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

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

Sparrows live independently, but many settle in the immediate vicinity of a person. Sometimes, unexpectedly, the sparrow remembers that he is from the family of weavers, famous nest builders, and tries to build something original, something like a ball with a pipe-shaped entrance. But this rarely happens. Usually, sparrows make primitive nests and where necessary: under the roof of a house or under a cornice, behind a window casing or in an old drainpipe, under rafters or in a hollow of a tree growing in a garden. Sometimes he tries to brazenly seize a birdhouse or a swallow's nest (and this sparrow sometimes 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 various conditions. They do not know only one thing - a sparrow is useful or harmful. When sparrows appeared in America, they were very happy about them - newspapers wrote about sparrows, poems were written in their honor, and even a "society of sparrow friends" was created. But then the impudent sparrow, not appreciating the benevolent attitude, did such a mischief, having made devastation in the fields and in the gardens, that they began to limit their number.

A sparrow does a lot of harm in our country, destroying crops of cereals, sunflowers, pecking at the buds of flowers of fruit and berry trees, eating berries, stealing grain (at one time, apparently, he was generally famous for this, it’s not for nothing that his name is a sparrow - “thief bey” ). He is also mischievous 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, a monument to this bird was erected in the city of Boston for saving gardens, vegetable gardens and fields from pests (in particular, from caterpillars).

In China in the 60s, realizing how much wheat and rice the sparrows destroy, they declared war on these birds. In some places, sparrows were completely exterminated. After some time, 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 tentative 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 that's not all, because sparrows also destroy insects. And given that sparrows are among the most common birds, the number of insects they destroy is astronomical. Sparrows, in turn, feed on useful predator birds and owls.

Therefore, scientists will not determine 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 types of sparrows live nearby: brownie And field. They are similar in behavior, coloration, voice, only the field sparrow is somewhat smaller. But there are other differences between them: the top of the head of the male house sparrow is gray, and the plumage of the female is more or less monophonic; in the field sparrow, both in the male and in the female, the “cap” is brown, and on light cheeks it is clearly visible at a distance dark spot.

The male house sparrow is quite diversely colored, and in the spring he is a real dandy. Its forehead, crown and nape are gray with brownish edging of feathers. Wide brown stripes run along the sides of the head. The bridle and narrow stripes above the eyes are black. The back is rusty-brown with wide black longitudinal streaks. The loin and rump are brownish-gray. The tail feathers are dark brown with narrow light borders. The wings are dark brown with a reddish border of feathers. Middle wing coverts with white tips that form white transverse stripes on the wings. The chin, throat, craw and upper chest are black, with fresh feathers with narrow light borders, which are shed by spring. The underside of the body is white or light gray, darkening on the sides. The legs are brown, the beak is brownish-black in winter and bluish-black in spring. The female is painted much more modestly. The top of the head and lower back are brown, with an buffy stripe on the sides of the head. Cheeks, ear coverts and sides of neck brownish-gray. The back is brownish-buff with dark feathers. The belly is light, brownish-gray. Young birds are similar to the female, only they have more brown tone in their color.

Not everyone distinguishes between house and field sparrows by appearance, especially since sometimes they stay together in common flocks. Meanwhile, the differences between these species are quite significant. Firstly, the tree sparrow does not have such pronounced sexual dimorphism as its house sparrow. Males and females are colored exactly the same. Secondly, it is significantly smaller than the house sparrow: its mass ranges from 20 to 30 g, while the mass of the house sparrow is from 28 to 38 g. The coloration of adult field sparrows is quite elegant. Top of the head, cap, brown. The bridle, the strip under the eye, the throat and ear coverts are black, on the white cheeks there is a dot - a "dimple". The sides of the neck are also white. The plumage of the back, wings and tail is brown, often with dark stems and light buffy feather edging. The abdomen is whitish, darkening towards the sides. The beak is black in summer, brownish-black in winter with a yellowish base. Legs are pale brown. The plumage of young birds is much duller than that of adults. The top of the head and back are grayish-brown with dark streaks. The belly is off-white, the throat, lore and ear coverts are grey.

