Caring for offspring in birds. How do birds care for their young in the wild? Examples of caring for offspring in birds

Meeting 42. HOW DO BIRDS CARE FOR THEIR CHILDREN?

Target: tell students about the peculiarities of the life of birds, how birds take care of their offspring; develop observation, speech, thinking, memory; teach rules of behavior in nature.

During the classes

I. ORGANIZATIONAL MOMENT

II. UPDATING BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE

1. Frontal survey

What structure do birds have?

What is the significance of the structural features of birds for flight?

How do birds get energy to fly?

Research: What do the birds you see in your area eat? Give examples.

What fairy tales or songs about birds do you know? What features of these animals are they talking about?

2. Work according to the table

Fill the table. Give examples.

III. MESSAGE OF THE TOPICS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON

Today in the lesson you will learn more about the life of birds and the rules of behavior of people among nature.

IV. LEARNING NEW MATERIAL

1. Work from the textbook (p. 112-113)

- Remember! Or are the fish worried about their offspring?

- Remember!

Several periods can be distinguished in the life of birds throughout the year. In migratory birds: spring arrival, nesting and breeding, preparation for departure and autumn departure.

Work in pairs

Look at the pictures on page 112 and name which birds are migratory and which are sedentary?

The most important period for birds is the spring, when it is time to hatch chicks. In spring, birds do not arrive home at the same time. Males appear at nesting sites earlier than females in order to find and secure a specific nesting territory. They signify it by singing. During incubation, parental responsibilities are divided differently between mom and dad. In woodpeckers, jays and nightingales, the female incubates the eggs during the day, and the male incubates the eggs at night. But among drakes, only the mother duck takes care of the offspring. Female hawks, falcons, and eagle also incubate themselves, but the males bring them food. They do this very carefully so as not to reveal their nest to enemies or restless children.

Look at the pictures on page 113. Tell us what they show.

conclusions

Birds take care of their offspring.

The most important spring concern for birds is raising chicks. They should not be disturbed at this time.

2. Physical education minute

V. GENERALIZATION AND SYSTEMATIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE

1. Work in groups

Listen to interesting information and think about why small animals - such as insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles - lay a lot of eggs and eggs? Why does the larger the animal, the greater the number of its descendants?

Informant. Bedbugs lay 70-100 eggs, Colorado potato beetles - 700, butterflies - 100-400. The number of eggs in carp and pike reaches tens of thousands, and large sturgeon fish “throw out” several million eggs. Reptiles have 10-20 eggs per clutch, which they bury in sand and soil. Birds lay up to 10 eggs. Animals have the lowest birth rate of cubs: squirrel - 3-10, cat - 2-6, dog - 2-10, lynx - 1-4, bear - 1-3, elephant - 1, whale - 1.

2. Testing

1. Where does the caterpillar come from?

a) Hatches from eggs;

b) is born from a pupa. (+)

2. How does a tadpole differ from an adult frog?

a) Only in size;

b) tadpoles have tails and no legs. (+)

3. Where do reptiles lay their eggs?

a) In dry soil; (+)

b) in nests.

4. Do reptiles take care of their offspring?

a) Yes, they care;

b) no, they don’t care. (-)

5. Do birds take care of their offspring?

a) Yes, they care; (+)

b) no, they don’t care.

Mutual verification (in pairs).

3. Problem

The gray partridge gives birth to 20 children, the long-tailed tit has 8 fewer children than the partridge, and the siskin has 7 fewer children than the tit. How many babies are born to tits and siskins?

VI. SUMMARIZING. REFLECTION

What animals are called birds? Give examples.

Is the bird sign significant?

How do birds care for their young?

VII. HOMEWORK

Draw up rules of behavior in nature during the breeding period of birds.

Imagine that you need to tell the inhabitants of a fairy-tale planet about birds, where only insects live. Create an outline for your story.

Caring for the offspring of birds, in addition to feeding the chicks, also includes active protection of the nest and children from various enemies: predatory animals and birds, hunting dogs. It manifests itself in different ways: some birds pretend to be sick, wounded and lead the enemy away from the nest, while others boldly protect him.

Large birds - eagles, eagle owls, herons and others - often resort to a direct attack on the violator of their peace who appears near the nest.

