Which of the birds makes nests in burrows. Bird nests. Nests in the middle or upper parts of tree crowns

During the current period, the nest is also being built. In monogamous it is built by both partners or only by the female, and the male sometimes brings building material. In polygamous nests, only the female builds the nest. The nature of the nests and their location in the class of birds are extremely diverse (Fig. 55), but in each species, in accordance with its ecological characteristics, the nests are relatively of the same type. Only very few birds do not build nests, laying their eggs directly on the ground (nightjars, some waders) or on rock ledges (guillemots). Chickens and waders, gulls, owls, etc. cover the hole on the ground with bedding of plant rags. when leaving for feeding, they cover the eggs with fluff.

In the fork of the branches, careless nests of sketched dry branches with a meager grassy lining are arranged by diurnal predators, storks, herons, cormorants, and ravens; sometimes they build them in reeds, on rocky ledges, or on the ground. Many passerine birds are especially skillful in building nests, placing them in a fork of branches or on the ground. The dense bowl of the nest is twisted from dry blades of grass and thin twigs, and from the inside it is lined with soft stems, moss, selected feathers and wool. Some birds, such as finches, weave lichens and pieces of bark into its outer walls to mask the nest. Song thrushes smear the tray with saliva-soaked rotten wood, while other thrushes reinforce the walls with mud. In some species, the nest is a dense ball with thick walls and a side entrance, built in a fork in the branches (wren, long-tailed tit) or suspended from thin tree branches (remez tit, many tropical weavers, etc.).

Woodpeckers hollow out hollows, on the bottom of which they lay eggs without any litter. Woodpecker and natural hollows are occupied by many birds that nest at the bottom: some ducks, pigeons, owls, swifts, various passerines. Male rhinoceros birds cover the entrance to the hollow with mud, leaving only a small hole through which they feed the incubating female. Many swallows build their nests out of lumps of mud, holding them together with sticky saliva. Salangana swifts build a nest only from saliva that quickly thickens in the air. Small snorkels, puffins and puffins, kingfishers, bee-eaters, sand martins and other birds dig holes up to 1-2 m long and even more; a nest is built at the end of the burrow or eggs are laid directly on the ground. In the steppes and deserts, wheatears, shelducks and shelducks nest in rodent burrows and cliff gullies. Few birds (coots, grebes, some terns) arrange floating nests from dry stems and algae, placing them in thickets of emersed vegetation.

The nest protects the laying, incubating bird and hatched chicks from enemies and adverse weather conditions. The protective qualities of the nest are the higher, the more skillfully it is built and the more inaccessible it is. So, in the forests near Moscow, where there are a lot of people and cattle are pastured, up to 40-50% of nests located on the ground and low bushes perish - up to 20-30% of nests in trees and only 5-10% of nests in hollows. Frequent frightening of incubating birds increases the death of eggs and chicks, as it facilitates the detection of nests by various predators (ravens, magpies, cats, etc.). Nests significantly improve the conditions of incubation, because temperature fluctuations in them are much less than in the external environment.

Almost all birds incubate eggs, that is, they heat them. Only weed chickens do not incubate clutches - Megapodiidae: the heat necessary for the development of the embryo is formed when the plant rags of the voluminous "nest" rot. Only females incubate polygamous; in monogamous both partners take part in incubation, replacing each other on the nest (gulls, many passerines, etc.), or only the female incubates, and the male feeds her and protects the nest area (owls and diurnal predators, some passerines). In incubating birds, feathers and fluff fall out on the abdomen and a nest spot is formed - a patch of bare skin with highly developed blood vessels, with which the bird presses against the eggs. There are 2-3 mosquito spots or one large one. The heat-insulating qualities of the nest and the presence of brood spots ensure good warming of the eggs: the laying temperature reaches 36-38 * C. Anseriformes do not form brood spots, but their absence is compensated by the abundant downy lining of the nest. Emperor penguins nesting on the ice of Antarctica hold their only egg on their paws, covering it from above with a fold of belly skin; at an air temperature of -5-10 * C, the temperature inside the egg is + 36-37 * C.

