The common buzzard or buzzard is the simplest and at the same time the most remarkable bird of prey of our forests. A simple buzzard with its unassuming appearance, it is small, not very strong, not very clever, and not very brave. And the buzzard is remarkable for the benefits it brings to people.
Fig. 13. Common Buzzard
The buzzard is the most common predator, it firmly occupies the first place in our forests in number among its fellows in the squad. About 3-4 thousand pairs of buzzards live in the Moscow Region, which is almost half (45%) of the total population of all feathered predators. Let us note, for comparison, that in Great Britain, about 10 thousand pairs of buzzards were counted on a territory 5 times larger. Above the fields and forests, above the meadows, above the forest edges and clearings and woods they circle in the summer sky, or rather, buzzards soar. The silhouettes of these birds are soft and rounded: the wings and tail are wide, not long. The color is brownish, inconspicuous, and besides, some birds are darker, while others are brighter, and still others are completely yellow. Only the voice is noteworthy in the buzzard - its loud, sticky "kyaya-kyaya-kyaya" noticeably looks like a cat's meow. He and the buzzard were nicknamed for being bulky, annoying screams, as if he were begging for something, he was crooking. The size of the buzzard is a little more than a crow, but it looks somehow more impressive.
In our country, the buzzard is very widespread: in the nesting time it is absent only in the tundras, in the remote Eastern Siberian taiga and in the treeless spaces of the south. In winter, the buzzard flies away from us.
The number of the buzzard is not the same everywhere. In the taiga, for example, it is small, and in the forest-steppe and preserved forests of Central Europe it sometimes nests up to two or three pairs per 1 km 2 of forest (and in our central areas up to one pair of 5-10 km 2 of forest).
The buzzard nests in a wide variety of forests, but always close to the edges, large glades or clearings. It makes the nests quite large - up to a meter with a little across, and it always covers them with green branches of pine, spruce, aspen and birch. Especially a lot of green buzzards train during egg laying or hatching. But sometimes buzzards bring twigs to the nest with adult chicks already. And we must see the perplexed physiognomy of the hungry kanyuchat, carefully considering the green twig brought by the parent. The most adventurous of them even begin to peck at this branch, but soon they are convinced that the birch leaves are not as tasty as mice and voles. And they know a lot about voles! After all, the main prey of buzzards, in other years constituting more than 90% of their diet, are mouse-like rodents. And among them in the first place most often stands one of the most serious agricultural pests in the middle lane - an ordinary vole. Of the other feeds, moles, shrews, frogs, lizards, chicks and young birds have certain significance for buzzards. Occasionally, among the flyouts, the chick puffs (two or three ryabchon for the summer) fall into the clutches of buzzards. But there were game protection enthusiasts who considered this “damage” sufficient to declare a buzzard - this cruellest enemy of mice and voles - outlawed. Ornithologists even had to carry out special research, determining the magnitude of this “damage” to the hunting economy. They found that even in game-rich hunting (where there is little game, buzzards don’t touch it at all) and even during low numbers of the main food - mouse-like rodents - no more than 1-2% of young wild chicken are caught.
And yet, in the requirements of hunting managers to identify the hunting value of the buzzard, there was its own logic. The fact is that the number of rodents, as is well known, varies greatly from year to year. And about once every 4 years, mouse-like rodents almost completely disappear from our fields (many books and articles have been written about the causes of this phenomenon, but there is no need to discuss them here). Okhtovedov in this whole story was primarily interested in this question: what do buzzards eat when there are no rodents, and in such cases do they turn to getting young chickens? Now these doubts can be answered quite definitely - no, they do not.
