Showing of grouse birds. Ornithological terms The phenomenon of displaying in birds serves to

- a special behavior of birds at the beginning of the mating season, which helps to attract a female or male and prepares them for mating, one of the forms of animal communication. Showing is expressed differently: birds can sing, make current flights, take special poses in which brightly colored plumage is demonstrated, arrange fights and “tournaments”, build false nests, etc. Showing is especially characteristic of polygamous birds (for example, for black grouse , capercaillie, woodcock, turukhtan, gazebo birds). In polygamous birds (turukhtans, great snipes, black grouse, etc.), males gather on lekking grounds separately from females that keep a little distance, run around the site, fanning out their tails or “collars”, “muttering”, fighting or arrange harmless tournaments. In rare cases, polyandria - females (phalaropes, colored snipes, three-fingered waders) lek. In monogamous birds, the male lek around his female. Males of the woodcock during mating ("draught") in the morning and evening dawn, "horkay" and "tsikay", fly over forest clearings. The snipes dive in the air, emitting a loud "bleat" with the help of tail feathers. water birds(ducks, grebes, loons) lek on the water, taking peculiar poses.

black grouse

Quite peculiar are the currents of cranes, which continue even after the birds break into pairs. They are located on the site (near a river or lake) in a circle or in two or more rows; some of them then enter the arena and begin to jump around each other in a comical way, bending over, stretching their necks, spreading their wings; tired, the dancers return to the circle of their comrades, who greet them with bows and squats, to which those who are welcomed respond in kind; then a new party enters the arena, and so on. Females also take part in such dances.

Literature

// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

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See what "Bird Talking" is in other dictionaries:

TURNING- a special behavior of birds at the beginning of the mating season, which helps to attract a female or male and prepares them for mating. T. is expressed in singing, current flights, accompanied by complex evolutions (diving, turning over in the air ... ... Biological encyclopedic dictionary

TURNING- the behavior of birds at the beginning of the mating season, which helps to attract a female (sometimes a male) and prepares them for mating. It is expressed in singing, special poses, tournaments, etc. Showing is characteristic of many polygamous birds, for example, black grouse, ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

TURNING- type of behavior of birds at the beginning of the mating season. It is expressed in current flights, singing, poses demonstrating bright plumage or skin outgrowths on the head, fights, “tournaments”. Helps attract a female or male and prepares them for mating. ... ... Ecological dictionary

currentization- the behavior of birds at the beginning of the mating season, which helps to attract a female (sometimes a male) and prepares them for mating. It is expressed in singing, special poses, "tournaments", etc. Showing is characteristic of many polygamous birds, for example, black grouse ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Current- special behavior of birds at the beginning of the mating season (See Mating Period), which helps to attract a female or male and bring them into a state of readiness for mating. One of the forms of animal communication (See Animal communication). T. is expressed ... ...

TURNING- the behavior of birds at the beginning of the mating season, which helps to attract a female (sometimes a male) and prepares them for mating. It is expressed in singing, special poses, tournaments, etc. T. is typical for many others. polygamous birds, for example. black grouse, capercaillie, ... ... Natural science. encyclopedic Dictionary

Traction (woodcock display)- This term has other meanings, see Thrust. Thrust is the name of the current flight of male woodcocks, which has become especially popular in hunting practice. Woodcock hunting on draft belongs to the most popular types of bird hunting ... ... Wikipedia

Picnic at Hanging Rock- Picnic at Hanging Rock Genre mystical ... Wikipedia

Current (biology)- This term has other meanings, see Current (meanings). Current (lekking) is a phenomenon when males of certain species gather in a limited space and compete with each other for the attention of females. Currents are formed seasonally on ... ... Wikipedia

sexual selection- a special form of natural selection (See. Natural selection), which determines the emergence in the process of evolution of secondary sexual characteristics (See. Secondary Sexual Characteristics). These signs include: the bright marriage color of the plumage of ducks, ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

The special behavior of birds at the beginning of the mating season, which helps to attract a female or male and bring them into a state of readiness for mating. One of the forms of animal communication. Showing is expressed differently: birds can sing, make current flights, take special poses in which brightly colored plumage is demonstrated, arrange fights and “tournaments”, build false nests, etc. Showing is especially characteristic for polygamous birds (for example, for black grouse) ; their males gather on lekking grounds separately from the females. In rare cases, polyandry - females (flat-nosed phalaropes) lek. In monogamous birds, the male lek around his female.

