Little bittern or spinning top. Summary: Little bittern. The status of the species in the country and in adjacent regions

• Class: Aves = Birds
• Superorder: Neognathae = New-palatine birds, neognats
• Order: Gressores (Ciconiiformes) = Ankle-legged, stork-like
• Family: Ardeidae Leach, 1820 = Herons, egrets

Species: Ixobrychus minutus (Linnaeus, 1766) = Little bittern, spinning top

Genus: Ixobrychus Billberg, 1828 = Little bitterns (tops)

Bitterns sometimes live close to our country houses, but how many have seen them? The ability to hide in these birds is excellent: point-blank, as they say, two steps away, it is almost impossible to see the bittern. It will freeze, stretching the body, neck, beak upwards with an arrow. The plumage of the bittern is to match the reeds and other marsh grasses. And if the stems that covered it sway in the wind, then the bittern sways in the same rhythm with them!

Bittern, driven into a corner, as they say, frightens like an eagle owl. fluffy; crouches to the ground: half-bent wings are spread, the neck and feathers on it are swollen with a “bell”.

The unexpected transformation of a slender bird into an awkward scarecrow will involuntarily force you to pull back an outstretched hand or bared mouth. A brief confusion by the attacker is enough to fly away.

In the people, the bittern is called a bull, a swamp cow, and the like. She roars, “mumbles” like a bull! Loudly, in a bass voice: “U-trumbu-boo ...” And day and night, more often in the evenings, from early spring to July. This male invites females on a date. They fly around. Seeing and hearing them, the male bellows more passionately. Later, two or four of them will make nests not far from the place of the roar. Therefore, some researchers believe that large bitterns are possibly polygamous, that is, a male lives with not one, but with several females, which is not typical for ankle-footed ones.

Previously, it was thought that, making their strange sounds, the bittern lowers its beak into the water and “blows”. Later they noticed: everything is not so. It inflates the esophagus, it turns out a resonator. Then he raises his head up, then drops it on his chest and, exhaling air, mumbles in a bass voice: “U-true mb-boo-boo ...”

Bittern always freezes in this position if the danger is real. Despite the vertical position of the head, the eyes look ahead and observe the actions of the enemy.

Small bitterns, or tops, are half the size of large bitterns. The American Indian bittern is the smallest of the herons. Bitterns live in all countries except the most northern ones. Volchkov - 8 species, large bitterns - 4. In the USSR, one species of large bitterns is found from the taiga, but not very northern, to deserts throughout the country. An ordinary top is in the same place, but not east of Altai. The Amur spinning top breeds in the south of the Far East.

Field signs. A very small heron (weight 136-145 g) with a long thick neck and a small head. The top of the head and back are black with a green tint, the bottom is buffy with a brown longitudinal pattern on the chest. The beak is yellow-green, the legs are green. The females have a dark brown upperparts. Twilight and nocturnal bird, lives alone, except for the nesting period. Remarkably hides in drive thickets. When a person approaches, the bird stretches its head and neck upwards and freezes in immobility, and it is almost impossible to distinguish it from the surrounding plant stems. Frightened, it easily rises into the air and, having flown a little, rushes again into the thickets from expansion. The flight is fast, reminiscent of the flight of a teal. He walks well, runs fast, climbs very dexterously in the thicket of reeds, holding on to the stems with his long fingers. She swims, but awkwardly, she can dive, especially when she is wounded. In spring, the call of the male can be heard both at night and during the day: it is two or three times “dumb” or “prumb”. At other times, birds emit a sharp and very fast "ke-ke-ke-ke" (Syroechkovsky, Rogacheva, 1995).

Spreading. Until recently, it was not observed in the region. In recent years, S.M. Prokofiev (1987) found single specimens of these birds in the Shirinsky district of Khakassia. In June 1979, a pair of spinning tops, in which nesting could be assumed, was met by him on one of the overgrown ponds 17 km from Minusinsk (Syroechkovsky, Rogacheva, 1995).

Habitats. Large and small lakes with thickets of aquatic vegetation (Syroechkovsky, Rogacheva, 1995).