Gray herons bravely defend their nests. An angry stork can “reward” with blows of its wings and a sharp long beak. Swans selflessly defend their nests. The white partridge is a quiet and modest bird, and it does not resort to any tricks when it is necessary to take an enemy away from the nest. In the spring, the female will lay about a dozen eggs under a bush and incubate them. And the male takes care of her and feeds her. In case of danger, he takes the enemy away from the nest.

- Av-av-av-av! - the partridge screams loudly, dragging the hunter along with him. Or he will climb onto a tree stump and sit. As soon as the hunter takes aim, the partridge already falls from the stump, and the charge hits an empty spot.

Quails are known to be very attached to their nest. They also have to resort to all sorts of maneuvers to distract the hunter from their nest. The bird is forced to pretend to be either wounded or weak.

The Little Gray Flycatcher is a trusting and inconspicuous bird. But for the sake of protecting the chicks, she becomes very brave. She gets all ruffled, the feathers on her head rise, her small black eyes look menacingly at her potential enemy. One more minute and watch out. With a squeak, fluttering in the air, she will rush at the offender and vigorously attack him.

Caring for offspring and protecting chicks is a top priority for many bird species. Sometimes the methods of protection are simply amazing.

An original way of protecting the nests of our northern birds, fulmars or fulmars. The fulmar is almost not afraid of a suitable person. He seems to be looking at the newcomer with interest and trust, stretching his neck towards him. An unsuspecting person, perhaps, can be moved by the sight of such gullibility and selflessness of a bird, which does not leave its nest in moments of danger and is ready to suffer for it. But a few seconds pass, and the victim turns out to be a person.

The fool, having deftly taken aim, sprays him with a forceful stream of liquid ejected from his beak. And the most unpleasant thing here is that this liquid smells disgustingly of rotten fish. So much for you, silly!

Taking care of their offspring, hornbills living on the Malay Islands act as follows: the female hornbill, having laid 5-6 eggs in a hollow tree, sits on them. The male covers the entrance to the hollow with clay, leaving only a small hole through which the female sticks her beak to take the food brought by the male. During the entire period of incubation of the eggs, the male carefully feeds his “other half.”

Selection of material: Iris Review

Everyone sooner or later thinks about their offspring, and the animal world is no exception. Every year, in order to give the world new birds, adult birds build nests. In cold countries, as well as in temperate latitudes, birds begin to build nests in the spring and end in the summer. This happens differently all over the planet and depends on many factors - climatic and geographical. Somewhere summer lasts all year round, and somewhere the season changes frequently.

Despite these factors, the rules are the same for everyone - adult individuals, regardless of their habitat, begin to think about offspring precisely at a time when there is a great variety of food. The first days of feeding are especially important, so you should approach this issue extremely responsibly. For example, if in our region birds do this in the warm season, then somewhere in the African expanses birds begin to nest immediately after the rainy season passes, because it is at this time that the rapid development of greenery begins and a huge number of insects appear. The exception to the rule is birds of prey, whose diet consists of small animals. Predators begin to build nests during the dry period, when it is not difficult for anyone to find food - the vegetation burns out, and the whole earth seems to be bare.

Caring for the offspring of birds is a very complex and responsible process. But not everyone knows about the intricacies of this event. For example, many believe that all birds, in order to reveal their offspring to the world, build special nests in which they incubate their eggs. But it is not so. Most birds do without a nest, for example the nightjar, as a rule, lays eggs directly on the forest floor, and chooses soft pine needles for this. And the depression appears much later, over time, due to the fact that the feathered mother constantly sits in one place. The guillemot also does not build nests, but lays its egg directly on a ledge of bare rock, while gulls only need a small depression in the sand.

Birds, according to the degree of maturity of their chicks, are divided into two types: brood and chick. In brood animals, after birth, children are immediately ready for independent living and obtaining food. Chicks are unable to control their body temperature and need constant warming. The only thing they can do is raise their head a little while feeding.

If we talk about birds that do build nests, then first of all it is worth mentioning the blackbird, which builds an incredibly complex structure in the form of a bowl and lubricates it with clay from the inside. The bird spends about three days building such a house, and works from early morning until late at night.

After preparation and construction are completed, the important time comes to feed the small bird. The offspring of different birds is also different, some have one offspring, and some have a whole brood.