In such cases, the main "substitute" for mouse-like rodents are frogs, which in some years account for up to 70% of the production of individual pairs of buzzards. And the chicks as a food understand perfectly. The author was convinced of this more than once, watching the intimate life of the broods of hiding-nestings built on trees, 4-6 meters from the buzzard's nest for hours. If you had seen how much commotion begins on the nest when the head of the family appears with a vole in its claws. For some reason, the female buzzard rushes wildly at her spouse and, after a short dump, literally takes away his prey. Why such aggression is undertaken - for us still remains incomprehensible, since even in the absence of a female, the male buzzard never gave the slightest reason to suspect him of trying to conceal the prey from his own family. The chicks, too, as far as possible, participate in the dump, striving first to get through to the tasty piece. When the buzzard chicks are still small, they show their interest in loud demanding shouts and persistent attempts to attract the attention of the mother. When young buzzards grow up, they do not wait until someone feeds them. The buzzards rush swiftly toward the prey and begin a light fight, until some lucky one finally succeeds in swallowing a vole. After that, the world reigns in the family, as if by magic. A moment ago, disheveled and desperate rivals immediately. same turn into bosom friends. They even straighten each other feathers.
Fig. 14. Buzzard on the nest
Young buzzards of a male who brought a frog meet in a completely different way. True, at first on the nest the same din rises. But only its inhabitants will find out what dad brought them, the interest in mining immediately dies away. The nestlings take turns inspecting the frog, even touch it or, for some reason, shift it from place to place, but they stubbornly donate their prey. The female also remains indifferent to such an offering. She immediately starts to shout at the male often-often, with some scandalous intonations, not calming down until he flies away for new prey.
Table IV. Common Buzzard
And already completely icy indifference meets the head of the family when he brings. a toad (it happens to him rarely, but it happens). And what a buzzard looks like at this time! The author is well aware of the inadmissibility of anthropomorphism * when describing the behavior of animals, but you can find out from dozens of small details of behavior, for example, that the puppy is guilty and the cat is pleased with something. So, believe it or not, but when the buzzard male brings a toad, he is very ashamed! And he keeps somehow guilty, and tries to slip away from the nest unnoticed. Yes, he has something to be ashamed of: the toad's gastronomic merit, apparently, is useless. And the skin of toads is durable - not only the chicks, but also adult buzzards do not immediately manage to tear it. In addition, these amphibians are surprisingly tenacious, having been in the claws of a predator, the toads do not die, but often begin to crawl along the nest, eventually falling off of it. Having flopped from an 8-10 meter height, they again manage to survive.
* (Anthropomorphism is an attempt to attribute intelligent, conscious actions, human emotions to animals.)
This kind of pictures from life can be seen at a time when buzzards have plenty of food. Quite different is observed in the famine years when there are no mouse-like rodents in the fields. Here bugs are not mentioned either from frogs, or even from frogs. Yes, and "lunch" battles between chicks at this time are becoming more violent and often for many of them end in tragedy.
Here one can touch upon a rather common phenomenon among birds of prey known as "cannibalism" *. Its essence lies in the fact that in the years of an acute shortage of food, some of the brood chicks are destroyed by the parents or brothers themselves, the same chicks, but stronger ones. Usually two or three chicks hatch in the buzzard's nest. In the years of abundance of mouse-like rodents, all the chicks fly, and in the famine years - one, and even then not always.
* (Cannibalism - atrocity, cruelty, barbarism.)
While on duty at the nests, the author has repeatedly seen relations between the chicks, which can not be called fraternal. In all predators, the chicks hatch in turn in 1-2 days. Therefore, some chicks in the brood are larger (older), while others are much smaller (younger), and with age this difference either erases (if the food is abundant) or increases (if the food is not enough). And this happens because the older, stronger chick captures the best pieces, pushes the younger ones back, allowing them to eat only when they are fully saturated. The behavior of a strong chick is all the more aggressive and cruel to younger members of the family, the less feed parents bring.
