Birds-scavengers: title, photo

In different ways predatory birds get their livelihood . Among them there are representatives who feed exclusively on the corpses of animals. These are scavenger birds that share common features.

Features

These birds represent a serious competition with hyenas, eating carrion. Vulture, griffin, griffon vulture, bearded vulture are bright representatives. Distributed mainly in Africa and Eurasia. In America, there are condor, American vulture and black catatra. Some of these birds were originally predators, but eventually switched to the use of carrion.

All birds-carrion birds are distinguished by their high fitness for long-distance flights, during which they search for themselves the corpses of large animals. They start eating, as a rule, from internal organs. It is this fact that scientists explain the absence of feathers on the neck of most of these birds. When the scavenger birds peck out the carcass of the animal from inside, the naked neck does not allow the accumulation of food on it. With such a diet poisoning is excluded, because the stomach of these birds is able to produce a substance that neutralizes cadaveric poison. Claws scavengers in the process of evolution have weakened, so it is already impossible to hunt live prey with their help.

Lifestyle

Predatory birds-scavengers are rarely found singly. In search of food, they usually hover together above the surface of the earth, and after discovering the prey, they gather around her with the whole flock. They approach food in different ways. The bearded man will long circumnavigate the prey, gradually sinking at some distance from it. After a short pause, he begins to move towards her slowly. The vulture of Urubu, on the contrary, can practically fall on a carcass taken from a height.

Many scavengers have adapted to follow the behavior of hyenas or their fellow tribesmen, hoping that sooner or later they will lead them to prey.

Some representatives of these birds prefer to eat the completely decomposed corpses of animals, while others seek fresher meat. They differ in the way they absorb food. For example, sip does not touch the skeleton and skin, eating only the inside. The bearded man eats mainly bones, having a stomach adapted for this purpose. Therefore, several different species of scavengers can feed simultaneously on one corpse, without interfering with each other.

Griffin

A large bird whose wingspan is about three meters, and weight - from 7 to 13 kg. Adults have a dark brown color. Almost bare neck is surrounded by long light-colored feathers. These scavenger birds most often nest in the foothills, have constant pairs. Nests create simply huge, capable to sustain two adult people.

The neck is very developed sense of smell, so he most often sniffs the scents of a carrion, sitting on a tree branch, or making a flight very low above the ground. The bird is very clean and takes water procedures after each meal. She does this not so much for the sake of pleasure, as to disinfect her plumage after a meal.

Vegetables are fed mainly carcasses of animals that died at the hands of hunters or died natural death. In search of food, these birds are able to overcome huge distances and notice the prey from a height of more than one and a half kilometers.

Griffon Vulture

These bird scavengers are very similar to black vultures. The name was given for the head that stands out with a white spot. Like the neck, there is a collar of long feathers on the neck. Body color is brown, only wings and tail are black. Lives predominantly in the mountains of Central Asia, in the south of Europe, in India. Nesting white-headed sipy groups of 3-5 pairs, sometimes whole colonies, numbering dozens of pairs of these birds. The clutch is alternately incubated by both parents, this period lasts 53 days.

In early May, there are chicks that begin to fly independently no earlier than August. After the departure, the parents feed their brood for another three months.

Vulture

The name of these birds is that they feed on the remains of dead animals. In the old days, the word "stinker" meant "carrion." The appearance of the vultures does not cause fear - small birds of no more than 2 kg in weight, with a thin physique and a thin beak. Plumage depends on the species. They are only two - an ordinary vulture and brown. The first is covered with feathers and even on the head has something that resembles a mohawk. The main habitats are Africa, Europe, the Canary Islands. It also occurs in Russia. The brown vulture has more similarities with the vultures - the same bare neck and head. It occurs in South Africa, on the Mediterranean coast, in the Caucasus. The body of adult birds is covered with white plumage, and the wing wings are completely black.

These bird scavengers use a whole palette of different sounds to communicate with each other. The thin beak of them is not capable of splitting skulls and bones of large animals, therefore the main ration consists of corpses of rodents, lizards, snakes, birds. During the nesting period, the female lays only 2 eggs. Appearing in 42 days, chicks are exposed to various dangers in the form of attacks of eagles, foxes, owls and wolves.

In ancient times among the indigenous peoples of North America, a vulture was considered a sacred bird. In Europe, on the contrary, for eating they fell to them always treated with disgust.

Bearded

This is another large bird-scavenger from the hawks. The wingspan is 260-280 cm, and the mass is up to 7 kg. The bearded man is easy to distinguish - it is given by long narrow wings and the same tail. The back is covered with feathers of gray color, and the neck and stomach are almost white. On the lower part of the beak several black feathers form a bundle resembling a beard, for which the bird received its name.

Nests bearded in the middle and high mountain belt on hard-to-reach rocks. The same nest is used by the couple for more than one year. Already in January they lay eggs. In the masonry there are no more than two eggs, but the chick always grows alone. Already in June, starting to fly, he still keeps close to his parents until the fall.

The stomach of a bearded man can easily digest animal bones. They are the main part of his diet.

Birds-scavengers, whose photos are not always pleasant for eating food, are real nurses. They clean the territory of the dead animals and bring enormous benefits. Currently, there is a decline in the number of these birds, which is associated with a reduction in food supply, poaching. Many species are already included in the International Red Book.