Reproduction. Nests are built in dense thickets of reeds or on trees flooded with water; they are made of stems and leaves of reeds and have the shape of an inverted cone. Clutch - 4-9 white, slightly greenish eggs, polluted to a dark color by the end of incubation (Syroechkovsky, Rogacheva, 1995).

Food. It feeds on animal feed: small fish, frogs, tadpoles, all kinds of insects, snails, worms. On occasion, it eats eggs and even chicks of other birds, up to ducks and other herons (Syroechkovsky, Rogacheva, 1995).

Appearance and behavior. The smallest representative of the herons of our fauna, does not exceed in size, body length 33–38 cm, weight 100–150 grams, wingspan 52–58 cm. It has a light and slender build, very long-toed paws, a long and thin beak. Deftly climbs the stems of reeds and branches of bushes, wrapping their fingers around them, but most often it catches the eye flying low over water or over thickets. Compared to the bittern, it is far from being so secretive and allows itself to be examined much more often, although in case of danger it can also take a “hidden pose” with its neck and head stretched upwards. Active during the day and at dusk.

Description. Sexual dimorphism is well expressed, which is a unique phenomenon for our herons. The male is mostly pale buff, with a black back, cap, flight and tail feathers. In flight, the contrast between the black flight feathers and the light “shield” of the wing is striking. Paws are green, beak from light yellow to orange. The female is much dimmer, her black color is replaced by brown (many feathers have light borders), and pale buffy - by dirty sand, dark longitudinal stripes are noticeable on the neck (they are almost indistinguishable in the male). However, the characteristic two-tone coloration of the wing is also noticeable in her, although not so contrasting. In steady flight, like all herons, it folds its neck so that it looks short. Young birds are light brown in color with many longitudinal dark streaks. Chicks are covered with light red down.

Voice not as expressive as that of, although it remotely resembles it: these are low-pitched hoarse sounds, from a distance similar to rhythmic dog barking, but near - to a muffled aspiration. These cries are the "song" of the top, they can be heard in May and June, the rest of the time it is silent.

Distribution, status. Breeds on all continents and many islands of the Eastern Hemisphere, starting from the south of the taiga zone. In European Russia, north reaches approximately the latitude of St. Petersburg. In the north of the range it is rare and is not found in all suitable places; in the forest-steppe and steppe zone it becomes a fairly common species. Wintering areas are located far to the south of the area covered by the determinant - in the south of Asia and in tropical Africa, in European Russia it does not occur in winter.

Lifestyle. In spring, it arrives relatively late, at the end of April or May, and leaves early, in September. Settles in places where thickets of reeds and other grassy emersed vegetation alternate with dense flooded shrubs. It can live on relatively small bodies of water - river oxbow lakes, ponds and the like. Breeds in separate pairs, sometimes at short distances from each other.

The nest is most often placed on the branches of a flooded willow bush half a meter above the water or touches the base of the water and is a bowl-shaped structure made of leaves and reed stems. The tray is usually lined with reed leaves. At the beginning, the nest, like that of other herons, has the shape of an inverted cone, but later it is trampled down and becomes flat. Clutch contains up to 10 pure white eggs. Both parents incubate the clutch and feed the chicks. The newly hatched chicks are completely helpless, after a week they are already standing in the nest and, when a person approaches, they take the same position as adult birds, that is, they stretch their heads and necks up and remain motionless in this position. Very early, the chicks begin to deftly climb the branches and stems of the reed.

Chaplya-lasianik (earlier - Bugai are small)

The whole territory of Belarus

Family Herons - Ardeidae

In Belarus - I. m. minutus (the subspecies inhabits the entire Palearctic part of the species range).

Small breeding, migratory and transit migratory species. It is widely distributed, but in recent decades it has rarely been found almost everywhere. Most of the Belarusian population nests in Polesie.

