Bullfinch in the house. Where do bullfinches live in summer? What do bullfinches love in winter feeders

These cute birds with bright plumage have always interested bird watchers and all bird lovers. True, you can admire their bright color only in winter, and in summer it is difficult to distinguish them from other small songbirds, because they become less bright and are immersed in caring for offspring.

Bullfinch: description, size, color

Although these birds are considered forest birds, many townspeople have seen them in the metropolis. The bullfinch is a bird belonging to a special genus of songbirds from the finch family. The bird is small, slightly larger than a sparrow. Its weight does not exceed thirty grams. The constitution of the bullfinch is strong and rather dense. Body length is on average eighteen centimeters.

The bullfinch is a widespread and very attractive bird. Photos of these elegant birds often decorate calendars, various New Year's cards, magazines, as well as pages of publications for bird watchers. The genus of bullfinches is characterized by sexual dimorphism in the color of birds. The brightest part of them is the breast: in females it is painted in a pink-gray color, and in males it is carmine-red. This is a characteristic feature of small birds.

The rest of the plumage is identical in color. The bullfinch's head is adorned with a black cap that blends into a small black speck on the chin. The bird's back is colored bluish-gray. The wings are quite bright: a classic combination of black and white, alternating with stripes all over the wing. Uppertail and undertail are white. The bullfinch's beak is thick and wide, painted black.

The legs of the bird are strong and strong, three-toed with small, but very tenacious and sharp black claws. Feathers on the neck, sides, belly and cheeks are tinted gray-brown. The color of the plumage of young bullfinches and chicks is different: it is much more modest, much closer to the color of the female than the male.

Spread

Bullfinches are believed to be forest birds. The predominantly habitat of the bullfinch is the mixed and coniferous forests of Asia and Europe from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Nevertheless, bullfinches are often found in city parks and in the courtyards of residential buildings, they are guests in small feeders outside the windows of multi-storey buildings, in playgrounds. But this does not mean at all that bullfinches can be attributed to city dwellers. It's just that these red-breasted birds fly to the city to eat and refresh themselves.

Song

In addition to its bright color, the bullfinch has another distinctive characteristic - its voice, or rather its song. It is difficult to confuse it with the singing of another bird. It is rather difficult to describe the sounds made by this bird in words. The most appropriate comparison is a whistle or a metallic squeak. It’s even difficult to understand right away that these sounds are emitted by a bird, the voice of a bullfinch is so unique and its song is unusual.

Usually such trills are heard during the mating season. It is surprising that both males and females perform them.

Lifestyle

In winter, bullfinches often fly to cities when there is not enough food in the forest. In summer, it is difficult to see bullfinches, but on frosty winter days they fluff up their feathers, turning into bright balls fluttering from branch to branch. Against the background of white snow on the branches of trees, bullfinches look especially elegant and spectacular. This bird is a symbol of frost, snow, good mood and winter holidays.

Ornithologists note the special attitude of birds to mountain ash. They fly up to her in a small flock. Bullfinches on mountain ash sit on twigs, and the males, like true gentlemen, provide their ladies with the opportunity to choose the most delicious and juicy bunches. Bullfinches on mountain ash are only a few minutes until they are saturated with the seeds in the berries, since they do not use the juicy pulp. After that, the flock takes off, lightly shaking off the snow from the tree.

Behavior

Bird watchers observe the behavior of these beautiful birds during their migrations, when they fly to the south - to Transbaikalia, the Amur basin, Crimea, Central Asia and North Africa. Descriptions of bullfinches in various publications characterize them as calm, unhurried and balanced birds. But at the same time they are quite circumspect and neat. In the presence of a person, bullfinches are not very active and most often behave very wary, especially for females.

In a flock of bullfinches, there are almost never open confrontations and disagreements. Red-breasted birds live quite amicably and peacefully. Females occasionally show aggression. At the same time, they make characteristic sounds with their beak and quickly rotate their heads. But this happens extremely rarely and only when there is an objective reason.

If a person decides to feed the birds and leave them a treat, then they will not give up the treat and will eat with pleasure.