The sparrow can rightly be attributed to the most common birds due to its extraordinary adaptability to living in close proximity to 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 casings, behind wall sheathing, etc. With comfort, they are also located in hollows and birdhouses. True, starlings often survive from their birdhouses. In similar places, the tree sparrow arranges nests. But he prefers hollow trees.

Field sparrows, more gravitate toward 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 of a city bird than a rural one. However, these attachments do not prevent both species from often settling side by side. Both field and house sparrows feed in winter on everything that they can profit from near a person. In summer, food of animal origin comes first - various insects that birds collect in vegetable gardens, gardens, squares and parks.

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

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

In the conditions of the central part of Russia, house sparrows usually have three broods of chicks per season. Nesting begins in March, at which time the birds actively adjust their nests. The first eggs appear in April. The timing of oviposition depends on climatic conditions of the year. Thus, the start of laying can occur both in the first and in the third decade of April, and many (mostly one-year-old) females begin nesting in May. The nesting season ends in early - mid-August, when the birds begin post-nesting molting, during which they completely change their plumage. A.I. Ilyenko in his book writes: "for the female to lay eggs (4-5 days), incubation (11-12 days), feeding the chicks in the nest (13-15 days) and raising them after leaving the nest (at least 12 days) only needs about 41 days". After the chicks leave the nest, care for them, for the most part, falls 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 much less than in the temperate climate zone. Interestingly, in rural areas there are always more eggs in the clutch than in urban areas. Both male and female take part in incubation and feeding.

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

Sparrows manage to place their nests in the most various places. According to the variety of nesting places, they hold the primacy among birds. In burrows made by birds (shore swallows, wheatears, 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 hollows of trees and voids in stumps, in old nests small birds and birdhouses, titmouses and other artificial nests, at the base of the nests of some large birds, and, finally, just on the branches of trees.

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

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

Sparrow successfully releases hollows occupied by tits, flycatchers, redstarts, nuthatches, small spotted woodpeckers and small animals - hazel dormouse, sometimes even killing weaker hosts. A field sparrow can be evicted by a house sparrow, a starling, a wryneck and a swift. Swifts and starlings occasionally capture house sparrow nests.

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

Sparrows can be used as nurse birds for breeding some rare or valuable species birds. It is known that experiments in nature to replace the eggs of sparrows with the eggs of such hollow-nesting birds as tits, redstarts and even flycatchers often ended successfully. With the help of sparrows in forest parks and park areas of cities, it is possible to breed new species of birds that are desirable for us. Sparrows feed their broods mainly on insects, so they can also feed the offspring of some insectivorous birds.

There are many sparrows. There is black-breasted sparrow. It is found in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and in general 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- it is much lighter than its counterparts and does not chirp like them, but rather loudly screams. There is earth sparrow- in our country lives in Altai and Transbaikalia. It is interesting in that it nests and spends the night in abandoned rodent burrows (sometimes it even arranges its nest at a depth of about a meter). There is stone sparrow.

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1. Sparrow is one of the most famous birds that live 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. The weight of a sparrow is only 20 to 35 grams. Meanwhile, the sparrow belongs to the order of passeriformes, which, in addition to it, includes more than 5,000 species of birds. The largest representative of the detachment is the raven (its mass is about one and a half kilograms), the smallest is the kinglet (weight 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 thieving, the version about the origin of the word “sparrow” from the phrase “thief - beat!” has become widespread. In fact, in Slavic languages the word "sparrow" has the same root as in the word "coo". The basis of this verb, as well as the verb "grumble", was the word "work", which has not survived now. So this bird was nicknamed for the constant chirping that did not stop for a minute.