Finally, at some stage, the simple repulsion of the youngest chick from food and occasional strikes with its beak are replaced by systematic, purposeful pursuit. We had to see how the older chick is already twice as big as his brother, stubbornly chasing the younger one in the nest, trying to hit him with his beak on the head or back. When parents appeared with food, they even developed quite a certain tactic. The elder nestling, for example, rushed first of all not to the prey, but to the younger one, trying to drive him to the far edge of the nest. The younger nestling, too, rushed not at all to the food, but behind the back of the female, from where he made his way under her belly and, not noticed by her brother, managed to snatch a piece from the prey. The female looked at all this completely indifferently, even if the carnage between the chicks unfolded before her eyes. The finale was legitimate on this nest: the younger chick eventually died, and the female fed his corpse to the older one.
What cruelty! - a different reader will think. Yes, indeed, the custom is not from humane. But let's look at this phenomenon more broadly, so to speak “from the point of view” of the species as a whole. It is known that the situation with feed in birds varies from year to year very sharply. And to predict whether the year will be hungry or full, the birds of prey cannot.
It is here that one wonders: what is the best for the species - to grow one healthy gathering per family or three sick and sickly chicks in a hungry year? The answer should be simple. One big guy is much more useful. The following question arises: why not buzzards to lay one and not two or three eggs? And if the year is full? Adult parent birds can grow three young birds, and only one egg is laid. Again unprofitable for the existence of the species. So it turns out that two or three eggs are laid as if "calculated" for the best, optimal conditions. If there is little food, cannibalism introduces amendments, which allows the number of chicks to be brought into line with the available food resources.
It turns out that cruel cannibalism among birds of prey is one of the devices for the survival of the species in constantly changing feeding conditions.
There are, of course, other devices for this: the ability to change fodder, the relocation of a part of predators to food-rich places, etc.
But back to the buzzards. Lack of appetite buzzards do not suffer. Special calculations have shown that a family of buzzards eats an average of 300-400 g of food per day, that is, about 10-12 pieces of animals taken. It was noted that with an abundance of mouse-like rodents, the catch of these animals increases markedly - up to 15-20 and even 30 pieces per day.
So let's estimate what this side of the activity of all buzzards of any area looks like. According to the most modest estimates, in the year of the abundance of rodents, each bulls of noses exterminate no less than 500 voles, the most important pests of agriculture, for the summer. The size of their harm is difficult to determine precisely, of course, but, without going into complex calculations, one can confidently say that each vole eats about 1 kg of grain per season. It is not difficult to figure out that only one family of buzzards per summer saves about half a ton of grain! But after all, in the fields of each collective farm in our middle lane, a dozen or even more pairs of buzzards are hunting, which are already guarding and saving several tons of bread. Is this not an aid to the national economy!
In the hunting habits of the buzzard there is little remarkable. A variety of feed causes the buzzard to be a generalist, because each prey "requires" a special approach. But, owning a wide range of hunting techniques, the buzzard, however, did not achieve any outstanding results in any of them. He is not so impetuous as a peregrine falcon, not so strong as eagles, and not as clever as a hawk. However, such is the fate of most universals in nature, and they all adapt more quickly to all kinds of changes. We will not go far for examples. The buzzard and the kite are our universal predators, the most universal (especially in relation to food). So in the European part of our country, they occupy a solid first place among their predatory brethren, making up almost 2 /3 their total number.
So how does a buzzard still hunt? His favorite manner is to hover over the fields, looking out for 30-50 m of gapered voles. When flying like this over a field, a spacious clearing or cutting, the buzzard occasionally stops and hangs in the air, fluttering with wings like a kestrel. And it can not hang as long as a trowel. Hanging like that for a second or the other, the buzzard folds its wings and falls like a stone down onto its prey.
Another common way for a buzzard to hunt is long duty somewhere on a branch or pole along a road, a clearing, near a small clearing, or simply on the edge. Here he watches for red voles, noisy gatherings of thrushes, nimble shrews and even underground inhabitants — moles lining their surface passages or. getting out for any reason on daylight. In the years of small number of mouse-like rodents, buzzards arrange their guard posts in small puddles, in the valleys of rivulets, near ponds, where they collect tribute from the frog kingdom.