Most birds begin intensive incubation after all the eggs have been laid, and therefore the hatching of the chicks takes place more or less simultaneously. In diurnal predators, owls and some other birds, incubation begins after the laying of the first egg. Accordingly, hatching of chicks proceeds gradually and, with large clutches, stretches for 5-10 days. The duration of the incubation period depends on the size of the egg and bird, the type of nest and the intensity of incubation. Small passerines incubate for 11-14 days, a crow - 17, a raven - 19-21, a teal cracker - 21-24, a mallard - 26, swans 35-40 days, etc. The largest duration of incubation - about two months - in large penguins , albatrosses, vultures.

Main types of nests

Hollow nest dwellings

It remains to describe the dwellings of hollow nesters, many of which are ordinary human companions.

Of the relatively large birds nesting in hollows, we will focus primarily on woodpeckers. The largest one - zhelna - hollows hollows in birches, aspens, pines at a height of up to 15 m. Its large hollow is usually somewhat elongated, almost rectangular in shape, and the ground under it is strewn with sawdust and pieces of wood, chipped off by the powerful beak of zhelna.

The great spotted woodpecker prefers aspens for hollows. The letok is completely round, with a diameter of 5-6 cm and is located at a height of 2 to 5 m. Often it is located under the tinder fungus as under a visor. On the same tree there are several trial hollows, among which it is not immediately possible to find a real notch. Woodpecker chicks always give themselves away by crying.

The great spotted woodpecker is one of the most visible birds in the forest.

The hollow of the green woodpecker is also round, but larger than that of the great motley. The green woodpecker is a cautious bird, and in order to observe it, one must behave patiently and quietly.

The green woodpecker is very careful near the hollow. To see it, you need to be patient.

The positive value of woodpecker chiselling lies not only in the destruction of xylophagous insects, but also in their construction activities: using the hollow only once, they provide shelters and dwellings for hollow-eater birds that did not have enough "area", and dormouse, martens, squirrels, bats.

In the old woodpecker hollows, the forest pigeon willingly settles. The incubating female is sometimes visible from the outside. They are also occupied by the little wryneck - a bird from the order of woodpeckers, so named for the manner of its chicks hissing and turning its head at the sight of an enemy. In the semi-dark depths of the hollow, the predator easily mistakes the bird for a snake and retreats.

The jackdaw also belongs to the hollow-nesting species, but does not live in the forest, but next to a person - this is one of the synanthropic species. Jackdaws settle in small colonies in attics, behind bugs, on bell towers and, which is very unpleasant, in chimneys and chimneys. Jackdaw nests are made of twigs with all kinds of bedding - up to paper and thread.

Starlings, if they are not offered houses, make nests in hollows. The notch of the starling hollow is often smeared with droppings on the outside.

Of the small hollow-nesters in gardens, parks and mixed forests, the pied flycatcher is the most common. She starts nesting late, in May, when the tits already have chicks. At the base of the nest, she puts birch bark, dry leaves, and winds thin dry blades of grass on top. Pied has 5-6 bright blue eggs.

Unlike the pied flycatcher, the gray flycatcher does not occupy hollows and titmouses, but often nests near housing: on eaves, horizontal beams under the roof, behind architraves. Her nest is a careless heap of all sorts of rubbish (paper, hair, rags, feathers), compressed by the weight of the bird and its offspring. The nest is almost never visible under the incubating bird. Similar places are occupied by the white wagtail, but it tries to arrange a nest under some kind of roof, at least under the peak of a slate roof. The white wagtail is called a semi-hollow nest because it does not live in true hollows.

Sparrows - brownies and field sparrows very often occupy titmouses and birdhouses. Their tropical relatives - weavers - make spherical nests. A sparrow builds the same spherical nest, but in a house. Therefore, after a sparrow, not a single bird can occupy his apartment without cleaning, there are so many feathers, straw, tow - under the very roof! However, gradually all this garbage disperses to other nests. In addition to the starling, not a single bird cleans the dwelling after itself. In artificial nests, this has to be done by a person.

Less often than pied flycatchers, hollows and hollows in the garden are occupied by garden redstarts. Their buildings resemble the nests of pied beetles, but are somewhat looser. With frequent visits, redstarts easily drop their clutches.