Bullfinch at home

The description of a bullfinch living at home is not very common. If you decide to have such a pet, you need to know that this bird should be kept in a cool place so that it feels comfortable, since the bullfinch does not tolerate high temperatures.

In response to the care and good living conditions, the bullfinch quickly gets used to the owner and becomes almost tame. He can even learn simple melodies and copy some sounds.

Reproduction

An interesting description of the bullfinch during the mating season. The voice of male bullfinches becomes more melodic, it sounds much more pleasant than usual. They devote their trills to their lovely chosen ones, and they answer with a quiet, muffled whistle.

Pairs in flocks form in March. Matriarchy reigns in any family of these bright birds, the main role here lies with the females.

Building a nest

For the construction of nests, bullfinches choose spruce forests. In the specialized literature, you can often find their description. The bullfinch builds the nest quite high - at least two meters from the ground and as far as possible from the trunk. This is a special ritual in the life of birds. Great attention is paid to nest weaving, bullfinches collect dry grass and thin twigs with their beak and paws, skillfully weaving them together. The bottom of the nest is lined with dry leaves, animal hair, and lichen.

Offspring

In early May, the female lays four to six blue eggs. Their entire surface is covered with brown specks. The offspring is incubated by the female for fifteen days. After two weeks, small and very hungry chicks appear in the nest. To dampen their constant appetite, parents work constantly. They bring seeds, berries and other food to the nest. After another half month, the chicks learn to fly and soon get out of the nest. However, parents do not stop feeding their babies. Only after reaching one month of age, young bullfinches are ready for an independent life.

Food

Probably, it is easy to guess what the bullfinch eats. The basis of its diet throughout the year is plant food, although sometimes the bird eats small insects. Much more often bullfinches eat the seeds of deciduous and coniferous trees. To do this, they use their small but very strong beak, which has a special shape.

What does a bullfinch eat in the spring and summer? Kidneys, young shoots of plants and the first greens are added to the diet. In summer, bullfinches enjoy flowers with pleasure. Do not mind pampering yourself with berries, especially mountain ash and bird cherry.

Life span

Under natural conditions, bullfinches can live up to fifteen years, although quite often the birds do not live up to this age. They are too vulnerable to temperature, so they die in snowy and frosty winters with a lack of food. At home, with proper care, such a period is quite real.

Winter quietly entered the falling asleep forest, embraced the trees with cold arms and covered them with a blanket of snow. And as if from the folds of her white clothes the most winter birds - bullfinches - flew out.

Why is the bullfinch so called

Winter is reliably involved even in the name of these birds - bullfinches, snow birds. And, as if in contrast to this, the Latin "name" of the bullfinch Pyrrhula pyrrhula is translated "fiery"! Anyone who is familiar with bullfinches can easily guess that the reason for this is the bright coloration of male bullfinches. There is another version of the origin of the name "bullfinch" - from the Turkic word "snig" - "red-breasted", which determined the old Russian spelling "snigir".

Types of bullfinches

Besides common bullfinch on the territory of Russia there are two more species - gray bullfinch (inhabits mountain forests of Siberia and the Far East) and ussuri bullfinch (Far East, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands).

HOW THE BUCKLING LOOKS

Bright red balls with thick beaks and black caps, strewn with branches and so contrasting with the dazzling snowy winter forest - this image of a bullfinch, no doubt, is familiar to everyone from childhood. He wanders from one book page to another, flies from postcard to postcard ...

As if a February blizzard added a little snow to its color, made it soft, pastel, slightly muffled the red fire. Only male bullfinches have such plumage - with their breasts burning with fire. Females are painted in pale gray tones, as if mixed with the same snow.

The wings of bullfinches are black with a metallic sheen, the loin and undertail are white, clearly visible in a flying bird.

The plumage of young bullfinches - without a characteristic black cap, is ocher-brown - as if winter has not yet touched their feathers with pastel-snow flowers. But already at the end of summer, young bullfinches molt, gradually acquiring pale pink or ash-gray tones.

Where do bullfinches live

Bullfinches inhabit all European forests, they are found in Western and Central Asia, in Japan. These birds do not fly outside the forest and forest-steppe zones, preferring to live in coniferous and mixed forests with dense undergrowth.

