What is this bird nuthatch common and where winters

Nuthatch is a unique bird. She is the only one of the feathered drevolaz able to move upside down on a vertical trunk.

What does a nuthatch bird look like? This little short-tailed bird. Her pale-ash color in the upper part of the body has a bluish tint. The plumage of the abdomen is white.

Nuthatch is a small bird. Her weight is between fifteen and twenty six grams. The body length is thirteen-sixteen centimeters, and the wing is 7.3-9.2 cm. Wings in span reach 25-28 cm.

The bird nuthatch (photo see below) has a rather long and straight beak. The black stripe passing through the eyes gives it a curious and crafty look.

There are practically no seasonal differences in body color of a bird. In addition, the soft and dense plumage of young individuals does not change in the later period of life. Only in adult nuthatching, the bottom of the body has a brownish tinge, and the strip going through the eyes and the gray top becomes brownish. After the molt, which takes place in the autumn, the differences disappear. And no one can say, in front of him a young or adult bird is a nuthatch.

The description of the amazing tree-catcher does not bypass the side of his leg. Thanks to them, the bird moves along the vertical trunks like a living mercury ball. Yes, the mastery of the nuthatch in premath becomes possible thanks to the legs. They are relatively short, but have unusually long fingers with very sharp and curved claws. This allows the bird to capture a significant surface of the tree trunk. Between the tips of the nails, located on the back and middle fingers of the feathery drevolaz, a long distance. Its value is practically the entire length of the feathered body. Due to this, the nuthatch can calmly hold onto the tree trunk upside down.

Feathered Fidget

Nuthatch is not a shy bird. She can let a person walk a few steps closer to her. At the same time, it does not cease to produce a characteristic sound “tweet-tweet” or “tweet-tout”, while examining the trunks and branches of trees. A curious little bird can even come close to a person. However, she pretends that she stumbled upon him by chance. The nuthatch expresses its "annoyance" with ringing whistlers "sit-sit", similar to the cry of the driver: "Save-and-and-well!". At the same time, with genuine slyness, the wood-frog looks out from behind the trunks of trees.

The nuthatch is always cheerful and tireless. He is agile, lively and active. In this bird, like woodpecker characters and tits. No wonder the German name of this bird is “Spechtmeise”. Translated, it means woodpecker.

Habitats

You can meet the nuthatch across the entire forest zone from Western Europe to the Far East. It avoids the regions of the Far North, but in the southern direction there lives an amazing dart frog right up to the tropics.

A special type of nuthatch is common in Western Siberia. It has some differences from the Scandinavian subspecies found on European territory. The Siberian nuthatch does not have chestnut-colored feathers on the sides.

The bird prefers to settle in floodplain and island forests. Sometimes it is met in the southern steppe regions. In the Republic of Altai and in the Altai Territory, the nuthatch dwells in mixed and coniferous forests located near Ob and Biya, as well as in tape forests and pegs on the Bie-Chumysh hill. You can meet surprisingly Drevolaz in the mountains. Nuthatch lives in forests, located at an altitude of 2000-2200 m above sea level.

In the spring and summer, the food of the nuthatch is insects. With pleasure it eats antlers and diptera, caterpillars and butterflies, bedbugs and leaf beetles, weevils, and other beetles. Do not hesitate and spiders. As a rule, the nuthatch gathers its feed on large branches, as well as in cracks and crevices of tree trunks. But sometimes Ptah has to chisel the bark in order to extract insects and larvae from under it. Mining the flesh of an acorn or hazelnut, the nuthatch can push them into the crack of the bark or press it against the trunk with its foot. After that, he smashes his prey with blows of a strong beak. Spring and autumn nuthatch can be found on the ground. He descends from a tree trunk in order to search in the fallen leaves of insects. In the autumn period, the tree frog eats berries, for example, bird cherry.

Is nuthatch a migratory bird or not? If not, what does it eat in the cold season? Nuthatch is a bird wintering in native places. In order to survive the hungry period, this restless ptah stores food for the future. Starting in early autumn, the nuthatch shoves cedar nuts, acorns, as well as the fruits of linden, hazel and beech trees into cracks and niches located in tree trunks. In the storerooms of the thriving birdies, you can find various seeds and maple lionfish. This work ends only in December.

Is nuthatch a migratory bird or not? Ornithologists answered this question a long time ago. Amazing tree frogs winter in their native forest. They do not fly south. The bird is sedentary. However, in the autumn and winter, it is found in various forests, as well as in the steppe zone. There she masters the territory of bayrachnyh and field shelter arrays, gardens and riverine thickets.