How do birds care for their young? For example, a duck, wood grouse or black grouse approach this issue in the following way: only the female is involved in the fate of the children, and the father does not take any part in the life and development of his children. In partridges, only the mother incubates, but both parents take care of safety and scare away enemies. In a woodpecker, both parents are involved in feeding, but, as a rule, the female does it more energetically. By the time the father arrives with food, the mother has already managed to feed up to three or four times. Only the male gets food from the hawk and brings food to the female, who then feeds the children. The mother does not leave the nest while raising her children. However, there are also parents who do not bother themselves at all and do not worry about their children. For example, if bad weather occurs, swifts can leave the nest for several days without a twinge of conscience. As you can see, feeding the chicks also occurs differently in different individuals.

Diverse living conditions and different habitats create completely different forms of existence, behavior and feeding. There are a great many species on our planet that are quite different from each other.

Large individuals, such as cormorants, feed their children several times a day, and albatrosses and herons generally feed them once a day, and at night. The small ones, on the contrary, do this very often; the tit brings food about four hundred times, and the swallow five hundred!

In search of the necessary food, parents can fly very far from the nest, as, for example, a swift does. In order to find the necessary food, an adult bird can fly forty kilometers. The parent brings not just one midge, but a whole beak of food. In the first days of life, the swift feeds its children up to forty times a day in very large portions, and when the chicks become large and ready for independent flights, the amount of feeding is reduced to five times.

After the chick has hatched from the egg, gone through the necessary period of feeding and growing up, and for the first time tried to make its first independent flight from the nest, a very important and responsible moment of entry into adulthood begins. In order to try to start an independent life, many of them still need parental care and guardianship for a long time, and the adaptation process occurs gradually. It also happens that after the first flight from the nest, children immediately rush south, and parents do not even suspect it, that their child is about to leave his father’s house. In fact, no goodbyes take place, and the children do not feel any attachment to their place of birth, much less to their parents, just as the parents themselves quickly forget this fact and do not grieve for the children who left the nest so early.

Take care of our nature, be attentive to those who surround us on earth and soar high in the skies. Every life is complex and priceless. Nature created everyone so different and at the same time similar. Man is obliged to take care of the inhabitants of nature and protect priceless life.

Every year, in order to raise offspring, the vast majority of birds make nests. In temperate latitudes and cold countries, nesting begins in the spring and ends in the summer, when the chicks are comparable in size to adult birds. But this does not happen 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, can we determine the breeding time of birds? The rule is general for the entire globe: birds begin nesting at such a time that the feeding of the brood and the first days of life of the chicks outside the nest occur during the most food-rich time. If it is spring and summer in our country, then in the savannas of Africa most birds nest immediately after the rains begin, when the vegetation develops wildly and many insects appear. The exception here is birds of prey, especially those that feed on ground 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 all year round.

It is usually believed that all birds, when hatching their chicks, build special nests for incubating eggs. But this is not so: many birds that nest on the ground do without a real nest. For example, a small brownish-gray nightjar lays a pair of eggs directly on the forest floor, most often on fallen pine needles. A small depression is formed later because the bird sits in the same place all the time. The subpolar guillemot also does not build nests. She lays her single egg on a bare rock ledge on the shoreline. For many gulls and waders, a small depression in the sand is enough; sometimes they use the footprint of a deer hoof.

The nightjar bird nests directly on the ground. The white shell near the nest helps parents find their chicks in the dark.

Birds that raise their chicks in hollows and burrows do not make a real nest. They are usually content with a small bedding. Wood dust can serve as litter in hollows. In the kingfisher, the litter in the burrow consists of small bones and fish scales, in the bee-eater - from the chitinous remains of insects. The woodpecker usually does not occupy a ready-made hollow. With his strong beak he hollows out a new hollow for himself. The bee-eater spends about 10 days digging a one-and-a-half or even two-meter passage with its beak in the soft clay of a cliff, which ends in an expansion - a nesting chamber. Real nests are made by birds that nest in bushes and trees. True, not all of them are made skillfully. A turtle dove, for example, places several twigs on tree branches and somehow holds them together.

Blackbirds build good cup-shaped nests, and the song thrush smears the inside with clay. The birds, working from morning until late evening, spend about three days building such a nest. The finch makes a nest that is warm, like felt, and also has a soft lining, masking it on the outside with pieces of moss, scraps of lichen, and birch bark. The golden-yellow oriole hangs its nest - a skillfully woven basket - from a horizontal branch of an apple, birch, pine or spruce tree. Sometimes orioles 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 the two of them - a male and a female - build a warm hanging mitten from plant fluff with an entrance in the form of a tube. The nest of the remez is inaccessible to terrestrial predators: it hangs on thin branches, sometimes over a river or over a swamp.