Bullfinches live mostly sedentary, while in the cold season the birds unite in flocks, becoming clearly visible. With the arrival of cold weather, bullfinches from the northern parts of the range migrate to the south, "bringing winter with them."

In late autumn and winter, bullfinches can often be seen in city parks and squares. With the onset of spring, the color of bullfinches fades, and the birds themselves become secretive and invisible, betraying their presence only with bewitching quiet creaks.

What do bullfinches eat

Massive beak bullfinch it just seems powerful and able to crack even a nut with ease. This beak is often stained with the juice and pulp of rowan berries, from which bullfinches eat seeds with appetite.

Bullfinches also feast on other plant foods - the buds of linden, bird cherry and larch, ash and maple lionfish, lilac seeds and weeds.

Adult bullfinches - almost exclusively herbivorous, but parents add small insects and spiders to the diet of chicks.

Breeding bullfinches

A pair of bullfinches is found during winter migrations, starting to nest in April. To build a nest, bullfinches, as a rule, choose dense coniferous undergrowth (spruce, fir, juniper), usually placing the nest low above the ground, in the forks of the branches of the branches near the trunk.

During the week bullfinches work, constructing a cozy structure of thin twigs, softly lined with lichens and mosses, sometimes with feathers and wool. Clutch - 3-7 light, bluish eggs with small specks on the shell. In the north, bullfinches breed once a year, in the south they have repeated clutches.

In bullfinches, not only males, but also females can sing.

Nesting bullfinches are not aggressive towards each other, but prefer to settle at a distance.

Males do not take part in the construction of the nest, only females are engaged in the construction of bullfinches. Males guard the site and feed the spouse while incubating the clutch.

Thanks to repeated captures of ringed bullfinches, it became known that they can live in nature for up to 17 years.

According to one of the legends, the bullfinch is like Prometheus, and its red chest color arose from the burn that the bird received when it brought fire to people from heaven to earth. According to another legend, the red color arose from the blood of the crucified Christ, whom the bullfinch tried to free by pulling the nails out of his hands. In fact, the red color of feathers is associated with the content of red pigments in their cells - carotenoids.

On the territory of Russia, an ordinary bullfinch is isolated three subspecies, differing in size and color of plumage.

The Birds Conservation Union of Russia (SOPR) declared the bullfinch the Bird of the Year 2008.

- Where do bullfinches disappear? In recent years, many residents of the North-West region of Russia have complained that fewer and fewer red-breasted birds can be found in urban areas with the arrival of cold weather. Scientists suggest that this situation may be associated with an increase in the number of the natural enemy of bullfinches - the sparrowhawk, which often remains for the winter in the vicinity of cities. To avoid an attack by a predator, bullfinches are forced to avoid open landscapes, where they are most often seen by townspeople (https: //elementy.ru/email/5021767/Kuda_ischezli_sn ....)

- Bullfinch - a mockingbird... The bullfinch has long been one of the most popular birds in Russia for home keeping, while its ability to imitate different sounds was highly valued. For such talents, bullfinches were even called "Russian parrots". Remember! Now catching wild bullfinches is illegal! If you want to get to know this magnificent bird better, do not deny yourself the pleasure of watching bullfinches in their natural habitat - in the forest! No amount of cellular content will allow you to discover the true beauty of the forest bird. Feed the bullfinches on the troughs and admire the free bullfinches!

In the article about the bullfinch, photos were used: (Yandex.Photos) nat-volga, Kalina.

It's better to see once than hear a hundred times;) How a bullfinch eats mountain ash. Rare footage

The article will tell you how to properly prepare food for wintering birds in the feeders.

A person often wants to take care of "our little brothers". If you cannot afford to volunteer at animal shelters or send money monthly to voluntary animal welfare organizations, then you can feed the local birds during the winter season. By creating a feeder in your yard or on the balcony, you not only give food to small feathered creatures, you give them a chance to survive, extending their life by several days, weeks, a harsh winter.

Of course, you should not expect gratitude from small creatures, they will help you at another time - in the summer, when they begin to eat harmful insects (mosquitoes, larvae, flies, ants, aphids and worms), which interfere with growing decent crops. And you must admit that feeding birds will not hit your pocket, but it will bring a pleasant sense of accomplishment.