Sometimes buzzards do not watch for, and seek out prey, flying on light forest or along the edge. From such "inspections" they return with the most diverse, sometimes unexpected prey. There were cases when buzzards brought small, but very predatory and dexterous caress, prickly hedgehogs and even poisonous vipers.
The buzzard of a person is afraid - it can be seen that the campaigns against “harmful” predators have taught him something. But it must be said that not every man is afraid of buzzards. Here, for example, shepherds passing near the nest of the buzzard, along with their herd and dogs, do not frighten him at all. They got used gradually and to our bulky structures erected right next to their nest. If in the first days of observation from the hut we were afraid to move in them so as not to frighten the bird, by the middle of the feeding period, the buzzards busy feeding did not pay any attention to the rustling of notebooks, camera clicks and even occasionally to the coughing of the observer. So, if the buzzards are not insulted (and should not be insulted in any way), then you can regain the confidence in the person of this guardian of our fields,
Our common buzzard also has relatives who belong to the same genus, but belong to different species. Most of them in North and South America - 18 species. In our country, they are much smaller - only 3 species. In the tundra and forest-tundra of Eurasia and North America lives
Natural habitat
It should be noted that the population of such birds of prey that lead a daytime life, like the buzzard, can be divided into two parts, nomads and sedentary birds. For nesting of these predators, the territory of Europe is preferable (the exception in this case is the circumpolar regions). In Asia, this bird can be found in a temperate zone. In anticipation of the cold weather, birds, whose main location is Asian countries, are migrating south.
The bird hunting ground is not only an open area (fields / meadows), but also quite dense forests. As a rule, in this case, for nesting, the buzzard chooses tall trees with a powerful and dense crown.
Bird guard
In some European countries, Common Buzzard refers to bird species protected by law. However, not long ago, the buzzard fired back, as it was believed that this bird of prey is a natural game fighter. In fact, this statement is partially true, as the buzzard attacks sick, weak or wounded animals. In fact, the common buzzard plays the role of a voluntary forest nurse, which helps maintain the health of entire populations of a wide variety of animals and birds (rabbits, hares, pheasants, and others). Also bucket brings considerable benefits to the agricultural sector through the effective destruction of harmful rodents, spoiling crops and crops.
Buzzard lifestyle
For hunting the buzzard uses several methods. Most often the buzzard in order to look out for its prey, sits on some elevation and surveys the area adjacent to it. Заметив добычу, птица резко срывается с места для того, чтобы схватить жертву острыми когтями.
Другой способ охоты этой хищной птицы подразумевает многочасовое парение в воздухе. Наметив свою жертву, канюк быстро подлетает к ней для того, чтобы схватить.
Mainly this bird of prey, whose weight reaches 0.8-1.2 kg, in the daytime hunts for such living creatures as small mammals - rats, field mice. Also often injured hares, young birds, snakes and lizards become prey of the buzzard.
Buzzard structure features
The bird's head is rather large and slightly flat. Due to the sufficient width of the wings, the buzzard can soar in the air for many hours, which helps him to see the desired prey (wingspan - up to 130 cm). The eyes of a bird are widely spaced, having an orange iris or a saturated yellow color.
The plumage of the buzzard is characterized by a rather changeable color. The main colors are brown shades. The sternum of a bird has a light color, as well as the inner side of the wings. The tail feathers in the tail section are distinguished by a reddish brown color with characteristic stripes having a transverse arrangement.
The buzzard has quite strong and large paws, fledged to the boarder Sharp claws on the paws are used to capture prey. The bird's beak also has its own characteristic features - black with yellowish ceres, hook-shaped. The tail is rather short, in flight it opens with a wide fan. The life expectancy of a buzzard is up to 8 years.
Related species
Today it is known about several dozen species of the Buzzard, which is often confused with eagles (about 30 species). Note that the silhouette of the buzzard really resembles an eagle; nevertheless, the buzzard is significantly inferior to the king in size. The main weapon of the buzzard in the hunt for small animals is sharp claws and a strong bird's beak.