It is there in these seasons that the nuthatch dwells. A migratory bird or not a unique tree dwarf? No, ornithologists refer it to the group of partially wandering. As soon as spring comes, birds migrate back to mixed and deciduous forests.

Nuthatch species usually grow in hollows of trees. The entrance to its dwelling is a household ptah covered with dung, mud or clay. The nuthatch wears this building material in its beak and sticks it around the hole until the notch diameter drops to about thirty-five millimeters.

The litter in the nest Drevolaz is made of loose and thick layer of pine bark scales. Sometimes there are up to two and a half thousand. The bark is a great heat insulator. In addition, it rarely infest parasites. Thus, in the hollow of the nuthatch is comfortable, hygienic and warm.

Breeding

Nuthatch nestlings leave their native nest very early. This usually happens either at the end of May or at the beginning of June.

The laying of the nuthatch has from four to twelve eggs decorated with reddish-brown specks. Their brooding is done exclusively by the female. The male regularly brings her food. Appearing chicks parents feed from twenty-two to twenty-five days. This is pretty hard work. During the day, it is necessary to bring food to the chicks up to three hundred and eighty times. In this case, parents care about the hygiene of the nest. At least fifty-sixty times a day, they take out capsules covered with elastic mucus, replacing nightly nipples with small nuthatch.

Nuthatch in captivity

If an amazing tree frog is caught and caged, then he quickly gets used to the new conditions. Nuthatch can be placed in the same cage with squeaky, linnets or flakes. There he will become one of the funniest indoor birds. You can watch him for hours. The nuthatch will not cease to amaze with its skillful lasagna along the bark of a tree placed in a cage, as well as with some tumbling on the perches.

The bird will need to give a mixture of hemp or other seeds with formic eggs. As a treat for ptahi, pine nuts are perfect.

Winter birds. Nuthatch

The nuthatch is always in motion. It is not known how and where he rests during the day and whether he rests at all. He lives on his feet, in movement along the trunks of healthy, sick and dead trees, and it seems that he uses his wings only to fly from tree to tree sometimes.

That is why it is so difficult to assess the flight abilities of this bird, but movements along the trunks are so confident and swift that not everyone can grab them with a look. Nuthatch can jump along the trunk or branch in any position: sideways, back down, head down. At the same time, the soft short tail does not support him like a woodpecker, and the way vertically up is much more difficult for him than for a woodpecker.

Nuthatch prefers to fly up to the branches of the crown and descend the trunk to the root, but not jumping upside down, but as if falling, clinging the claws of both paws to the bark, hanging on one leg, twisting it back and propping the other. This descent is similar to jumping with the next change of legs, its trajectory is expressed not by a straight line, but by zigzags.

The mobility of the nuthatch is combined with amazing courage. He does not hesitate to go into any trap, but, having fallen into a trap, he is not lost from fear, and while holding a seed in his beak, he tries to squeeze with him between the rods. Take him in hand, and then he will not release the prey. In forest villages, the nuthatch often flies through the open air vents into the dwelling and quickly rummages around the room in the hope of profit from something edible. Such brave souls in a few minutes can be taught to sit on the hand and take a treat from the palm.

But this does not mean that hunger gives the bird reckless courage. Not. Nuthatch does not show fear of a person even at the nesting hollow, allowing you to almost closely watch your work. Liveliness and courage give the nuthatch independence, which is reinforced by extraordinary thriftiness. Most of our resident birds, even in winter, live, as they say, one day, without storing food for future use at its super-abundance.

There are some wintering birds that can stockpile, which can hide the excess prey until the next time, and only a few prepare food for difficult times on purpose. A couple of nuthatches, who live on their site without a flight, is engaged in harvesting in the fall. Birds are looking for fallen ripe hazel nuts, beech trees, linden nuts, lion maple trees, and hide them in the bark or under the bark of trees. Each find - separately.

They do not have any special storage rooms, but it’s impossible to remember every secret, of course, and in winter, the nuthatch finds everything that was hidden, as it were, anew, using a common family reserve. The pair will not allow a third bird of its own species to the site, but tits, jays, woodpeckers, and squirrels do not hesitate to profit from their stocks, albeit accidentally, but with impunity.
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General characteristics of the bird

The common nuthatch (sitta) is a bird of modest size. Outwardly, he resembles a titmouse. Body weight, depending on the type is 10-26 grams, and length - 25-28 centimeters. Life expectancy is 10-11 years.