IMPORTANT: If you decide to feed the birds in the winter season, when it is difficult for them to find food for themselves, it is important to know that in winter their diet is significantly different from the summer one. Birds need high-calorie food, but not harmful (otherwise you will simply kill them).

What can be fed:

Food:	Features:	Who eats:
Sunflower (seeds)	Seeds should make up almost 70-75% of the total feed (they are satisfying and high in calories, they are high in fat)	Tits, woodpeckers, sparrows, nuthatches and other granivorous birds
Millet
Millet	Dry food (often sold as pet food at pet stores)	Sparrows, goldfinches, pigeons, greenfinches and other granivores
Oats	Raw or boiled cereals (no spices or oil)	Sparrows, goldfinches, pigeons, greenfinches and other granivores
Wheat	Raw or boiled cereals (no spices or oil)	Sparrows, goldfinches, pigeons, greenfinches and other granivores
Rice	Raw or boiled cereals (no spices or oil)	Sparrows, goldfinches, pigeons, greenfinches and other granivores
Meat	Pieces of raw or dried meat, finely crushed. Without any salt and spices!
Fat	Raw lard without salt! It can be strung on a string and hung	Tits, nuthatches and other species (crows, jackdaws and magpies may fly)
Beef fat or chicken	It can be mixed with bread or placed separately in the trough. Fat shouldn't be salty!	Tits, nuthatches and other species (crows, jackdaws and magpies may fly)
Dried rowan (viburnum, hawthorn)	The berries must be prepared in advance and dried in the fall. They can be placed in a feeder or hung with beads.	Bullfinches, waxwings
Maple seeds (lionfish)	They should be harvested in the fall when they are sprinkled from the trees. In winter, such food is often unavailable for birds, as it is covered with foliage. Mud and snow	Bullfinches, waxwings
Cones	From various types of conifers, should be harvested in autumn	Woodpeckers, crossbills
Nuts	Any nuts that are fresh, not salted (like store-bought peanuts) or roasted	Jay woodpeckers and other species
Acorns	Gathered in the fall	Jays
Corn	Dried
Watermelon and melon seeds	Good source of fats and nutrients (harvested from summer, dried)	Bullfinches, jays, woodpeckers
Pumpkin seeds	Good source of fat and nutrients (harvested in fall)	All granivorous bird species
Chicken egg shell	Serves as a good calcium supplement (you can put a piece of natural chalk in the feeder)	For all kinds of birds

What you can not feed birds in the feeder in winter: a list of products

What you need to know about junk food for birds:

Of course, in winter, birds need fatty foods such as meat and lard. However in no case should it be salty foods, since such food can destroy small creatures, provoking dehydration and intoxication in their excretory organs.
Meat, lard and fat should be given in pure form, you can mix these ingredients with other food (grains, boiled porridge or bread).
You can not give black bread -this product, cooked with rye flour, can cause upset and diarrhea in birds, leading to death. There is a lot of salt in black bread, and it also leads to disruption of the kidneys and liver in birds.
Rye breadcan ferment in the goiter of birds and kill them, since there is much more yeast in it than in wheat.

What cannot be added to the feeder:

Salty foods
Fried food
Spicy food
Acidic foods
Citrus (even peel)
Banana peel and fruit
Milk
Roasted nuts
Spicy foods

Why can't you feed the birds with salted bacon, fried seeds?

Any disease that affects a bird in the winter season becomes many times more dangerous for it than it would be in the summer. Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract in birds occur quite often, since in harsh winters they can eat junk food in search of survival. This food is offered to them by a person who knows little about the dietary habits of animals.

INTERESTING: It turns out that the chewing gum thrown away by a person is often perceived by birds as a piece of bread. They peck at it, but then die, as the gum completely inhibits and clogs their digestive tract.

When offering lard to titmice and other birds, make sure you cut it out of the salted portion. Salt is poison to birds. Their kidneys and liver cannot digest and remove it, and therefore such a product will be sure death for a small creature.