black grouse

Particularly peculiar are the lekking of cranes, which continue even after the birds break into pairs. They are located on the site (near a river or lake) in a circle or in two or more rows; some of them then enter the arena and begin to jump around each other in a comical way, bending over, stretching their necks, spreading their wings; tired, the dancers return to the circle of their comrades, who greet them with bows and squats, to which those who are welcomed respond in kind; then a new party enters the arena, and so on. Females also take part in such dances.

black grouse

Literature

// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

Links

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

See what "Bird Talking" is in other dictionaries:

The special behavior of birds at the beginning of the mating season, which helps to attract a female or male and prepares them for mating. T. is expressed in singing, current flights, accompanied by complex evolutions (diving, turning over in the air ... ... Biological encyclopedic dictionary

The behavior of birds at the beginning of the mating season, which helps to attract a female (sometimes a male) and prepares them for mating. It is expressed in singing, special poses, tournaments, etc. Showing is characteristic of many polygamous birds, for example, black grouse, ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

The behavior of birds at the beginning of the mating season, which helps to attract a female (sometimes a male) and prepares them for mating. It is expressed in singing, special poses, "tournaments", etc. Showing is characteristic of many polygamous birds, for example, black grouse ... encyclopedic Dictionary

The special behavior of birds at the beginning of the mating season (See Mating Period), which helps to attract a female or male and bring them into a state of readiness for mating. One of the forms of animal communication (See Animal communication). T. is expressed ... ...

The behavior of birds at the beginning of the mating season, which helps to attract a female (sometimes a male) and prepares them for mating. It is expressed in singing, special poses, tournaments, etc. T. is typical for many others. polygamous birds, for example. black grouse, capercaillie, ... ... Natural science. encyclopedic Dictionary

This term has other meanings, see Thrust. Thrust is the name of the current flight of male woodcocks, which has become especially popular in hunting practice. Woodcock hunting on draft belongs to the most popular types of bird hunting ... ... Wikipedia

Picnic at Hanging Rock Genre mystical ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see Current (meanings). Current (lekking) is a phenomenon when males of certain species gather in a limited space and compete with each other for the attention of females. Currents are formed seasonally on ... ... Wikipedia

A special form of natural selection (See. Natural selection), which determines the emergence in the process of evolution of secondary sexual characteristics (See. Secondary Sexual Characteristics). These signs include: the bright marriage color of the plumage of ducks, ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Spring. Dawn breaks a little and dark silhouettes of pines clearly appear against the background of the rising dawn. But what is it? From the moss swamp comes the sound that excites every passionate hunter - kadu, kadu, and then it ends abruptly. Then you can again hear the quickening clicking, which suddenly turns into a metallic and hissing - burn, scream, scream ... The hunter shudders and, drawn by an unknown force, quickly takes a few steps towards the current capercaillie ... By the way, you can read about how to find a place for capercaillie mating.

Such a colorful description could be continued further, however, in hunting fiction one can count more than a dozen magnificent descriptions of the capercaillie current, which end in a successful shot. Our task is not to compete in eloquence with other authors. Not at all, in our new publication we would like to highlight the biology and mechanisms of capercaillie current, which are based on observations made by specialists and hunters in the hunting reserve in Belovezhskaya Pushcha…

How capercaillie choose a place for a current

The habitat of the common capercaillie in Europe and Asia does not coincide by chance with the boundaries of the distribution of pine. With a few exceptions, the annual life cycle of these birds is universally associated with pine forests, in which capercaillie formed as a species. Capercaillie are especially willing to stay in those places where there are sphagnum swamps with rare trees of dwarf pine, surrounded by tall pine forests. It is in such lands, representing an array of forests with an area of at least 300-400 hectares, that capercaillie can find food all year round (find out), protection and suitable conditions for reproduction.

In Belovezhskaya Pushcha, capercaillie lives in pine forests in swamps and in pine forests, occupying a total area of 24,000 hectares. At one time, up to 24 currents were counted in this area. And, on average, there were 100 hectares of pine forest per lek. Capercaillie obviously prefer to arrange currents in pine forests along the sphagnum bog - 75% of the currents were found there, and less often in pure pine forests along the upland - 25%.

For the current, birds choose relatively clean areas of the forest, which are almost devoid of undergrowth and shrubs with clearings. This choice is not accidental, and meets the requirements of current birds, which often run and fight on the ground. The circumstance is also important that in clean places current birds react more quickly to the approach of enemies.