Describing how the nuthatch looks like, let's start with the color of its plumage. Top torso painted in light ashy with the transition to blue. Tummy bird white. On the head in the area of ​​the eyes across there is a characteristic black strip. Feathered has a short tail, a long elegant beak and slender legs. Differences in age at the nuthatch is almost non-existent. An adult individual can be distinguished from young stock only by the presence of brown feathers in the lower part of the body.

The legs are a unique part of the nuthatch body. It is this anatomical structure of the paws that makes it an unsurpassed drevolaz. The toes of the bird are very long, and at the ends there are sharp tenacious claws. With their help, feathered effortlessly held on a vertical branch. The distance between the middle and rear fingers is almost equal to the total body length.

Distribution and area

The habitats of the common nuthatch are quite extensive. It is found in the western and northern parts of the Old World, in the Far East. The Far North is a region that the bird avoids due to climatic discomfort.

For nesting birds choose island coniferous forests, located on a hill and in the mountains. The maximum height above sea level, where the presence of the nuthatch is recorded, is 2,200 km.

This bird is also found in cities. Here dwarfs choose parks, squares, as well as gardens and suburban areas. Neighborhood in the same area with a person provides a sufficient amount of food to birds.

Varieties and their names

Ornithologists distinguish several types of these woodworms:

• ordinary,
• Corsican,
• baby nuthatch (weighs only 10 grams),
• red chest (sitta krueperi),
• Canadian,
• caroline
• black-skinned
• Przhevalsky's nuthatch,
• big rocky (sitta tephronota),
• small rocky (sitta neumayer).

All of them are slightly different in size and hues of plumage in various areas of the body.

In the forests of Western Siberia lives a separate species of nuthatches. It differs from its Scandinavian kinsman living throughout Europe. In the plumage of the Siberian nuthatch on the sides there is no brown color.

All species move equally well along the trunk perpendicularly head down.

Gastronomic preferences

Insects are the favorite food of the drevolaz. In the spring and summer he does not have a deficit in butterflies, larvae, caterpillars, beetles. In the diet of birds includes spiders. For food, the birds masterfully process the bark of the trees, where they find the parasites hiding under it.

In the autumn, the nuthatch's menu is complemented by berries, nuts and cereals that have ripened by this time, which it also eats.

Speaking of whether the nuthatch is a migratory bird or not, the answer is no. This feathered winters in their native lands. Survival in the hungry and cold months provides her with a supply of food, which she begins to harvest in the fall.

For the winter nuthatch collects:

• pine nuts,
• fruits of linden, oak, beech, hazel,
• seeds,
• maple lionfish,
• berries.

The prudent bird hides its reserves under the bark of trees and in other secluded places. The search and storage of food does not stop until December.

Characteristics

Bird nuthatch has a special, characteristic only for her, manner of execution. She whistles melodiously and harmoniously, pronouncing the sounds of "tew-tew-tew". Sometimes they sound like “tits-tits-tts-tts”. The feathered sings at different frequencies. The trills are heard for long distances - despite the small size of the body, the nuthatch sings loudly enough. For each emotion, he has his own set of sound combinations. If danger threatens, he gives out something like "tach-tyoch-tyoch".

The female nuthatch is slightly different from the male. Differences are expressed in the color of feathers in the sides and the bottom, as well as the crown and crown. The appearance of the males is more spectacular, since the color range of their plumage is brighter and richer.

Bird in human hands

Drevolaz refers to the wild forest birds. However, the domestication of this bird is quite a feasible task. Nuthatch quickly gets used to a good attitude and becomes a true friend of man.

The tame bird turns into the universal favorite of its owners. She has a cheerful disposition, funny habits and cute chirps. Watching active and agile feathered is a pleasure. If you provide him with the most comfortable living conditions and equip a vertical object at home, the nuthatch will be happy to manage it, delighting you with new intricate pirouettes. The bark of the tree and the perch for skiing are suitable as such an element.

As for the nutrition of an ordinary nuthatch, without fail give him a mixture of ground hemp seeds and ant eggs. Include cedar nuts, seeds, cereals and small berries in the diet. Ensure that the bird does not need fresh, clean water.

Interesting Facts

Nuthatch is not inclined to aggressively defending their interests in the competition. It is characterized by a different style of behavior - instead of fighting for food, the bird leaves it to others and leaves a restless place.