Some birds' nests have a very unique appearance and a complex structure. The shadow heron, or hammerhead, living in Africa and on the island of Madagascar, makes a nest in the form of a ball from twigs, grass, reeds, and then covers it with clay. The diameter of such a ball is more than a meter, and the diameter of the side tunnel, which serves as the entrance to the nest, is 20 cm. The Indian warbler sews a tube of one or two large tree leaves with vegetable “twine” and makes a nest in it from reed fluff, cotton, and hairs.

The small swiftlet, which lives in Southeast Asia (and 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 is translucent like porcelain. This nest takes a long time to build - about 40 days. Birds attach it to a steep rock, and it is very difficult to get such a nest. Swiftlet nests are well known in Chinese cooking as swallow nests and are highly prized.

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

A Chiffchaff feeds chicks that have just left the nest.

The South American ovenbird constructs its nest almost exclusively from clay. It has a spherical shape with a side entrance and really resembles the ovens of the local Indians. The same pair of birds often uses 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. These are, for example, 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 a weaver nest may be occupied by a pink parakeet.

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

The nest of the remez is built very skillfully.

Bird colonies in the north are huge - hundreds of thousands of pairs. These so-called bird colonies are mainly inhabited by guillemots. Ground-nesting gulls and petrels also form small colonies. Cormorants, pelicans and gannets nest in colonies on the 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 valuable fertilizer (guano).

Birds whose food is located close to the nesting site, and in large quantities, usually nest in large colonies. Cormorants on the islands of South America feed, for example, on large schools of anchovies; three-toed gulls from the bird colonies of the Barents Sea easily obtain capelin. But birds that fly far for food often nest in colonies. Such birds are usually good flyers - swallows and swifts. Scattering in all directions, they do not interfere with each other getting food.

The forest pipit makes a real nest in the grass from dry blades of grass.

Those birds that do not have good flying abilities, and collect food one midge at a time, grain by grain, nest far from each other, since when nesting in colonies they will not be able to collect a sufficient amount of food. These bird species 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. Interestingly, migratory birds usually return in the spring to their last year’s nesting area.

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

Chicks are hatching in a white-browed thrush's nest. They are helpless for a long time, like all nestling bird species, and fledge just before leaving the nest.

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

Sometimes the nesting site is very unusual. Some small tropical birds excavate caves for their nests in the nests of social wasps or even in termite mounds. A small loten's sunbird living in Ceylon looks for the web of a social spider in the bushes, squeezes out a depression in its thickest part, makes a small lining, and the nest for its 2-3 eggs is ready.

Our sparrows often hatch chicks in the walls of the nests of other, larger birds, such as storks or kites. A skillful diving grebe (Grebe) makes a nest on the water. Sometimes its nest is fixed at the bottom of a shallow reservoir and rises as a small island, but more often it floats on the surface of the water. The coot's nest is also surrounded by water. This bird even arranges a gangplank - along which the chicks can get off the water and return to the nest. Small sandpipers sometimes make a nest on the floating leaves of tropical aquatic plants.

Some birds make nests in human buildings. Sparrows are on the eaves and behind the window frames. Swallows nest near windows, jackdaws nest in chimneys, redstarts nest under roof canopies, etc. There was a case when a wheatear made a nest in the wing of an airplane while it was parked at the airfield. In Altai, a wagtail nest was found nestled in the bow of a ferry boat. It “swimmed” every day from one shore to the other.

Hornbills live in the tropics of Africa and South Asia. At the beginning of nesting, rhinoceroses - male and female - select a hollow suitable for the nest and cover the hole. When there remains a gap through which the bird can barely squeeze through, the female climbs into the hollow and from the inside reduces the entrance hole so that she can only stick her beak into it. The female then lays eggs and begins incubation. She receives food from the male outside. When the chicks hatch and grow up, the bird breaks open 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 good protection from snakes and predatory animals that climb trees.