The sizes of leks, both in terms of the number of lekking males and the area of leks, are extremely diverse. This, first of all, depends on the number of capercaillie in a given tract or part of the forest. In Pushcha, for example, the number of males in some areas ranged from 4-6 to 20-25 individuals. In the first case, currents occupied forest plots of 8-9 hectares, in the second - up to 80 hectares. There are also indications in the literature that in some taiga regions up to a hundred or more males gather for one lek. It is likely that the current area there is several hundred hectares. We managed to establish that large currents in Pushcha consisted of 2-3 smaller currents separated from each other by 400-500 meters. With the approach of spring, the entire population of Belovezhskaya grouse fell apart, as it were, into separate flocks, which gradually concentrated around leks.

The current on which we carried out observations occupied an area of 12-15 hectares. The hundred-year-old pine forest here was with a decrease in relief, which gradually turned into a swampy pine forest with rosemary and sphagnum. In the center there was a clearing with an area of 5-6 hectares, overgrown with young pine forest. On the farm, this lek was of average power, very convenient for observation, since the number of lekking males here did not exceed a dozen. Daily observations of wood grouse were carried out for 50 days, from March 22 to May 10, in the morning and in the evening from hiding places arranged near the current.

Description of the features of the flow of spring current in capercaillie

The spring flow of capercaillie is divided into 3 periods by its nature and biological essence.

The beginning of the current at capercaillie

The first period is characterized by the fact that in early spring several of the most adult males gather on the lekking, which obviously choose a place for lekking. Weather permitting, they lek without the participation of females. This period lasts on average 20-25 days. However, capercaillie appear in the current area much earlier, as early as the beginning of February, when snow lies everywhere in the forest. At this time, sometimes in the spring the sun begins to warm up and old roosters appear on a quiet morning at the place of the future current. Excited, they walk on the snow, drawing on it with lowered wings. And, in the first period, capercaillie lek only in the morning and on trees, rather sluggishly and not for long, from 47 minutes to 1 hour 52 minutes, on average 1 hour 11 minutes. The number of males fluctuates on different days from 1 to 6, and only a few of them live.

The start of capercaillie mating depends on the nature of spring and can vary in different years within 20 days. The further north, the later the capercaillie begin their currents. According to the observations of specialists in the south of the Kola Peninsula, capercaillie begin to lek only from the 3rd decade of April, that is, almost 1.5 months later than in Western Belarus.

The height of the capercaillie current

The second, most important period in capercaillie lekking begins from the moment the females leave for the lek. This period can be characterized as the height of the capercaillie current, as birds mate. Males display very recklessly and the behavior of birds is extremely excited. The height of the current on the control current, for example, lasted from March 27 to May 1, that is, 35 days. At this time, the maximum number of males is also noted on the current - up to 10 pieces. Capercaillie play not only in the morning, but often in the evening, and the morning display becomes longer and is often accompanied by fights between males on the ground. On average, roosters lek in the morning for 2 hours 3 minutes, but on some days they can lek up to 4 hours 55 minutes, when the sun is already rising over the forest. Gambling wood grouses alone or in pairs can be observed even at 12 noon in the bright sun.

current decay

The third period is the extinction of the current. It is observed when capercaillie stop attending the current and start hatching eggs (more about. Old males also gradually stop flowing and migrate to. A small number of adult and young roosters remain on the current, which play sluggishly and only on trees. The duration of the morning is again reduced Capercaillie at this time lek on average no more than 1 hour, sometimes a little longer.This period lasts 9 days - from May 2 to May 9, after which the capercaillie completely stop toke.In total, thus, capercaillie lek for 68 days, which is the onset and end of spring in this region.

The total duration of the capercaillie current, and hence the duration of its individual periods, is subject to variability depending on the geographical latitude of the area. The further north the given area lies, the faster the capercaillie lek.

For example, on the same Kola Peninsula, they stop running in the first decade of June, that is, the current there lasts only 40-45 days. It depends on the pace of spring in different latitudes. In the north, spring proceeds rapidly and in a shorter time than in the south. This naturally affects the rate of biological phenomena in birds.

It is characteristic that capercaillie everywhere stop their currents as soon as birch leaves begin to bloom.

When capercaillie lek

Unlike black grouse, capercaillie males gather at the lekking in the evening. Their evening arrivals, as Western hunters figuratively express it, must be regarded as an important biological regularity, closely connected with the entire reproduction cycle of this species. Capercaillie males begin to fly to the lekking ground 1-2 hours before sunset during all periods of lekking. Sometimes they appear in the evening very amicably. Literally within 6-8 minutes, 5 heavy birds perch with noise in the trees. But, there are days when capercaillie sink in the evening for 25-40 minutes or more.