5. The male sparrow differs from the female in the presence of a large black spot covering the chin, throat, crop and upper chest, as well as a dark gray (rather than dark brown) top of the head.

6. Life cycle sparrow has a small length, 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 expectancy of sparrows is 9-21 months.

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

8. The heart of a sparrow beats 600-850 times per minute at rest, and during the flight - 1000 beats per minute. At the same time, a strong fright is fraught for a bird even with a fatal outcome, as 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 due to short legs.

11. Sparrow is 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 single female to live together. However, this is not easy, since by the beginning of the breeding season there are significantly more males than females (one hundred and fifty sparrows account for one hundred sparrows).

12. Sparrows are very prolific and during the summer in the northern regions they hatch two, and in the southern regions three broods. The second laying of eggs occurs in the second half of June, the departure of chicks - in July.

13. Sparrow laying consists of 4-10, more often 5-7, white eggs with brownish speckles and spots, incubation of which takes 11-13 days.

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

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

16. Being a roommate of man, the sparrow settled all over the world, it can equally be found in rural and urban areas, in the settlements of the Far North and Central Asia. However, in Central Asia, he usually stays away from people.

17. There were no sparrows in America until the 1960s. They were brought from England to fight caterpillars.

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

19. normal temperature sparrow body - 44 degrees.

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

21. Young sparrows with their yellow color around the beak are popularly called "yellowmouths". Colloquially, the term yellowmouth can mean a young, inexperienced, naive person.

23. There are known facts of erecting monuments to a sparrow, built by man as a token of 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 monument to Chizhik-Pyzhik in St. Petersburg. Yes, yes, siskins also belong to the sparrow family.

24. In 1958, on 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 given instructions 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 the harvest improved a year later, it was eaten heavily by caterpillars and locusts, whose numbers were previously regulated by sparrows. The ecological imbalance was exacerbated by the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward policies and natural disasters, which killed more than 20 million people. Sparrows had to be imported again from abroad.

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

Origin, species where they live

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

There are many types of sparrows:

urban:
field;
African:
stone:
white-headed:
ginger:
Indian.

Moreover, Indian and white-headed, contrary to the opinion about the sedentary nature of sparrows - 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 dwellers live under roof architraves, in attics, while rural ones live 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 urban one is larger, while the field males and females look almost the same. Urban males are brighter.

How they breed

Sparrows are conditionally monogamous. Some create a family only for the season, while others of the same species can live in pairs for life.

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

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

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

At the age of 10 days, 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

An 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. Mostly bread. They live in food dumps, eat any edible waste. You can read more about that in another article.

The more urbanized cities are, the more the diet of the city sparrow changes, because there are less and less trees, plants and insects.

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

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

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

The enemies of the sparrow, the duration of his life

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

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

Benefit or harm

There is no definite answer to the question whether a sparrow is useful or harmful. Sparrows, first of all, destroy pests and save trees. And therefore in cities they are often under protection. But sparrow raids on crops and gardens can completely destroy the crop.

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

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

Sources of information about the life of birds

Giving information about the limiting age of birds, biologists use the results of observations in zoos and data from ornithological stations. Ornithologists who ring migratory birds and record year after year the next migrations of tagged individuals keep records that make it possible to determine the average of birds. And although there are as many opinions as there are observers, the averages rarely differ.

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

The most famous facts about the lifespan of birds

A relatively short life distinguishes the birds of the chicken or chicken order - hazel grouses, pheasants, black grouse, and others. On average, their "age" is about 14 years. Among the champions are chickens, occasionally exceeding the 20-year threshold. Quails - an alternative for the supply of eggs to the human table - live for 5-6 years. Representatives of the duck family - geese, ducks, swans, goose - also have many chances to live up to 2 decades. Even in the wild, ornithologists have noted cases of capturing 18-20-year-old mallards.

The 70-year life expectancy of the mute swan in the zoo is noted by statistics. But in general, duck and chicken differ little in terms of age limit.