It would seem that sunflower seeds are the healthiest food for birds. But only if the seeds are raw. Fried seeds absorb too much fat and the digestive tract of birds cannot absorb it, provoking poisoning, diarrhea and indigestion, which is very destructive for most species.

Which birds fly to the trough in winter, and which bird will not appear at the trough in winter?

When installing a feeder, you should be aware that it is always a source of garbage. Therefore, there is no place for feeders on window sills and balconies of houses (your neighbors may complain). It is best to install it on trees at a height where they will not be accessible to children who want to misbehave and knock it down (or add junk food).

It is possible that along with the "good-natured" birds, you will be able to notice the "impudent" thieves like crows, pigeons, magpies and jackdaws. However, most often they still eat in feeders:

Sparrows
Bullfinches
Titmouse
Nuthatches
Jays
Goldfinch
Crossbill
Pika
Waxwing

What is the best way to feed sparrows, titmice, bullfinches, woodpeckers, waxwings in the trough in winter?

If you can afford to buy poultry food, do it periodically at a pet store. There you can easily pick up feed from a mixture of millet, oats, wheat and sunflower seeds. This food can be combined with dried rowan berries, slices of white bread (or bread crumbs), animal fat and lard.

IMPORTANT: The feeder should be renewed as the feed is consumed. Do not add too much feed at once, because birds very often empty themselves while eating and this spoils some of the food.

What birds eat mountain ash in winter?

The bright red rowan berries often attract birds. These berries, dried by a person and poured into a feeder or remaining hanging on a tree, serve as food for:

Ryabinnikov
Drozdov
Bullfinch
Waxwings

What kind of cereal can be given to birds in the feeder in winter? Is it possible to feed birds in a feeder in winter with millet, corn, wheat, pearl barley, barley groats, buckwheat, oats, rolled oats, rice, oatmeal?

Groats are nourishing, nutritious and wholesome food for all granivorous birds. It can be sprinkled raw and dry, boiled, half cooked. It is important not to salt the porridge during cooking, not to add sugar and spices, not to add oil (an exception is a small amount of natural animal fat: beef or chicken).

What cereals can be given to wintering birds:

Buckwheat
Millet
Oatmeal (rolled oats, flakes)
Pearl barley
Corn
Wheat

Is it possible to feed the birds in the feeder in winter with pumpkin, watermelon, seeds, sunflower?

Keeping melon seeds out of the summer is nowhere near difficult when you eat watermelons, melons, and pumpkins. To do this, they should be well rinsed with running water and dried in the sun from moisture. These seeds are an excellent nutritious and healthy food for all wintering birds, as they contain dietary fiber and oils. It is easily digestible and gives the birds a boost of energy for the winter.

Is it possible to feed the birds in the feeder in winter with bread crumbs, bread, fresh bacon?

As stated, bread is not ideal food for birds, but it is acceptable. However, we are talking only about white and unleavened bread. It should be dried or crumbled. It is also allowed to add white bread rusks to the feeder, hanging them on thick threads.

IMPORTANT: If you put pieces of raw, non-salted bacon and meat in the feeders, it is also recommended to string them with beads on strings so that the birds do not lose this food, do not drop it from the feeder, do not try to swallow it whole, but pinch off a piece.

Video: "Wintering Birds"

In winter, most of us notice the appearance of beautiful red-breasted birds - bullfinches in the city. Mostly they are clearly visible on leafless tree branches and snow-covered ground. The appearance of a large number of bullfinches is due to the lack of sufficient food for survival in forest zones, which brings them to urban areas, where people, hearing their sonorous singing, feed them seeds.

Bullfinch in may

By their nature, bullfinches are gullible and not whimsical, therefore they feel comfortable among people. If you wish, you can get such a bird to keep it on the balcony or garden plot, after taming or catching it on the street. Keeping, at first glance, freedom-loving birds will not at all affect their condition in general. But you should not go against nature and specially catch bullfinches for yourself, it is better to feed them sometimes in a hungry winter.

Appearance

The size of a bullfinch is slightly larger than a sparrow. The feather color of birds is quite bright and memorable:

the head, except for the cheeks, is black;
tail and wings are also covered with black feathers;
the undertail with the loin is white;
the cheeks, bottom of the neck, abdomen and sides are colored bright red. Males have a distinctive gray color on the back, neck and neck.