Breeding of birds of prey
If the common buzzard created a pair, then it is for life. With the onset of spring, you can notice the unique marriage flights of the buzzard. This spectacle can hit anyone - in the air birds perform unbelievable acrobatic stunts.
At the beginning of marriage games, partners have been in the air for quite a long time, while emitting characteristic loud sounds. After that, the male presents to the female a boar a small animal caught during the hunt or a sprig of a plant, thereby giving it signs of his attention.
The created pair builds its nest, as a rule, in the crown of a large and tall tree, mainly entering the cluster of dense vegetation located on the slopes of the rocks (shrub thickets). The design of the nest is quite massive - the diameter of the "hearth" of the buzzard reaches one meter.
The buzzard uses thick branches, knots as a material for building a nest. The inner part is lined with moss, grass, sprigs of heather. Often a pair of buzzards uses one built nest for several years. Another feature of the buzzard's behavior is that on its territory these birds of prey can build several nests, but only one of them is used for breeding.
The laying of eggs by the female is carried out with the beginning of the warm period (spring, summer: from March to June). As a rule, the average number of eggs laid is 2-4 pcs. Pockmarked eggs are white with gray-brown patches. Hatching is performed during the month by both parents of future chicks.
After the chicks appear, the female buzzard spends most of the time with them, warming its offspring. The task of the male at this time is to provide the extended family with food. As a rule, it is the female who is first fed with the food brought by the father of the family; the chicks only get what remains after it. After a few weeks, both parents begin to hunt and get food to feed their offspring.
When the chicks reach two months of age, they begin to learn to fly, after which, as a rule, they leave the nest. However, for about two months they remain under the strict supervision of their parents.
With the onset of autumn, parents will drive offspring from their territory. Sexual maturity of the buzzards comes when the age of the bird reaches 2-3 years.
Interesting facts about buzzard, buzzard ordinary
- The number of populations of buzzards living in a certain area directly depends on how attractive it is for these birds for its feeding characteristics - this factor is very important when choosing a place for nesting.
- Most of the created pairs of these beautiful birds of prey begin the process of breeding their offspring only if the territory in which they nest abounds with the necessary food, in particular, small rodents. If there is not enough food, then in this case some of the foxes in this year do not hatch their offspring, the rest, if they lay eggs, then the latter in the clutch are much smaller than usual.
- One of the favorite resting places of buzzards is high-voltage pylons. Often, this fact is the cause of the death of many birds due to electric shock. Therefore, at present, supports are installed that are absolutely safe for birds of prey and, accordingly, can prevent their death.
Who are buzzards?
As noted above, ornithologists call the buzzards a subfamily (genus) of birds of prey, representing the family of hawks. Scientists are still systematizing these birds, collecting them, what is called, bit by bit. Therefore, the classification of buzzards is constantly changing. For example, not so long ago the genera of birds, which were previously generally assigned to a separate subfamily of the Eagles, entered this subfamily.
Spread
The bird of prey, the buzzard, is found throughout Europe, as well as in Asia. Its favorite habitats are woodlands, limited from the north to the Arctic Circle, and from the south - to the treeless deserts of Central and Central Asia and Iran. As can be seen, the distribution area of these predators from the Old World leaves much to be desired.
Buzzard is a proud bird!
Despite its simple name, the common buzz or buzzard is not a simple bird or even a granivore. This proud predator represents the family of hawks. A buzzard cannot be called a purely migratory bird, because pride and iron restraint do not allow these thieves to be afraid of cold weather and, as a result, fly away to the south. Only one subspecies of these creatures is migratory - the small bucket. From the middle zone of our country, these birds move to the southern regions of Asia and Africa.