No less interesting is the nesting of the so-called weed chickens, or big-legged chickens. These birds live on the islands between South Asia and Australia, as well as in Australia itself. Some weed chickens place their clutches in warm volcanic soil and do not care for them anymore. Others rake up a large pile of decomposing leaves mixed with sand. When the temperature inside the heap rises sufficiently, the birds tear it apart, the female lays eggs inside the heap and leaves. The male restores the pile and remains near it. He does not incubate, but only monitors the temperature of the heap. If the pile cools down, he expands it; if it heats up, he breaks it apart. By the time the chicks hatch, the male also leaves the nest. The chicks begin life on their own. True, they come out of the egg with already growing plumage, and by the end of the first day they can even fly up.

In the great grebe, as in all brood species of birds, the chicks become independent very early. They have been able to swim for a long time, but at times they rest on the back of an adult bird.

When building a nest, not all birds have male and female work equally. Males of some species arrive from wintering grounds earlier than females and immediately begin construction. In some species, the male finishes it, in others, the construction is completed by the female, 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 required order. In goldfinches, for example, the male is limited to the role of observer. In ducks, as a rule, females alone build the nest; drakes do not show any interest in this.

Some birds (petrels, guillemots) lay only one egg and nest once per summer. Small songbirds usually lay from 4 to 6 eggs, and the great tit - up to 15. Birds from the order Galina lay many eggs. 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 are normal. In the thrush warbler, for example, before the first chicks have time to fly out of the nest, the female begins to build 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, and snowy owls do not hatch chicks at all if there is very little food. Crossbills feed on spruce seeds, and during the years of the spruce cone harvest, 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 egg laid. The chicks of these bird species hatch gradually. For example, in a harrier's nest, the eldest chick can weigh 340 g, and the youngest - the third - 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, the female incubates the eggs most often. In some birds, the female is replaced from time to time by a male. In a few species of birds, for example, the phalarope, painted snipe, and three-finned snipe, only the male incubates the eggs, and the female does not show any care for the offspring. It happens that the males feed the incubating females (many warblers, hornbills), in other cases the females still leave the nest and leave the 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 loses a lot of weight, losing almost 2/3 of her weight. A female emu can fast during incubation without much harm to herself for up to 60 days.

In many passerine birds, as well as in woodpeckers, kingfishers, and storks, the chicks are born blind, naked, and helpless for a long time. Parents put food in their beaks. Such birds are called chicks. As a rule, their chicks fledge in the nest and fly only after leaving the nest. Chicks of waders, ducks, and gulls emerge from their 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. Such birds are called brood. Their chicks grow and fledge outside the nest.

It rarely happens that a brooding bird, or especially a bird near a brood, tries to hide unnoticed in a 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, birds “repel” the enemy. At first glance, it seems that the bird, saving the brood, deliberately distracts the enemy’s attention and pretends to be lame or shot. But in fact, at this moment the bird 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 hatch from the eggs, the parents begin to feed them. During this period, only one female goes with the brood of black grouse, wood grouse and ducks. The male does not care about the offspring. Only the female incubates the ptarmigan, but both parents walk with the brood and “take away” the enemy from it. However, in breeding 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 lazier. Thus, in the Great Spotted Woodpecker, the female usually brings food every five minutes and manages to feed the chicks three times before the male arrives with food. And in the black woodpecker, the chicks are fed primarily by the male.

Only the male sparrowhawk hunts. He brings prey to the female, who is constantly at the nest. The female tears the prey into pieces and distributes them to the chicks. But if the female died for some reason, the male will put the prey he brought on the edge of the nest, and the chicks will die of hunger in the meantime.

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

A swift sometimes flies 40 km from its nest in search of food. He brings to the nest not every midge he catches, but a mouthful of food. He glues his prey with saliva. lump and, having flown to the nest, deeply inserts balls of insects into the throats of the chicks. In the first days, swifts feed the chicks with such increased 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 species of birds, having flown from 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 independently. Moreover, upon leaving the nest, they often immediately rush south. Sometimes the parents are still rushing over the houses, collecting food for their chick, and he, feeling strong enough, is already heading south, without even seeing his parents goodbye.