The stocks of forage harvested by the nuthatch in the high-grade year reach 1.5 kilograms. Sometimes a bird clogs its beak to failure if it sees a large amount of potential food.

Having made a decision about domestication, remember that it is extremely important for these birds to live in the conditions as natural as possible for themselves. Therefore, instead of a cage, give preference to the aviary. In such an environment, the nuthatch will not only feel good, but will be ready for reproduction. It is noteworthy, but at home he lives a year or two less than in the wild.

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Appearance of nuthatch

The length of the nuthatch body is 12-14 cm. Their wingspan is 23-27 cm. The adult individual weighs about 25 g.

They have a big head, a short neck, a stocky body and a small tail. Beak feathered straight, long and powerful, painted gray. Depending on the territory of residence plumage is painted in different colors. The upper body of the inhabitants of northern Europe is grayish-blue, the belly is painted chestnut, and the neck is white.

The nuthatch has strong and tenacious legs.

Subspecies living in the eastern regions have a white breast and reddish lower body. On the head there is a dark streak that stretches from the base of the beak to the nape. Limbs painted gray-brown. There are sharp long claws on the fingers. Externally, females and males differ only in size: males are slightly larger.

Poultry behavior and nutrition

The preferred habitat is mixed and coniferous forests, parks and gardens. Lives predominantly on tall old trees. Обычно поползни ведут оседлый образ жизни. Жители северных районов на зимовку улетают в южные регионы. Каждая птица живет строго на своей территории и никто не может нарушить границы чужих владений. Ведут одиночный образ жизни.

Птичка ямщик обитает в парках и садах.

Питаются как растительной, так и животной пищей. С удовольствием поедают бабочек, мух, жуков, клопов. В теплый период едят плоды и семена, любят семена подсолнуха, орехи, желуди. In the winter, when there is almost no food, the birds make stocks and hide them in the grooves and recesses of the tree trunks. Birds sing, their trills can have different frequencies. They have tenacious claws, it allows nuthatches to move quickly along the branches, even upside down. These birds can be found at home, they are easy to tame. For nuthatches living in the wild, people often make houses in which birds live and nest.

Reproduction

Nuthatch form pairs and occupy suitable breeding areas in March - early April. At about the same time, birds begin to build nests. Nuthatches nest in abandoned hollows of woodpeckers, in natural recesses in the trunks of trees or in birdhouses. Such a hollow, as a rule, can be located at a height of 3-10 meters from the ground. Birds carefully "plaster" the hole leading to the hollow, leaving a very narrow entrance. This is necessary in order to protect their nest not only from competitors - other birds that nest in hollows, but also from predators such as martens. The female lines the tray with small scales of pine or birch bark, after which she lays eggs there. The female incubates the clutch for two weeks, and the male all the time brings her food. Later, the parents feed the chicks together.

WHERE ABOUT POPULATION

Ordinary nuthatches are found in the forests of Eurasia from its western borders to Kamchatka. They rarely appear in coniferous forests, preferring old deciduous and mixed forests with a large number of oaks, elms and beeches. Nuthatches can also be found in old parks and urban gardens or on lime trees growing along the roads. It is easy to observe these birds in places where people hang houses and cook feeding places for birds for the winter. Nuthatch come to the feeders along with tits and other species of birds. Nuthatches move through trees as easily as woodpeckers do. However, unlike woodpeckers and pika, nuthatches, running along the trunk of a tree, do not lean on their tail.

WHAT ARE EATED

The nuthatch feeds exclusively on insects, for example, ants, butterflies, leaf beetles, caterpillars, weevils, etc., during the spring-summer period. With his pointed beak at the end, he pecks them out of the crevices and holes in the bark of the tree. From some trees in the process of searching for food, a nuthatch tears off small pieces of bark.

In the fall, the bird regularly eats berries. In winter, as well as in late autumn and in early spring, common nuthatches feed on acorns, seeds of firs and pines and cedar nuts, hazelnut or beech. The favorite food of these birds is hazelnuts and beech nuts.

INTERESTING FACTS, INFORMATION.

• Nuthatch, moving on the trunks of trees, does not rely on tail feathers.
• It is believed that the nuthatch is one of the birds most attached to its territory, which nest in Central Europe.
• Nuthatch often builds nests in the gardens, here this bird is occupied by empty birdhouses. The entrance and the gaps between the walls of the nuthatch "plasters" clay so that the "house" meets the requirements of the owner.