The construction of an ordinary nuthatch can be easily distinguished by the clay coating of the notch, both from the inside and sometimes from the outside. The nuthatch narrows the "door" by its height. The bedding in the hollow is a pile of pine bark.

Titmouse start nesting very early. Usually the great tit settles in nest boxes. The nests of tits are very thick and warm, they take up a lot of space in the house. There is usually a lot of moss in the base, on which a tray of wild animal wool and horsehair is tuned. The clutches of tits are large - up to 15 eggs, which are larger in great tits than in other species. The eggs are speckled, the background is always white.

The chickadee tit very rarely occupies artificial nests, usually she prefers to hollow out the hollows herself. This is a difficult task for such a small bird, so for the hollow, the titmouse chooses thin, rotten aspens and alders. The letok is always irregular in shape, pieces of wood plucked off by the beak stick out.

The pika loves to nest behind the lagging bark.

A pika, unlike a nuthatch, cannot be called a real hollow nest. Usually she chooses cracks and voids behind the lagging bark, long dilapidated hollows. The walls of such a shelter are very unreliable, so the pika makes a nest with a deep, durable tray from a wide variety of materials, tightly stitched with cobwebs.

Black swifts return from wintering late, when all nesting sites are mostly occupied, but, as large and strong birds, they drive sparrows and other birds out of their houses, even if those nests or chicks are present. Nesting material swift - a highly specialized flyer - catches in the air. Any little thing - straws, fluffs, threads and hairs raised by the wind, he uses for a nest. This pile, so that it does not scatter, is cemented by the swift with its own saliva. He uses one nest for several years, since catching material for a new one is not an easy task. The old nest reaches 15 cm in diameter.

During the period of feeding the chicks, a further increase in the activity of an adult bird is observed. This, of course, applies to a greater extent to chicks or those species in which chicks require tireless care. Birds subordinate their entire "schedule" to feeding the brood, sometimes at the expense of their own feeding. For example, the pied flycatcher brings food to chicks up to 600 times a day. It is not difficult for an observer to calculate the number of arrivals to the nest per unit of time for any kind of bird. Such figures are usually very instructive, since they directly reflect the positive role of insectivorous birds in the forest biocenosis.

Everyone knows that swifts and swallows live in minks on the banks of cliffs. We know these birds well, but few people know that kingfishers and rollers still live in earthen minks. It is these birds that are discussed in the article.

Kingfishers, like many of their relatives, dig minks from 30 cm to a meter deep. In their houses such a terrible mess is going on that only the mink of the "roller roller" can compete with, the remnants of food and droppings, fish bones and scales are scattered in the mink. kingfisher bird faithful to their mate and the place where they were born and raised, kingfishers always return to their old burrow after a long winter separation, rarely building new ones. They seem to believe that the meeting place cannot be changed, and their meeting place is an old hole.

Every year a layer of new waste appears in the kingfisher's nest, and if swallows and swifts be sure to clean out their nest in the spring, throwing out all the remnants of food and even an old bed of twigs, kingfishers never do this. Therefore, after returning home, kingfishers parents try to swim faster.

Kingfisher, and at first she feeds her chicks with small ones and only then with fish. Kingfishers fly fast and low, chirping loudly on the fly. Kingfishers this bird was nicknamed because that she flies late to hot countries, and some extreme sportsmen stay at home to survive our cold winters.

What bird, like a kingfisher, has a terrible mess in the house?

Roller bird, his house is also located, which is built by the female. She drills a hole in the wall of the ravine with her beak, and the male rakes the ground behind her with her paws. True, the new roller nest is still nothing, you can live in it, but when the chicks appear, a mess is created in the hole - droppings, leftovers, and a carpet of insect armor, bones, scales appears on the floor.

In spite of all its sloppiness, roller birds very beautiful: the plumage of the head is bright blue, the body is brown, and the wings and tail are tricolor. True, you don’t need to think that all the birds living in minks are lazy and don’t want to clean up their nest, it’s just that the rollers and the kingfisher are so voracious that they spend all their time getting food, and the disgusting smell from the mink-nest scares away.