The existence of the birds of the American continent of the blue mosquito and hummingbird is short - 4 and 8 years, respectively. The age of a wild pigeon is short - 3-5 years, while birds live in dovecotes and aviaries of zoos for 15 or even 30 years. The rooks live for eight years, the common and snowy owl, whose appearance is known from Boucle, the postman of Harry Potter, live for 9 years. In captivity, these owls live up to 28 years. Eagle owls in the same are able to live 60 years. Up to 24 years old, the singing favorites of a person live in cages - canaries.

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

The larger the bird, the higher its longevity potential. Emperor penguins, the largest flightless ones, live up to 25 years. sea birds. The remaining representatives of the penguin family are given from 7 to 20 years. A few years more in captivity, emus and cassowaries live - up to 40 years old, pink hummingbirds and can "celebrate" this anniversary in freedom. Among the African ones, there are 75-year-old specimens against the usual 40-year-old background. Flightless keeled kiwi birds, endemic to New Zealand, enjoy a wingless existence of 50-60 years. Jaco parrots and red macaws often cross over a half-century boundary - this is also evidenced by the observations of ornithologists.

There are many types of birds in the world. Some of them amaze the mind with their beauty and uniqueness, others - with their miniature size. There are also individuals that are not quite similar to birds. They are terrestrial, however, reach the largest sizes. This is an African ostrich.

most huge bird, of the living, is considered an African ostrich. He is heavily built with a flat head and a long neck. It 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, reaching speeds of up to 70 kilometers per hour.

The head, neck, thighs and "breast callus" are free from plumage, which in an ostrich is curly and loose. Most often, males have mostly black plumage, but a light tail and wings. Female ostriches are smaller in size and are characterized by a more uniform color (usually a gray-brown base 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 multiple ostrich farms around the world.

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

habits and intelligence

The raven is a bird with a very varied diet. Of course, at its core, it is a scavenger that feeds on city dumps, which makes the crow a sanitary bird. But these birds do not disdain small insectivorous mammals and rodents, their eggs and young chicks. The raven can eat fish, invertebrates and seafood. In Russia, in addition to garbage, the basis of the diet of birds living outside the city limits is made up of field mice common throughout the country.

Crows form permanent pairs, and the birds make not one, but two nests for themselves, which they use equally. Such crow "" can be used even for several decades, and in case of loss of the nest, the couple builds a new one in the immediate vicinity of the destroyed one. The maximum height at which a crow couple was found with masonry 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 another property of ravens - to reproduce sounds, words and entire phrases constructed by man. Birds of this species have a very loud and trumpet cawing. 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 about the presence of intelligence, which was confirmed after a large number of experiments.

The crow was also distinguished by ancient cultures. So, he was the 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 real 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 taken care of by a person. It protects birds from hunger, enemies and cold.

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

ringed birds

Data on the lifespan of ringed birds also cannot be considered completely reliable. The captured and ringed bird is released into the wild, but no one knows when it will be caught next in order 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 ringed ducks, only one lives up to twenty years. Most commercial bird species die at a young age. Among the common causes of mortality in game birds, the human factor plays an important role.

Official centenarians among birds

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

The best-known case of bird longevity to ornithologists concerns a large predator, the condor, living in the South American Andes. In 1892, he was brought to the Moscow Zoological Garden already quite old. It was recorded that the male condor died in 1961, having lived for almost 70 years in the Moscow Zoo, and given that predators receive adult plumage only by the fourth year of life, then the long-lived condor probably lived for 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 into 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 pichugs that are familiar to us, the size of a small palm, come from North Africa.

A small bird of brownish-brown plumage with gray, white, black patches 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 do not look like sparrows - black crows, chirping magpies, orderlies of jackdaw fields. The exotic lyrebird is an Australian bird, considered a symbol and national treasure of the country because of its beautiful long tail males, also belongs to the species of passerines. This species includes birds of paradise of an unusually beautiful color, tropical inhabitants of the islands of Indonesia, New Guinea. There are only about 5000 subspecies of passeriformes.