Appearance
The buzzard is a medium sized bird. The length of her body ranges from 50 to 58 centimeters. Wingspan can reach 1.3 meters. This predator weighs from 450 grams to 1.4 kilograms. Unlike many other animals, female buzzards, as a rule, are larger in size than males. The color of these birds is different. While some individuals have fawn feathers, others are dark brown.
By the way, it is easy to confuse a buzzard with its close relative - the Rough-legged Buzzard or with a distant relative - the Common Carp. The last birds generally copy the buzzard's color in order to protect against their enemies, the goshawk hawks. Young animals, as a rule, have more variegated colors. Here is such a colorful buzz bird! The voice of these feathered robbers has an unpleasant nasal shade, resembling the mournful cats meow.
Buzzard colors
Now let's dwell on the colors of these birds of prey. As mentioned above, the color of their feathers can be completely different. Ornithologists notice that it’s almost impossible to see two identical buzzards in nature! Some buzzards are colored brown or black and have transverse stripes at their tails. There are also birds whose back and chest have a dirty-brown color. At the same time, their other parts of the body are painted in gray-brown colors and diluted with dark spots.
In nature, there are also light brown sarichs with pure black specks and transverse tail stripes. But the buzzards are not limited to this. Again, the buzzard is not only a bird of prey, but also multicolored! For example, some birds have pale yellow legs, bright yellow ceres, and a dark tip of their beak. Their cornea is colored in a reddish-brown color, which grows gray with age. Such an unusual buzzard bird.
What feed bucket?
Since buzzards are predators, their diets are reduced to animal feeds: voles, gophers, rats, rabbits, small birds, etc. Ornithologists have discovered that in some cases, common buzzards can eat carrion (animal carcasses). Hamsters, frogs, and even small hares also eat buzzards. Often attacked by snakes.
To eat this or that mouse, this predator needs to hunt exclusively in open spaces. To do this, the bird can soar for hours slowly in the air or even hunt from an ambush located on some hill. In principle, in this way any buzzard can get food. The bird, the description of which we are considering here, is also distinguished by its peculiar behavior.
Behavior and lifestyle
Representatives of the subfamily, or genus Buzzard, can be recognized by their characteristic landing. Especially brightly it shows the buzzard. Usually he cringes and bends one paw under him. Scientists say that in such a situation, ordinary buzzards do two things at the same time: they rest and vigilantly look out for their prey, carefully looking around the neighborhood.
As noted above, the buzzard is a soaring bird. This predator flies for a long time and is completely silent. Having inspected any mouse or gopher, the buzzard falls down like a stone, firmly pressing its wings to the body. In order not to crash to the ground, the bird spreads its wings directly in front of the ground, flies a certain distance in such a position, after which it ruthlessly grabs its prey.
The buzzard is a bird whose scream is practically not confused with anyone else. Complaining and prolonged "meow" - this is the "business card" of these feathered robbers! By the way, linguists believe that the verb “moan” originated precisely from the cat's manner of buzzards to utter their nasal sounds: when, for example, a child long and extensively solicits something from his parents, they usually say that he moans.
Breeding
The mating season at the buzzards begins in late April. Like many other living creatures, battles take place between the males for the location of the female. Formed canyon pairs are building new nests or strengthening old ones. Usually their nesting place is located at a height of 6 to 18 meters above ground level. Near the nests are necessarily deciduous or coniferous trees. Usually clutches of buzzards consist of 4-5 eggs of pale green color with brown spots.
Only females are engaged in incubating. Males bring food at this time. The incubation period of eggs lasts just over a month. The young are born at the beginning of summer. Newly hatched chicks are already covered with greyish down. Both parents feed them for 1.5 months. By the end of August, the chicks begin an independent life. Curious is the fact that if, for one reason or another, the first brood did not take place, the females of common buzzards can, with little effort, postpone another clutch per season.
What is useful bucket?
