danger, the flock has a watchman.

Birds cleanse their plumage of pests by "bathing" in the sand. After that they don't look very clean, but this method is quite effective.

Sparrows swim well and during the period of danger threatening them can hide from the enemy in the water.

Short legs literally do not allow the bird to "run away", so they move on a hard surface by jumping.

Bird watchers have previously argued that sparrows form permanent pairs. Recent research by geneticists refutes this claim. In pups of the same clutch, isolated cases are observed when only the genome of their parents is found.

Nutrition

The smaller the bird, the faster its metabolism. The sparrow is in constant motion and looking for food. He dies within two days without food. The main thing that helps the bird out is its omnivorousness.

What do sparrows eat? Their diet is varied:

protein food: small insects, caterpillars;
cereals, herbal seeds;
grass, vegetables, berries, fruits.
pieces of meat, bacon;
food waste;
bread crumbs.

Despite the fact that the sparrow can not be called a "gourmet", such indiscriminate food provides the population with survival in the wild.

Reproduction and life expectancy

Experts disagree on how long sparrows live. In nature, under favorable conditions, their life expectancy varies from one to two years, but in captivity they can live much longer - up to 9 years, cases and 11 years have been recorded. The duration depends on the food supply, seasonal weather conditions.

With the onset of spring, most sparrows begin mating and nesting. House sparrows begin to breed first of all, since in cities the temperature is several degrees higher.

Village and domestic sparrows build their nests in various cavities: hollows, crevices, voids, stumps, under the roofs of buildings, on trees. Several dozen pairs can form a small colony. Nests are made from blades of grass, straws, feathers. The inside is lined with softer material. During the season, the couple lays and removes up to three clutches (in the southern regions).

In the temperate climate of Russia, these birds begin mating games in early March. They are accompanied by cocky fights of males, loud chirping. After the couples have decided on a partner, they start building the nest together.

The female incubates eggs for an average of two weeks, in an amount of 4 to 7-10 eggs. Sparrow chicks are born naked, helpless. When they start to hatch, they immediately start breathing. Their beak is yellow, around it is the same rim. Chicks are gluttonous, and parents are constantly in search of food. They are fed mainly with protein, protein foods: worms, insects, larvae, ant eggs. Such a diet allows the chicks to quickly grow and fledge, so on the 10-14th day they are ready to leave their nests. The competition for living space and food begins already in the nest. Yellowworms do not stand on ceremony with weak brethren - they often push them out of the nest.

Natural enemies

In urban settings, the main danger to sparrows comes from cats, especially those living outdoors. From a height they are attacked by hawks, sparrowhawks. They vigilantly look out for the victim, attack rapidly.

Wild village sparrows living on the outskirts of villages, in rare forests, bushy thickets should be wary of night owls. They destroy nests, foxes hunt chicks. The marten is dangerous, it climbs trees well. Even such seemingly harmless animals as a hedgehog, a ferret, a squirrel are also not averse to feasting on passerine eggs.

The sparrow we are used to brings relative harm, eating the crop. But the benefits from them are significant, one pair of birds destroys up to 3 kg of pests in a month. The main thing is to maintain a balance in the natural area, between the size of the population and the food supply.

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