Physiological characteristics

The small weight and size of the sparrow determine 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 ate a lot of rice and grains. A mass 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 crop in the first year really grew, but already in the second year it was almost destroyed by locusts and caterpillars, which sparrows fed on, which led to hunger and many millions of deaths of the Chinese already.

Physiological characteristics of sparrows:

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

The bird's high pulse rate (14 times that of a human) gave birth to the saying "trembling like a sparrow".

Kinds

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

Brownie

By name it is clear that these birds live next to a person, his house. 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 and nest in pairs. In winter, they hide from the cold under the roofs of sheds, houses, garages. Often nests are built there. Birdhouses, pipes, nests of other birds, hollow trees, swallow holes are suitable for these purposes. At the same time, they serve as shelter in frosts. In nutrition, the house sparrow is not picky, the main thing for him is to survive the winter (many individuals die). The population is saved by a good birth rate - three clutches per spring and summer seasons(lay up to 7 eggs at a time).

The house sparrow has become an integral part of the urban landscape, as have doves. It also has significant benefits. In the spring and summer, sparrows mainly feed on pests, thereby saving parks and gardens.

Birds of different sexes differ in plumage color. In a male, on a light chest with a transition to the chin, throat, goiter area, a black spot passes. On top of the head, the color of 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 more wild relative. They live on the outskirts of towns, villages, dachas, in bushes, near fields. They live in a permanent place or wander in search of food. Often they fly into the backyard to feed on the remnants of pet food.

The two species of birds also differ externally. 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 chest in males in the form of a small tie is smaller in size than that of the brownie. 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 insect pests, but during the ripening period of the crop it flies to gardens and fields. It is for this reason that they try to scare him away by putting up stuffed animals and noise traps.

Start mating season, building a nest, which lasts up to a month, depends on the climatic conditions of the habitat.

Range 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 to warmer climes, they migrate in search of new places for food. Often they follow in the footsteps of a person to new cities, settlements, to newly plowed lands. Sparrow migration routes in Russia have reached Karelia, the Murmansk region, and even individual regions of Yakutia.

By behavior, this bird is noisy, constantly moving, its chirping is heard. Sparrows have a somewhat feisty nature, often getting into small fights over food during mating season. At the same time, the sparrow that found food first gives a signal to the others. In case of danger, the flock has a watchman.

Birds clean their plumage from pests by "bathing" in the sand. They do not look very clean after that, but this method is quite effective.

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

Short legs literally do not allow the bird to "scatter", so they move on a hard surface in jumps.

Ornithologists have previously claimed that sparrows form permanent pairs. Recent genetic studies refute this assertion. In cubs 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 rescues a bird is its omnivorous nature.

What do sparrows eat? Their diet is varied:

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

Despite the fact that the sparrow cannot be called a "gourmet", such promiscuity in food ensures the survival of the population in the wild.

Reproduction and lifespan

Experts disagree on the question of how many years 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 of 11 years have been recorded. The duration depends on the forage base, seasonal weather conditions.

With the onset of spring, most sparrows begin a period of mating and building a nest. Before all, house sparrows begin to breed, since in cities the temperature is several degrees higher.

Village and house sparrows make 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 a softer material. During the season, the couple lays and displays 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 begin to build a nest together.

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

natural enemies

In urban areas, the main danger to the sparrow comes from cats, especially those that live on the street. From a height they are attacked by hawks, sparrowhawks. They vigilantly look out for the victim, swiftly attack.

Wild village sparrows living on the outskirts of villages, in sparse forests, bush thickets should be wary of night owls. They destroy nests, hunt fox 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 eating sparrow eggs.

The sparrow, familiar to us, brings relative harm by eating the crop. But the benefits from them are significant, one pair of birds destroys up to 3 kg of pests per 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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