Depending on the species and region of habitation, bullfinches have slight differences in color. The shoulders on the back of the neck, in the female, may have gray plumage, while the back is colored brownish brown. Sometimes females have a change from red plumage to gray-brown.

Bullfinch on a branch

Chicks, irrespective of sex, are ocher-brownish, without highlighting individual body parts as in adult birds.

Habitat

Bullfinches are common throughout Europe, except for southern and upper Asia. According to the high-altitude level of settlement, they are not picky and calmly build nests in low-lying regions and mountainous terrain, allocating places for themselves with a sufficient number of trees and forests. These birds do not settle in areas with few or no trees. The northern part of the forest is rarely populated with bullfinches due to cold winters.

Bullfinches are chosen to settle in places with a clean ecology, so in winter they can be admired by residents of cities with a minimum or complete absence of industry. Birds feel quite comfortable next to people, so they calmly settle within the city, next to residential buildings.

The summer forest does not allow seeing the birds, even despite their distinctive color. In winter, trees deserted from foliage and a white background of snow reveals the beauty of their plumage.

Birds live in nests that build on trees (firs), at a height of no more than 5 meters. They build the nests themselves from improvised natural material: twigs, leaves, dry grass and live in them, leaving only for feeding.

To create nests and lay eggs, bullfinches choose spruce located near water bodies. The general behavior of birds is calm and poorly oriented in the new area, which allows both humans and domestic cats to catch even an adult.

It is worth noting that bullfinches can be overlooked in a region with severe winters. Although they are frost-hardy, the difficulty of wintering in open nests and a reduction in food lead to migration to warmer regions. Unlike migratory birds, bullfinches do not fly south and are good at changing seasons, subject to mild winters.

What does a bullfinch eat in summer

In the summer, bullfinches spend most of their time in fields and meadows. A sufficient amount of meadow grass seeds - ensures a well-fed summer. In winter, the fallen seeds are hidden under a layer of snow and it is difficult for the birds to feed themselves, forcing them to fly to places populated by people for the winter period.

In addition to a sufficient number of seeds donated by nature, bullfinches love orchards and bushes with berries. Juicy berries in summer or drying up in autumn, birds peck up regardless of their place of growth.

The fields sown with sunflowers attract, perhaps, all birds with juicy and nourishing seeds. Unlike other birds, bullfinches very rarely catch midges and other seasonal insects as food, but they do not completely refuse.

What does a bullfinch eat in winter

In winter, most often bullfinches can be seen on the branches of mountain ash and viburnum. Bright red berries not only successfully emphasize the red breast of birds, mountain ash is also their favorite delicacy.

Seed residue on maple, ash, alder trees supports birds until suitable seeds appear on meadow grasses or buds on trees. In parks, bullfinches do not refuse to visit feeders built by people, they only linger in them in the presence of sunflower and pumpkin seeds, oats and millet.

All these delicacies keep bullfinches until the onset of spring, which gives many leafy buds. But often the winter is hungry and due to a small amount of food, which has a strong effect on the decline in the bird population.

Bullfinch with tree seed.

What the bullfinch feeds its chicks

In the first half of May, female bullfinches lay eggs, from which chicks appear in a few weeks. For the first few weeks, the chicks are next to the female, fully fed by her. For the next 10-15 days, the chicks learn to fly and get their own food. For young individuals, midges, small spiders and bugs must be present in the diet; in addition, females begin to accustom them to collecting seeds from herbs.

Birds in the city in winter: to feed or not?

A feeder is not the most humane option for birds wintering in a metropolis

Photo: Victor DRACHEV

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Having fed a titmouse today with a piece of bacon, and a pigeon with a glass of seeds, tomorrow you run the risk of finding the corpses of these birds. Why do feeders kill, squirrels don't eat almonds, and crows threaten to evict Muscovites from the city? This is a problem for the birdwatchers of the Vorobyovy Gory reserve.

Here are their top tips:

Frost does not frighten them, but the lack of food at this time of year is even very bad. Fortunately, many people arrange feeding grounds and feeders. Although about whether this is a good or not, one can still argue.