Common Buzzard is a useful bird. In one day, she eats up to 35 small rodents. If you translate this value into more serious numbers, you get about 11,000 rodents per year. Without a doubt, the feathery robber thus has a great benefit to the environment and agriculture, because it destroys harmful animals. By the way, if there are quite a lot of mice, then the foxes in general cease to turn their attention to another animal. Here he is such a useful assistant - this buzzard!
The bird (pictures are presented in the article) is popular among bird watchers and lovers not only as a rodent exterminator, but also as a viper’s killer! Unfortunately, nature has not rewarded these birds with immunity from the poison of vipers. Therefore, sometimes the snake and the buzzard exterminate each other.
Nevertheless, in most cases a feathered robber emerges from this deadly fight. Ornithologists say that such courage and ingenuity is inherent in all members of the genus Buzzards. In captivity, these birds show sophisticated cunning.
Rough and Common Buzzard
Buzzard or Common Buzzard (Mice) - a bird of prey from the family of hawks, inhabiting the forests of Europe and Asia.
The buzzard does not belong to migratory birds, only one subspecies changes place of residence for the winter migrating to Africa from Russia - small bucket. It is he who is found on the territory of our country.
Externally, micellers resemble all hawkish representatives, and they have inherent features:
- An average body length of about 55 cm
- The color is dark brown, but young chicks are painted more variegated,
- On the wings below there are light spots.
- The voice resembles a cat mewing.
A mouse can be easily confused with another specimen of the family, the reed buzzard. But in the latter, the lower part is noticeably lighter, and its legs are covered with feathers to the toes, which is why it received such a name.
Nothing in nature is just like that, and this similarity is not without purpose. The Rough-legged Buzzard is specially disguised as an ordinary Buzzard, to protect it from the more dangerous predator of the Goshawk, the largest species of hawks.
What eats buzzard?
Whom does a predator hunt? These are mainly small mammals:
And also other birds:
Seeing his victim from afar, the buzzard presses its wings to the body and rapidly falls down. And in order not to break, straightens them before the ground and grabs the loot.
Sarichs use their long clawed paws to kill an animal, and quickly cut off their food with a sharp hooked beak. Sometimes they were noticed eating.
None of the animals has time to escape, caught in the eyes of a predator. Only fast swallows can transmit a signal of danger and warn their own.
Human benefits
An interesting fact, which few people know. It is believed that the verb "moan" appeared because of this particular bird, or rather its ability to make a nasal, drawn-out, aching sound, similar to the one that sometimes spoiled children elicit something desired.
This bird has always been considered magical, protected by man. Her appearance predicted a good harvest earlier, and not without purpose. Feathery eats rodents that destroy crops. They dig holes and passages between the roots, eat plants.
Do not give birds to multiply and orthopteran pests of fields and gardens. These include:
These insects are also included in their diet. All gardeners and farmers know perfectly well how hard it is to exterminate them. Therefore, they never drive micelles from the landings and even wait for them to appear.
Preservation of the form
But not always was such a reverent attitude to the bird. Not so long ago all the birds of prey were destroyed.
It was believed that they harm the hunting grounds:
- Exterminate chicks
- Little hares
- Birds eating insects.
Therefore, in Russia in the early 20th century, even established a monetary reward for their murder. This led to the fact that over the course of several years several thousand representatives died a year, including the buzzards. Their number has declined several dozen times.
Extermination continued until 1964, when people realized that they were making a mistake, disrupting the order of the local ecosystem. Rodents and insects began to multiply rapidly, which could not but have tangible consequences.
In January 1964 a decree was issued banning the capture and destruction of large birds and small buzzards. It was announced their worldwide preservation.
It helped and today nothing threatens the buzzards and other representatives of the hawks. The population has recovered, with the exception of very rare representatives. They are still caught poaching ways to sell and entertain tourists.
The buzzard is a beautiful, smart and strong buzzard, difficult to see and recognize. But there is a characteristic sign, by it you can understand that he is in front of you. Having sat down on a stone or a branch, he will surely hold one paw under him and will slightly cringe, as if he is cold.
