Nuthatch (bird): what kind of bird, how does it look? Is the migratory bird nuthatch or wintering?

Nuthatch is a strange bird. Its name already says a lot. It indicates that the bird can crawl. However, such a conclusion can be given by a non-observant person. The bird does not crawl. She runs, but very quickly.

Awesome dwarf

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

How does a bird look like a nuthatch? This little short-tailed bird. Its soft-ashy color body at the top has a bluish tinge. Feathering of the abdomen is white.

Nuthatch is a small bird. Its weight ranges from fifteen to twenty-six grams. The body length is thirteen-sixteen centimeters, and the wings are 7.3-9.2 cm. The wings in the span reach 25-28 cm.

Bird nuthatch (photo below) has a rather long and straight beak. The black band passing through the eyes gives it a curious and sly appearance.

There are practically no seasonal differences in the color of the body in birds. In addition, the soft and dense plumage of young individuals does not change in a later period of life. Only in adult nuthatches the lower body has a brownish hue, and the band, going through the eyes and gray top, becomes brownish. After moulting, passing in the autumn period, the differences disappear. And no one can say, before him a young or adult bird is a nuthatch.

The description of the amazing wood diver does not bypass the side of his foot. Thanks to them the bird moves along vertical trunks as a living mercury ball. Yes, the skill of nuthatch in arborization is made possible by the feet. 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 a feathered wood duck, is a long distance. Its value is almost the entire length of the body of the bird. Due to this, the nuthatch can safely stay on the tree trunk with its head down.

Feathered Fidget

Nuthatch is not a shy bird. She can allow a person to walk a few paces away. At the same time, it does not cease to produce a characteristic sound "tweet-twitch" or "tweet-tvut," examining the trunks and branches of trees. A curious bird can even approach the person. At the same time, she pretends that she stumbled upon him by accident. The nuthatch expresses its "annoyance" with the sonorous whistles "sit-sit", similar to the cry of the coachman: "Save-and-and-so!". At the same time, with genuine sincerity, the dwarf looks out from behind the tree trunks.

The nuthatch is always cheerful and tireless. He is mobile, lively and active. In this bird, the characters of the woodpecker and the titmouse are connected. It's not for nothing that the German name of this bird is "Spechtmeise". In translation it means a woodpecker.

Habitat

You can meet nuthatch throughout the whole forest zone from Western Europe right up to the Far East. He avoids the areas of the Far North, but in the south there lives an amazing dreary to the tropics.

A special kind of nuthatch is common in Western Siberia. It has some differences from the Scandinavian subspecies found on European territory. Siberian nuthatch has no feathers of chestnut color on its sides.

He prefers a bird to settle in floodplain and insular forests. Sometimes it is met in the steppe southern regions. In the Altai Republic and in the Altai Territory, the nuthatch lives in mixed and coniferous forests not far from the Ob and Biya, as well as in banded bogs and picks on the Bie-Chumysh Upland. You can meet surprisingly drezolaza in the mountains. Nuthatch inhabits forest areas, located at an altitude of 2000-2,200 m above sea level.

Food

In the spring and summer periods, food insects are insects. With pleasure eats drevolaz ants and Diptera, caterpillars and butterflies, bedbugs and leaf beetles, weevils, as well as other beetles. He does not disdain spiders. As a rule, its nuthatch collects its food on large branches, as well as in cracks and crevices of tree trunks. But sometimes ptahe have to chop the bark to extract insects and larvae from under it. By digging the flesh of an acorn or hazelnut, a nuthatch can shove them into the crevice of the cortex or press it to the trunk with the paw. After that, he breaks his prey by striking a strong beak. In the spring and autumn nuthatch can be found on the ground. He descends from the trunk of a tree to look for insects in the fallen leaves. In the autumn period, the dwarf feeds on berries, for example, bird cherry.

Nuthatch is a migratory bird or not? If not, what does it feed in the cold period? Nuthatch is a bird that hibernates in its native places. In order to survive the hungry period, this restless ptaha stores food for future use. Beginning in the early autumn, the nuthatch stuffs pine nuts, acorns, as well as linden, hazel and beech fruits into cracks and niches in tree trunks. In the storerooms of a resourceful bird, you can find various seeds and maple lionfish. This work ends only in December.

Wintering

Nuthatch is a migratory bird or not? Ornithologists answered this question for a long time. Winter winters are amazing in their native forest. They do not fly to the 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 develops the territory of bairak and field shelterbelts, gardens and riverine thickets.

This is where the nuthatch lives in these seasons. A migratory bird or not unique drevolaz? No, ornithologists refer it to a group of partially nomadic people. As soon as the spring comes, the birds return to mixed and deciduous forests.

Sockets

Typically, mudslides settle in tree hollows. Entrance to his home farm ptaha is smeared with manure, mud or clay. This building material nuthatch bears in its beak and glues it around the hole until the diameter of the tap is reduced to about thirty-five millimeters.

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

Reproduction

The nestlings of the nuthatch leave their native nest very early. Usually this happens either in late May or early June.

Clutch nuthatch has four to twelve eggs, decorated with reddish-brown spots. Only the female is engaged in incubating. The male at the same time regularly brings her food. The newly born chicks are fed from twenty-two to twenty-five days. It's pretty hard work. During the day, it takes up to three hundred and eighty times to bring the chicks food. In this case, parents take care of the hygiene of the nest. At least fifty to sixty times a day they take out of it covered elastic slime capsules, replacing small nuthatches night pots.

Nuthatch in captivity

If an amazing dartwoman is caught and put in a cage, then he quickly gets used to the new conditions. Nuthatch can be placed in one cage with chizha, linnuts or tap dance. There he will become one of the most amusing room birds. Watch it will be possible for hours. The nuthatch will not cease to amaze with its skillful lasagna on the tree placed in a cage, as well as tumbling on the perches.

The bird will need to give a mixture of hemp or other seeds with ant eggs. As a treat for ptah, cedar nuts are great.