Every year, in order to raise offspring, the vast majority of birds build nests. In temperate latitudes and in cold countries, nesting begins in spring and ends in summer, when the chicks are compared in size with adult birds. But this is not the case everywhere. After all, there are many places on the globe where there is no change of seasons. In some tropical countries, summer lasts all year, in other places there is an annual change of dry and rainy seasons.

How, then, to determine the time of reproduction of birds? For the entire globe, the rule is general: birds begin to nest at such a time that the feeding of the brood and the first days of the life of the chicks outside the nest falls on the most food-rich time. If we have this spring and summer, then in the savannahs of Africa, most birds nest immediately after the start of the rains, when the vegetation develops violently and many insects appear. The exception here is birds of prey, especially those that feed on terrestrial animals. They nest only during drought. When the vegetation burns out, it is easy for them to find their prey on the ground, which has nowhere to hide. Birds nest in tropical forests throughout the year.

It is generally believed that all birds, when hatching chicks, build special nests for incubation of eggs. But this is not so: many birds nesting on the ground do without a real nest. For example, a small brownish-gray nightjar lays a couple of eggs directly on the forest floor, most often on fallen needles. A small depression is formed later, because the bird sits in the same place all the time. The circumpolar murre also does not build nests. She lays her single egg on the bare rock ledge of the bluff. Many gulls and waders need only a small depression in the sand, sometimes they use the footprint of a deer hoof.

Nightjar bird nests right on the ground. The whitening shell near the nest helps parents find their chicks in the dark.

Birds that raise chicks in hollows and burrows do not make a real nest. They are usually content with a small litter. In hollows, wood dust can serve as litter. In the kingfisher, the litter in the hole consists of small bones and scales of fish, in the bee-eater - from chitinous remains of insects. The woodpecker usually does not occupy the finished hollow. With his strong beak, he hollows out a new hollow for himself. The golden bee-eater for about 10 days digs with its beak in the soft clay of a cliff of one and a half and even two meters, which ends with an extension - a nesting chamber. Real nests are made by birds nesting in bushes and trees. True, not all of them are skillfully made. The dove, for example, folds several twigs on tree branches and somehow fastens them.

Thrushes build solid cup-shaped nests, and the song thrush smears it with clay from the inside. Birds, working from morning to late evening, spend about three days on the construction of such a nest. The finch arranges a warm, felt-like nest, moreover, with a soft lining, masking it from the outside with pieces of moss, fragments of lichen, and birch bark. Golden-yellow oriole hangs its nest - a skillfully woven basket - from a horizontal branch of an apple tree, birch, pine or spruce. Orioles sometimes tie the ends of two thin branches and place a nest between them.

Among the birds of our country, the most skillful nest-builder is undoubtedly the Remez. The male remez, having found a suitable flexible branch, wraps its fork with thin plant fibers - this is the basis of the nest. And then, together - a male and a female - they build a warm hanging mitten from vegetable fluff with an entrance in the form of a tube. Remez's nest is inaccessible to terrestrial predators: it hangs on thin branches, sometimes over a river or over a swamp.

In some birds, nests have a very peculiar appearance and complex structure. Living in Africa and on the island of Madagascar, the shadow heron, or hammerhead, makes a nest in the form of a ball of twigs, grass, reeds, and then closes it up with clay. The diameter of such a ball is more than a meter, and the diameter of the side tunnel that serves as the entrance to the nest is 20 cm. The Indian warbler-dressmaker sews a tube of one or two large tree leaves with vegetable “twine” and arranges a nest in it from reed fluff, cotton, wool.

The small salangan swift, living in Southeast Asia (and on the islands of the Malay Archipelago), builds a nest from its very sticky saliva. The layer of dried saliva is strong, but so thin that it shines through like porcelain. This nest is built for a long time - about 40 days. Birds attach it to a sheer rock, and it is very difficult to get such a nest. Salangan nests are well known in Chinese cooking under the name of swallow nests and are highly valued.

A relative of the salangana already known to us, the kleho swift attaches its small, almost flat nest to a horizontal branch only at the edge. A bird cannot sit on such a nest: it will break off. Therefore, the kleho incubates the egg, sitting on a branch, and only leans on it with its chest.

Chiffchaff feeds chicks that have just flown out of the nest.