By feeding the birds incorrectly, a person can harm them, and feeding them can even kill them. In nature, the diet of birds is very diverse. With the constant presence of seeds in the feeder, tits, for example, simply stop looking for other food. Why fly through the forest, strain, looking for insects in the cracks of the bark, when there are always a lot of excellent fat seeds in the feeder? But a monotonous diet, and even rich in fats, leads to liver disease. Instead of benefit, we do irreparable harm to birds. At the same time, we often simply do not notice the results of this, since the bodies of the birds killed by our kindness remain in the hollows.

But you can pay attention to the fact that over time, more and more birds with very fluffy plumage begin to fly to the feeders. This is the first sign that the birds are not doing well. By fluffing up their feathers, they try to keep as much heat as possible. To prevent this from happening, you need to firmly understand that there should not be a constant presence of feed in the feeders. It is better to accustom yourself and the birds to a certain regimen by filling the feeders once or twice a day, in the morning or morning and evening at the same time.

Who to feed and who not? And now let's decide which birds are our friends, who should be fed and how, and which ones should be driven away.

City pigeons, sparrows and ducks cannot survive without us in winter. The amount of natural food they can find in nature is so small that they won't even have enough for a snack. But you do not need to feed these birds, they need to be fed. That is, the feeder should not have a tubercle all the time. They poured half a glass in the morning, the same amount in the evening - that's all. What to pour? Let's figure it out now.

It is best to feed city pigeons with a specially prepared mixture or at least wheat, or better barley, which can be bought at the Bird Market in Moscow (grain is also cheaper than cereals). Of the cereals, pearl barley is the best, which is peeled barley. White bread is not the best food for pigeons, but in small quantities it is quite suitable (but fried pies, whites, pizza, etc. are very harmful). You can sprinkle oatmeal with sesars, only not instant, but dense, not loose.

In a small amount, you can add unroasted seeds.

Barley is too hard for sparrows, but everything else that pigeons eat is also suitable for them. Sparrows prefer millet from grain.

It is best to feed ducks with grain (grain mixture or wheat) or mixed feed for chickens, but the trouble is, these types of feed drown in water, and to feed them you have to either pour them on ice or make special feeders semi-submerged in water, which is unrealistic in urban conditions reservoir. So there is practically no alternative to white bread. They eat ducks and unroasted seeds, which do not sink in water, unlike other types of grain. However, ducks get so used to bread that they are less willing to eat seeds.

Other feathered neighbors of Muscovites are small forest birds that regularly winter in the middle lane. These are tits, nuthatches, woodpeckers, greenfinches, jays. They are accustomed to looking for food themselves, but a third of the daily ration is a gift from a person - they will not be superfluous. Unfried sunflower seeds, medium-fat cottage cheese mixed with white breadcrumbs, so that the cottage cheese does not stick together, but is grains, scraped lean beef, grated egg, hard-boiled, finely chopped fresh apple are placed in the feeding trough for tits. On frosty days, it is good to hang a piece of unsalted bacon, put a piece of butter.

You just need to take into account that, in addition to seeds, the tits must get used to other feeds, so do not be upset if at first they do not eat them.

Nuthatches, in addition to these feeds, happily eat watermelon and pumpkin seeds. But besides birds, some other animals visit the feeders, most often we meet squirrels on the feeders.

Squirrels don't eat almonds

Whole hazelnuts (hazelnuts), whole pine nuts, chopped walnuts, whole apricot seeds, sunflower seeds (also unroasted), pieces of sweet breadcrumbs, biscuits, bagels, pieces of fresh apple (even in frost, fresh apples are used by proteins in demand, despite the fact that it freezes through), dried fruits, dried mushrooms, boiled egg, cottage cheese.

Squirrels do not eat almonds, it is toxic to these rodents. Raw peanuts are also not popular, but you can offer something.

Salt is not harmful for proteins, but it is better not to use salty foods, as they can be eaten by birds, for which salt is dangerous.

It is very good to fix a white bird stone (pressed chalk) on the squirrel feeder - squirrels in nature are always deficient in calcium and such a gift will certainly be welcome.