When landing on the bough of a tree, the capercaillie flaps its wings especially loudly - it murmurs, and then it creaks for some time. This special habit of birds in the evening west should be considered as a kind of signal from the male that this section of the current is already occupied by him.

Sometimes capercaillie, until dark, fly from tree to tree, each within its own individual area and feed on pine needles. Males sit down in the evening on the lekking in a certain order, which is more or less preserved until mid-April. The first capercaillie often sits on a pine tree from the ground - it is obvious that this male stays for most of the day near the current. Its individual section does not exceed 75-125 meters in diameter, and as it was later found out, this is the center of the current. Other capercaillie sit down in the evening at 120-170 meters from each other, as if in a semicircle around the clearing. This order is maintained until the next morning.

How many capercaillie lek

Capercaillie wakes up in the morning one of the first among diurnal birds and begins to current approximately 1 hour 45 minutes before sunrise, and this interval is maintained during all periods of the current. Such constancy is apparently explained by the fact that the capercaillie perfectly perceives and determines the degree of illumination of the sky long before sunrise. However, at the height of the current, some capercaillie sing even at night when the full moon is shining.

The first grouse usually starts the first male that arrived on the current in the evening, and sometimes the neighboring bird. The mating of these males is distinguished by its duration, energy and passion. Glukharki arrive at the lek with a rude cluck, 1-2 at a time, 30-60 minutes before sunrise and clearly strive to get to the center of the lek. Sometimes they appear accompanied by 1-2 males, probably young ones. Some females come to the lekking ground. With their appearance, capercaillie begin to talk more recklessly and fly to the ground, where they often come into a fight with each other. Other males also begin to flock to the center of the current, trying their hand at fights with rivals.

Capercaillie fight with incredible noise, fiercely striking each other with wings and beak. The weakest, unable to withstand the onslaught of a stronger opponent, either flies up a tree - this is what young capercaillie often do, or runs away, and the winner begins to lek on the ground even more recklessly. Females, sometimes 2-4 pieces, are grouped near one of these males. It is not necessary to observe how the birds mate, as the capercaillie lead their chosen ones into the rosemary or blueberry bushes.

Age of current capercaillie

It is known that not all wood grouses are active lekking, some of them sit silently all morning or from time to time ventriloquitally skerhat or crack. They occupy the outskirts of the current, and the number of such birds is quite large, and regularly changes. In the initial period, the ratio of the number of actively lekking males to silent ones is 5 to 8; And, during the period of extinction of the current, the number of silent birds decreases even more and its ratio with the number of current birds is 6 to 10.

Studies of the age composition of lekking capercaillie, for example, in the Southern Urals, explain this picture. Capercaillie croakers and silent birds occupying the outskirts of the lekking area are young male yearlings that do not start leking immediately, and become active only towards the end of the lekking period. In the Southern Urals, they begin to lek a month later than old roosters. And vice versa, the center of the lek is occupied by adult and strongest males aged 2 years and older, which actually establish the lek from early spring.

Such complex relationships of males on the lek, due to the age characteristics of birds, are explained by the peculiar behavior of females. The fact is that capercaillie themselves choose their males for mating, trying to get into the center of the current. It is possible that several capercaillie copulate with one male, as evidenced by repeated observations, when up to 4 capercaillie gathered near one tokovik on the ground.

The biological expediency of complex relationships between current males becomes obvious. Adult and strongest males occupy the center of the lek and defend their right to mate with females in tournament fights. Capercaillie females choose the best males for themselves, from which they receive the most viable offspring, and this contributes to the progress of the species as a whole. At the same time, tournament fights of males on the lek are a powerful factor in sexual selection, as a result of which males have become 2 times larger than females. The peculiarities of displaying also explain the sexual dimorphism in the coloration of birds - a relatively brightly colored male, while displaying on the ground, takes very effective poses and is shown to the female from all angles, attracting her attention.

By the way, most likely, capercaillie distinguish males primarily by their songs. In this regard, 2-3 capercaillie, who occupied the center of the lek, are well distinguished from others by more energetic and prolonged lekking. However, young male yearlings are also capable of mating in the first spring, but this potential opportunity is rarely realized in the first year, and apparently only at the end of the current period.

Among many hunters, it is widely believed that the oldest wood grouse accelerates the current, but he cannot cover the females himself, and this allegedly harms the process. However, it is wrong and wrong to think so, and even if there were such cases, they are rather an exception.

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