The South American stove-bird builds its nest almost exclusively from clay. It has a spherical shape with a side entrance and really resembles the ovens of the local Indians. It is not uncommon for the same pair of birds to use a nest for several years. And many birds of prey have 2-3 nests, using them alternately. There are also species of birds in which several pairs make a common nest. Such, for example, are African weavers. However, in this common nest under one roof, each pair has its own nesting chamber and, in addition, there are also sleeping chambers for males. Sometimes uninvited "guests" appear in the common nest. For example, one of the chambers in the nest of weavers can be occupied by a pink parrot.

There are many species of birds in which nests are grouped very closely, in colonies. One species of American swallows builds clay bottle-shaped nests on cliffs, which are so closely molded to each other that from a distance they look like honeycombs. But more often the nests in the colony are separated from each other by a meter or more.

Remez's nest is built very skillfully.

Bird colonies in the north are huge - hundreds of thousands of pairs. These so-called bird colonies are inhabited mainly by guillemots. Small colonies are also formed by gulls and petrels nesting on the ground. Cormorants, pelicans and gannets nest in colonies on islands along the western coast of South America. Their nests have accumulated so much droppings over the centuries that it is developed and used as a valuable fertilizer (guano).

Large colonies are usually nested by those birds whose food is located near the nesting site, and, moreover, in large numbers. Cormorants on the islands of South America feed, for example, at the expense of large schools of anchovies, three-toed gulls from the bird colonies of the Barents Sea catch capelin without much difficulty. But often birds nest in colonies and fly far for food. Such birds are usually good flyers - these are swallows, swifts. Scattering in all directions, they do not interfere with each other to get food.

The forest horse arranges a real nest in the grass from dry blades of grass.

Those birds that do not have good flying abilities, and collect food by midge, grain by grain, nest far from each other, since when nesting in colonies they will not be able to collect enough food. These species of birds have feeding or nesting areas near their nests, where they do not allow competitors. The distance between the nests of these birds is 50-100 m. It is interesting that migratory birds usually return in the spring to their last year's nesting site.

All these features of bird biology should be well remembered when hanging artificial nests. If the bird is colonial, like a starling, nesting boxes (birdhouses) can be hung often, several on one tree. But this is not at all suitable for a great tit or a pied flycatcher. It is necessary that within each nesting site of tits there should be only one nest.

Chicks hatch in the nest of the redwing thrush. They are helpless for a long time, as in all nestling bird species, and fledge just before leaving the nest.

Some birds of prey, including owls, do not build nests at all, but capture ready-made strangers and behave in them like at home. A small falcon takes away nests from a rook or a raven; The saker falcon often settles in the nest of a crow or a heron.

Sometimes the nesting site is very unusual. Some small tropical birds hollow out caves for their nests in the nests of social wasps or even in termite mounds. A small loten nectary, living in Ceylon, looks for a network of a social spider in the bushes, squeezes out a recess in its densest part, makes a small lining, and the nest for her 2-3 testicles is ready.

Our sparrows often breed chicks in the walls of the nests of other, larger birds, such as a stork or a kite. Skillfully diving grebe (crested grebe) arranges a nest on the water. Sometimes its nest is fortified at the bottom of a shallow reservoir and rises as a small island, but more often it floats on the surface of the water. Surrounded by water and a coot's nest. This bird arranges even a gangway - on them the chicks can go down to the water and return to the nest. Small jacanas sometimes nest on the floating leaves of tropical aquatic plants.

Some birds make nests in human buildings. Sparrows - on the cornices and behind the window frames. Swallows nest at windows, jackdaws nest in chimneys, redstarts nest under canopies, etc. There was a case when a heater made a nest in the wing of an airplane while it was at the airfield. In Altai, a wagtail nest was found, twisted in the bow of a ferry boat. It “floated” every day from one shore to another.

Hornbills live in the tropics of Africa and South Asia. At the beginning of nesting, rhinos - male and female - choose a hollow suitable for the nest and cover up the hole. When there is a gap through which the bird can barely squeeze through, the female climbs into the hollow and already from the inside reduces the inlet so that she can only stick her beak into it. The female then lays her eggs and begins incubation. She receives food outside from the male. When the chicks hatch and grow up, the bird breaks the wall from the inside, flies out and begins to help the male get food for the growing brood. The chicks remaining in the nest restore the wall destroyed by the female and again reduce the hole. This nesting method is a good protection against snakes and predatory animals climbing trees.