Bullfinches, fieldbirds, waxwings, goldfinches, oatmeal, siskins and tap dancers, pikas and bloodworms - these birds are real nomads, they do not stop anywhere for a long time, so they do not get used to human bait.

Thrushes and waxwings in winter feed exclusively on the soft fruits of trees and shrubs - mountain ash, hawthorn and even snowberry. Their life depends entirely on the presence of berries on the branches. Therefore, by cutting off the fruits of mountain ash, we thereby reduce the amount of food available to these birds. It is better not to harvest mountain ash for winter feeding, those who eat mountain ash are more likely to find it on a tree than in a feeder. Bullfinches feed on the seeds of mountain ash, ash, lilac.

Goldfinches, oatmeal, siskins and tap dancers feed on weed seeds, and siskins and tap dancers, plus everything else, feed on birches.

The pike and beetle are strictly insectivorous birds and survive the winter looking for insects hiding under the bark or among the needles. They never visit the feeders, and we can do nothing to help them survive the winter.

And not a crumb of crows!

So we come to the most interesting thing - feathered enemies, who are they? And these are crows and magpies that are painfully familiar to us. It is better not to feed these birds. This is especially true of crows, whose numbers in cities exceed all reasonable limits. The Hooded Crow is an omnivorous bird, its diet includes both plant foods and animals.

At the same time, the city gives the crows protection from natural predators, so the population of these birds is rapidly increasing.

And with a high population density, crows have a higher competition for food, they more carefully comb green spaces in search of food, ruining the nests of small birds, looking for fledglings, stealing ducklings, and even squirrels. And the better the crows overwinter, the more food they find in winter, the more eggs their females will lay in the spring, the more chicks they will feed, the more nests of other birds they will ruin, the more fledglings they will find and eat. That is, feeding the crows, you increase their number and, accordingly, reduce the number of other birds - warblers, nightingales, warblers, finches, greenfinches ...

Prohibited diet

There are products that are contraindicated for birds. This is, firstly, everything fried and salty. When eating salty food in the body of birds, there is an excess of it, and the excretory system in these creatures of God is less effective than in mammals, the body is poisoned.

When fried, fats change their structure and cause severe damage to the liver.

Also, you cannot use spoiled food, rancid grains, moldy, musty foods. They contain strong toxins. You can not give birds and millet. Unlike millet, millet is devoid of a shell, which leads to the oxidation of fats on its surface, the appearance of toxic substances, pathogens. Before cooking, we always wash this cereal, washing away all the filth, but birds on raw millet get it in full. Dangerous for birds and black bread. Rye starch is poorly absorbed by their body, black bread is always more moist than white, has increased acidity, which often leads to strong fermentation in the intestines of birds, up to volvulus.

Where to place the feeders

And I also want to say a few words about where it is best to place the feeders. Of course, the feeder outside the window is very attractive for us, but not very useful for birds and does not please the neighbors at all. The feeder is always a source of waste. And in search of food, birds begin to fly through the open vents, which often ends in death for them, often birds break on glass. Plus, bird droppings do not decorate our windowsills, cornices, balconies and parked cars.

By feeding the birds near your windows, you run the risk of provoking the wrath of your neighbors, who can solve the problem on their own: shoot the birds - and that's it. This, alas, is not an invention. It is best to feed the birds away from housing, choosing a site with convenient perches (pigeons sometimes sit near the feeding area all day waiting for freebies, they simply have nothing else to do) and shelters. The concentration of birds at the feeders will inevitably attract predators, and if there is no place to hide nearby, your charges may be in danger. For small birds, it is better to arrange feeding grounds near a dense bush or on the edge of a coniferous forest.

It should also be remembered that the wind is very dangerous for birds, therefore feeders should be located in places protected from it.

Those who like to feed pigeons should wear the same clothes before approaching the feeding area, it is more convenient to put on a special dressing gown over the clothes and take it off when leaving the feeding area. Pigeons very quickly get used to the look of the person who feeds them, and begin to chase him or a person in such clothes, which can create certain difficulties even for you, not to mention the casual passers-by. And a casual passer-by in the same dressing gown as yours is unlikely to be nearby.

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