DESCRIPTION OF THE GOLF OF ORDINARY

Beak: resembles a beak of woodpeckers. With its pointed beak, a nuthatch can click nuts and hard seeds.

Carrying: the female lays in the hollow 5-8 white with reddish-brown specks of eggs. The tray is lined with bark of pine or birch.

- Habitat of common nuthatch

Where it lives

Nuthatch is found throughout Europe. The bird also lives in Morocco, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Asia Minor, South West Africa, the Kuril Islands, in northern Russia to Kamchatka, in China and Japan.

PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION

In Central Europe, the common nuthatch is a fairly common bird. Nowadays, this bird is not threatened with extinction.

Bird nuthatch in high resolution. Collects from the trunk of the pine worms. Video (00:00:46)

Nuthatch is unique. This is the only bird of all of our most inveterate tree-ears, not to mention the actual songbird itself, which can move on a sheer trunk upside down. The most drevolaznogo drevolaz.
Even the name "nuthatch" is the best suited to this small short-tail bird of ashen color with a bluish tinge of the upper body and white plumage of the abdomen. More apt name and can not think of. It is worth at least once to see a crawling along the trunk equally easily and naturally in any direction of the nuthatch, and its appearance will forever be remembered. As a rule, if you fall into a real high forest, you will first hear the characteristic voice of the nuthatch: “tweet-tweet-tweet” or “tweet-tweet-tweet”. Usually you will see him right away. “This“ tweet ”is repeated hastily many times in a row, it sounds very loud and round and is the most characteristic sound for a nuthatch.”
And it is best to stop, and then a curious nuthatch, which is also its expressive feature, will surely come close to you by chance, as if there is no more space in the forest or the most attractive and tasty corner of it is around you. At the same time, the nuthatch makes a serious impression that it is very busy and stumbled upon you in the forest completely by chance and even annoyed with such a “hindrance”, expressing it with its ringing whistling “sit-sit-sit” like a driver on the road: "Hurry up!" At the same time, with inimitable slyness, he now and then looks out from behind the next trunk.
The grace and flexibility of a nuthatch on a tree trunk is simply amazing. It’s impossible to tear the eye away from this screwdriver of a graceful bird who is examining the trunk of a forest giant easily and slowly, like a skilled housewife preparing dinner in her kitchen. Our nuthatch is equally irresistible on the trunk of any species, be it pine in the forest, cedar in the mountain taiga, birch in the nearest hail, poplar in the city or old bird cherry in the garden.
The paws and toes of the nuthatch are very strong and mobile, armed with sharp and sharply bent claws. Due to the structure of the legs, you can not be afraid to break not only from the gnarled trunk of the forest giants, but also from the young trees with smooth bark. Nuthatch, unlike woodpecker, does not need to use the tail as an additional point of support on the trunk. The strategy of his movements is completely different - he runs along the steep trunks, like a squirrel.
The woodpecker moves on a tree in jerks, only upside down and with constant support on the tail. Its attachment to the trunk is rigid with the help of levers that make up the triangle. Nuthatch uses a set of its levers differently: a square - a rhombus - a square - a rhombus, like a skater on ice.

Nuthatch. Nuthatch. Allvideo. Video (00:04:05)

Nuthatch on a bird feeder with seeds (Bird Lovers Window Seed Feeder).
The common nuthatch (or coachman, lat. Sitta europaea) is a small bird from the nuthatch family, widespread in Europe, Asia and North Africa. In search of food deftly moves along the trunks and branches of trees, often upside down or even upside down.
A small mobile bird with a length of 12–14.5 cm, a wingspan of 22.5–27 cm and a weight of 20–25 g, with a dense build, a large head and a short, almost imperceptible neck. Plumage fluffy, thick. The color varies greatly depending on the area of ​​habitat, while the upper part of the body always has different shades of bluish-gray color.

Record date: November 3, 2013.

Nature: Tees, Nuthatch. Video (00:05:16)

A small bird from the family nuthatch, widespread in Europe, Asia and North Africa. It is common both in central Russia and in Siberia, where it nests in deciduous, coniferous and mixed forests, as well as gardens and parks of settlements. In search of food deftly moves along the trunks and branches of trees, often upside down or even upside down.

Yew (Latin Taxus) - genus of plants of the Yew family (Taxaceae). Species of the genus - slow-growing trees or shrubs in height from 1 to 10 m. The diameter of the trunk can reach 4 m.