No less interesting is the nesting of the so-called weed chickens, or big-footed ones. These birds live on the islands between South Asia and Australia, as well as in Australia itself. Some weed hens place their eggs in warm volcanic soil and don't take care of them anymore. Others rake up a large pile of decaying leaves mixed with sand. When the temperature inside the heap rises sufficiently, the birds tear it open, the female lays eggs inside the heap and leaves. The male restores the pile and stays near it. It does not incubate, but only monitors the temperature of the heap. If the heap cools down, it enlarges it; if it heats up, it breaks it. By the time the chicks hatch, the male also leaves the nest. Chicks start life on their own. True, they emerge from the egg with already growing plumage, and by the end of the first day they can even fly up.

In Great Grebe, as in all brood species of birds, chicks become independent very early. They have long been able to swim, but sometimes rest on the back of an adult bird.

When building a nest, not all birds have a male and a female working the same way. Males of some species arrive from wintering earlier than females and immediately start building. In some species, the male completes it, in others, the female completes the construction, or they build together. There are species of birds in which the male only carries the building material, and the female puts it in the right order. In goldfinches, for example, the male is limited to the role of an observer. In ducks, as a rule, only females build a nest, drakes do not show any interest in this.

Some birds (petrels, guillemots) lay only one egg each and nest once per summer. Small songbirds usually lay 4 to 6 eggs, and the great tit - up to 15. Many eggs are laid by birds from the hen order. The gray partridge, for example, lays 18 to 22 eggs. If for some reason the first clutch fails, the female lays another, additional one. For many songbirds, 2 or even 3 clutches per summer is normal. In the Thrush warbler, for example, the first chicks have not yet had time to fly out of the nest, when the female starts building a new nest, and the male alone feeds the first brood. In the water moorhen, the chicks of the first brood help their parents feed the chicks of the second brood.

In many species of owls, the number of eggs in a clutch and even the number of clutches varies depending on the abundance of food. Skuas, gulls, snowy owls do not hatch chicks at all if there is very little food. Crossbills feed on spruce seeds, and during the harvest years of spruce cones they nest in the Moscow region in December - January, not paying attention to frosts of 20-30 °.

Many birds begin incubation after the entire clutch has been laid. But among owls, harriers, cormorants, and thrushes, the female sits on the first laid egg. The chicks of these bird species are hatched gradually. For example, in the nest of a harrier, the eldest chick can weigh 340 g, and the youngest - the third one - only 128 g. The age difference between them can reach 8 days. Often the last chick dies due to lack of food.

As a rule, most often the female incubates the eggs. In some birds, the male replaces the female from time to time. In a few species of birds, for example, in the phalarope, painted snipe, three-fingered, only the male incubates the eggs, and the female does not show any concern for the offspring. It happens that males feed incubating females (many warblers, hornbill), in other cases, females still leave the nest and leave eggs for a while. Females of some species go hungry during incubation. For example, a female common eider does not leave the nest for 28 days. By the end of incubation, she becomes very thin, losing almost 2/3 of her weight. The female emu can starve during incubation without much harm to herself for up to 60 days.

In many passerine birds, as well as woodpeckers, kingfishers, storks, chicks are born blind, naked and helpless for a long time. Parents put food in their beaks. These birds are called chicks. As a rule, their chicks fledge in the nest and fly only after leaving the nest. Chicks of waders, ducks, gulls emerge from eggs sighted and covered with down. Having dried a little, they leave the nest and are able not only to move independently, but also to find food without the help of their parents. These birds are called brood. Their chicks grow and fledge outside the nest.

It rarely happens that an incubating bird, or especially a bird at the brood, tries to hide unnoticed at the moment of danger. Large birds, protecting their brood, attack the enemy. A swan can even break a person's arm with a blow of its wing.