Birds protect their babies from all dangers and are ready to give their lives for them. When a person approaches ducklings or grouse, the quacker or black grouse spins around right in front of his nose, crouching on the wing like a wounded woman, barely moving. The man will rush after her, it seems that he is about to catch her. But the mother bird will take him away from the chicks, suddenly take off, give a wide circle in the air and return to her brood so that you will not even see her. Chemga, in a moment of danger, gathers his chemgoyats under his wings and dives with them under the water. And the weak pigtail, protecting the chicks, even attacks the dog. The duck just hatched the puffballs. And after a few hours, in a moment of danger, like fluffy balls, they jump onto the water and do not lag behind it a single step.

Cautious quail. One day I went ashore along a country road near a village to replenish food supplies for the onward journey. A wheat field began from the forest edge. He climbed the hill and stopped to admire how the grain field was agitated. At this time, very close to me, a reddish-brown bird jumped out of the bushes onto the road. “It must be a quail,” I thought and hid behind a birch tree. The bird walked out into the middle of the road, looked around and then returned to the roadside bush. After some time, she appeared on the road, but not alone, but with a whole family of ten kids. Now, by size and plumage, it was no longer difficult to recognize the smallest representative of the chicken order - the Quail. Behind her, like little balls of fluff, the quails hurriedly moved. It was necessary to see how the mother quail touchingly cared for the safety of her babies during this transition.

Secrets of the bird. The partridge is one of the most cautious. When her family needs to cross the highway, it is done like this: first, one “mother” goes, reaches the middle of the highway, looks around and returns back for the chicks. They follow her, and “dad” brings up the rear.

Floating taxi. One day I saw a black-throated loon on the lake. She swam to the island. But what is it? Two babies, dressed in dark downy outfits, sat on their backs, pressed tightly against each other. The slightly raised wings of the caring mother on the right and left protected the little “passengers” from falling into the water. I unexpectedly became an eyewitness to the extraordinary move of a loon family from the fishing grounds where it was fishing to the bird “hotel”.

The incident at Golitsinsky Ponds. This happened in the fall. A pair of black swans wintering on the Golitsinsky ponds in Moscow began to build a nest for themselves in a house. Soon eggs appeared in the nest. In incubation, which lasted much longer than in the spring, the male took the main part. The female only occasionally replaced him. And for the last four days the male did not leave the nest at all. Just before the chicks appeared, the swans changed places. Soon a squeak began to be heard from the nest. In the spring, parents usually immediately go down to the water with their swans. And then gray fluffy lumps hid under the mother’s wings. And she herself couldn’t bring herself to take them outside - it was cold, there was snow and ice all around. People came to the aid of the birds. They moved the whole family into a warm room with a swimming pool.

Uneven fight. Storks have been building a nest on the old linden tree for many years. Over the summer they bred their offspring, flew to warmer regions for the winter, and returned in April. Everyone is used to these birds. One hot day, four flightless chicks fell from a high nest. One died, three survived. They spent the night in the garden under the protection of adult storks, and in the morning they were noticed by dogs. You should have seen how parents protected their children. They circled in the air, flapped their wings, and flew at the mongrels. Magpies flew to the battle site, then swallows. There was an unimaginable hubbub. The storks behaved bravely and made the dogs run away. The village children took care of the birds and, until they learned to fly, brought them food.

Falcon. A falcon family settled on the shore of Lake Omsha in the Novgorod region. One could spend hours watching the flights of the tireless feathered hunter. Sometimes he sat on a pine tree near the tent. The bird has a menacing look, a beautifully set head, and a hooked beak. The predatory appearance of the falcon misleads uninformed people, and they mistakenly consider it a feathered robber, destroyer of small birds and chickens. Meanwhile, the falcon never attacks them. From dawn to tempo, he flies over fields, meadows, lakes, catching beetles, butterflies, locust fillies and other insects. During the day he flies hundreds of times to the nest with prey for his children. Moreover, unlike birds of prey, the falcon brings prey not in its claws, but in its beak. Unfortunately, many do not know what benefits this bird brings to vegetable gardens, fields and forests.

An unusual "quack". I once came to visit my relatives in Upper Don. In the garden, in the thick potato tops, I saw a white hen with... guinea fowl. And maybe he wouldn’t have paid attention to her if she hadn’t suddenly... crowed. I come closer and see a large, proud rooster with a large red comb. At a distance, the already grown-up guinea fowl are scurrying around. Having found a green caterpillar, the rooster called them to him and they rushed to the tasty prey.