More often, however, the birds "take away" the enemy. At first glance, it seems that the bird, saving the brood, deliberately distracts the attention of the enemy and pretends to be lame or shot. But in fact, the bird at this moment has two opposite aspirations-reflexes: the desire to run and the desire to pounce on the enemy. The combination of these reflexes creates the complex behavior of the bird, which seems conscious to the observer.

When the chicks have hatched from the eggs, the parents begin to feed them. During this period, only one female walks with black grouse, capercaillie and ducks with a brood. The male does not care about the offspring. Only the female incubates at the white partridge, but both parents walk with the brood and “take away” the enemy from it. However, in brood birds, parents only protect the chicks and teach them to find food. The situation is more complicated in chicks. As a rule, both parents feed here, but often one of them is more energetic and the other is lazier. So, in a large spotted woodpecker, the female usually brings food every five minutes and manages to feed the chicks three times until the male arrives with food. And in the black woodpecker, the chicks are fed mainly by the male.

In the sparrowhawk, only the male hunts. He brings prey to the female, who is inseparably at the nest. The female tears the prey into pieces and gives them to the chicks. But if the female died for some reason, the male will put the brought prey on the edge of the nest, and in the meantime the chicks will die of starvation.

Large birds cormorants usually feed chicks 2 times. per day, herons - 3 times, albatrosses - 1 time, and moreover at night. Small birds feed chicks very often. The great tit brings food to the chicks 350-390 times a day, the killer whale - up to 500 times, and the American wren - even 600 times.

The swift sometimes flies as far as 40 km from the nest in search of food. He brings to the nest not every caught midge, but a mouthful of food. He glues the prey with saliva. a lump and, having flown to the nest, deeply sticks balls of insects into the throats of the chicks. In the first days, the swifts feed the chicks in such enhanced portions up to 34 times a day, and when the chicks grow up and are ready to fly out of the nest, only 4-6 times. While the chicks of most bird species, having flown out of the nest, still need parental care for a long time and only gradually learn to find and peck prey without the help of their parents, the chicks of swifts feed and fly on their own. Moreover, departures from the nest, they often immediately rush to the south. Sometimes the parents are still hovering over the houses, collecting food for their chick, and he, feeling strong enough, is already heading south without even seeing his parents goodbye.

Birds build nests to lay their eggs there. Nests keep the eggs from the cold and from egg-loving animals. The method of building a nest depends on the habitat of the bird.

Some forest birds make nests from twigs and leaves high in trees or in plant thickets close to the ground. Others weave nests hanging from branches. Woodpeckers nest in hollows, which they make in tree trunks with their powerful beaks. Many seabirds lay their eggs simply on ledges or cliff faces. This provides the eggs with good protection, as it is difficult for enemies to reach them. Some birds dig holes in the ground, and there are those that use bird houses built by man or.

woven nest

A small remez builds an elegant nest, resembling a bag hanging from a branch. The nest is woven from fragments of plants and animal hair, for example, sheep's wool. Hole on one side only. Eggs, and then chicks, are securely hidden inside the nest.

Nest in the ground

The rabbit owl, native to America, lays its eggs in a hole in the ground. Sometimes she uses the holes left by the American groundhog or other animals, but with the help of her beak and strong paws she can dig a hole herself.

glued nest

Swifts build their nests on sheer cliffs, cave walls or even houses. The nest is built from leaves, stems and feathers glued together with sticky saliva.

Nest on the water

The coot builds a floating nest attached to reeds or other aquatic plants. The male brings dry leaves and stems, and the female builds a nest from them.

slender-billed murre

This bird lays a single egg on a bare rock ledge on the sea coast. It would seem that the egg can easily roll down, but this is not so: one end of it is sharp, and when pushed, the egg rotates in a circle, and does not roll. All six families of the woodpecker order spend most of their lives in and near trees and build their nests in hollows. Most of these birds have strong claws with which they grab onto branches and trunks. Short, rounded wings make it easier for them to fly between trees. They have large, powerful beaks. Jacamars and honeybees feed mainly on insects, but most of the birds of this order eat both insects and fruits.

long-billed toucan

The long beak helps the toucan to get fruit growing at the ends of branches too thin to hold birds of such a mass. The toucan grabs the fruit with the end of its beak, and then, as it were, throws it into the throat.