In the spring, the hen hatched 20 guinea fowl. The babies were not even two weeks old when the mother hen abandoned them. The rooster began to diligently perform her duties. The crown princes quickly got used to him. He violently attacked anyone who tried to get closer to them. In the fall, the chickens turned into adult guinea fowl, but the unusual “quick hen” did not leave them.

Little sparrows. After leaving the nest, yellow-throated sparrows tried to learn to fly. Caring parents still fed them, but at the same time taught them to live independently. One day a crow spied: the old sparrows had flown away, leaving helpless chicks. Hiding among the branches of brushwood, the chicks, having noticed a crow, flew to a safe place. The crow tried in every possible way to get one of them, but the sparrow dodged. Probably, feeling her powerlessness, the gray predator disappeared. And after a while she arrived with her partner. One of them remained at the top of the pile, the other, hiding below, dived under the brushwood. As soon as the frightened sparrow jumped out, the crow who was waiting above grabbed him, but then old sparrows appeared on the roof. Feathers flew. The crow had to go home.

Big worries for a little bird. Krachek slept poorly. He was hungry. Yesterday, most of the fish caught had to be given to the chicks. They have already grown up and ate more. In the morning he headed to the sloping shore of the user. A small bleak fluttered on the sand. He grabbed it and ate it. Other fish splashed through the water to escape the pike. Krachek rushed into the water. A second later, with the fry in its beak, it was already flying towards the nest. Spouse! rose towards. The husband quickly put the fish into the mouth of the loudly screaming chick.

Flying with his wife over the nests of other terns for new prey, he loudly shouted “ke-kee-ke.” Approaching the bay, they saw that many “hunters” for fry had arrived here: ducks, cormorants, seagulls. It was noticeable how the fish glistened with silver scales in the water. They rush from side to side, but cannot swim away: the bay has already separated from the lake. The tern grabbed the fry and returned to the nest. Holding the bleak by the head and not letting it out of his beak, he let the chick grab the fish. The chick fumbled the fish, trying to snatch the prey from the “father,” who did not immediately open his beak. Finally, the chick got his share, swallowed it in one second and squealed again: eat, eat, eat!!!

The terns hunted all day, flew to the chicks with prey and flew away again. They caught bleak until late in the evening to feed two chicks. And only when the chicks fell asleep did the parents themselves eat their fill. And so they had to get food for the kids every day until they were old enough to hunt on their own.

The time has come for the chicks to learn to fly. Now the couple left them alone for a long time and fed them less often. For several days in a row, the couple with fish in their beaks flew up to the chicks, but did not give up the prey. The chicks have lost a lot of weight. Finally, unable to bear the hunger, they crawled out of the nest and, as if on a bridge, moved to the reed bush. Here the ground was damp: the water left here only recently. The kids ran, pulling their paws out of the gray odorous mud, crawling through the thick reeds with difficulty, slipping and falling. We finally reached the shore. And then they stopped in fear. A huge unfamiliar beast stood ahead. It was a jungle cat. His paws, like pillars, blocked the chicks' path to the river. At this time, noticing the cat, other terns shouted: “Kaga, kaga!” and circled over the robber. The cat disappeared into the reeds.

The tern chicks, having escaped mortal danger, returned to their nest. Suddenly a familiar voice was heard. The chicks raised their heads at once, opened their hungry mouths, and squealed. The terns brought them a couple of mayflies each. “More! More! More!” the chicks demanded. The parents watched them jump, but in vain - there was no more food. The terns quickly flew away, and soon, as unexpectedly as before, they appeared above the nest with live fish. This continued until Until the babies reached the shore on their own, they began to collect furry caterpillars and mayflies. The chicks grew up, their wings fledged. They were already able to fly in search of carp.

Mother hen turkey. A resident of one village had a turkey that laid eggs and sat down to hatch the poults. Noticing this, the turkey began to compete with the hen. As soon as the owner took the turkey to feed, he immediately took her place. Returning, the hen flew at the turkey and drove him away. Then the offended “dad” raked up small stones and sat on them. The owner of the birds decided to put 13 chicken eggs under the turkey. He took it for granted. So the turkey became the father of the family, led a dozen chickens around the yard and protected them.

The hen raised the partridges. While mowing hay, I saw that under the scythe there was a nest, testicles in it, and next to it a mortally wounded partridge. I had to bring the nest home and put it under the hen. After 4 days, 11 partridges hatched. As soon as the little ones got stronger and grew up, I released the birds into the wild.