Zoya Kiseleva, a pond in the md. "Gomselmash", Gomel

The smallest of our herons (smaller than a crow). In the color of the plumage of adult birds, sexual dimorphism is well expressed. The top of the head, back, feathers of the shoulders and uppertail are black with a greenish tint, the top of the neck is gray, the wing coverts are yellow, the ventral side is buffy with a brown longitudinal pattern, the flight and tail feathers are black. The beak is yellow-green, the legs are green. The dorsal side of the female is dark brown with buffy streaks, the sides of the head and neck are reddish-brown, and there is a longitudinal pattern on the front of the neck. Young birds are similar to the female, but there are more dark spots. The weight of males and females is 130-170 g, body length is 31.5-38.5 cm, wingspan is 50-55 cm.

Inhabits various reservoirs with developed coastal herbaceous-shrub vegetation. Keeps in thickets of willows and reeds along the banks of reservoirs, skillfully hiding. It is rare to see a top, usually in the evening hours, when this bird often makes flights from one area of ​​thickets to another. The voice of the male - a repeated jerky "bueh ..." - is also heard mainly at dusk and at night.

In spring, it arrives in April - the first decade of May. Migrates alone at night.

Valery Kiselyov, pond md. "Gomselmash", Gomel

Favorite nesting places are swampy floodplains of slowly flowing rivers with numerous backwaters and oxbows, gentle and low shores of lakes and reservoirs, low-lying swamps with areas of open water, fish ponds, old peat extraction areas with dense thickets of reed, cattail, willow and alder. For the location of the nest, the presence of extensive arrays of reeds or shrubs is not necessary; sometimes a small clump or a separate bush overgrown with grass, or a narrow strip of thickets along the edges of the dams of fish ponds, is enough. Nests were found even in old quarries and sewage treatment plants flooded with water and overgrown with cattail and willow bushes. Occasionally, the bird settles in small overgrown ponds on the outskirts of settlements or in bushy swamps adjacent to them. Due to a secretive way of life, more active at dusk, and also because of nesting in sparsely visited places, the bird rarely catches the eye. This may give the impression that it is rarer than it actually is. In nesting areas during the day, individuals can be observed flying over the vegetation of water bodies.

The bittern lives in single pairs, each pair occupies a relatively large nesting area. For the nest, it chooses areas of coastal shrubs or grassy-shrub thickets, often flooded with water or at its very edge. The nest is usually well hidden by the surrounding vegetation.

It is built in the lower forks of branches of shrubs or small trees, in a dense interweaving of stems of reeds, undersized willows, nightshade and sedges, on creases in curtains of dry reeds or cattails. The height of its location depends on the nature of the vegetation. Often, a nest built among surface herbaceous plants almost touches the surface of the water with its base, and if there are convenient forks in willow bushes, it can be found at a height of 50-70 cm, and sometimes even higher.

Valery Kiselyov, pond md. "Gomselmash", Gomel

The nest is built from pieces of dry stems of hard vegetation, often with an admixture of thin twigs of willow and alder, when nesting among shrubs - mainly from twigs. The building material does not twist, and at first the nest is a loose building in the form of an inverted cone with a weakly expressed tray, lined, although not always, with thinner stems and reed leaves. Nest height 12-15 cm (by the end of incubation 5-6 cm), diameter 17-25 cm; tray depth 1-3 cm, diameter 7-12 cm.

In a complete clutch, most often there are 6 eggs, but often 5, as well as 7. There are clutches of 4, and sometimes of 8-9 eggs. As an exception in Europe, a clutch of 10 eggs was noted. The shell is white, without a pattern, greenish in the light. Egg weight 12 g, length 35 mm (33-37 mm), diameter 26 mm (23-28 mm).

The clutches appear late - in late May - early June, occasionally, especially in the northern regions, only from mid-June. There is one brood per year. In water bodies with frequent and sharp fluctuations in the water level, many low-lying nests are flooded, and the birds are forced to nest again. In such places, it is not uncommon to find clutches at the end of June, and sometimes in July.

Both members of the pair incubate alternately for 16-19 days. The chicks remain in the nest for only 7-9 days, after which they begin to skillfully climb the branches of bushes and reed stems near the nest and leave the nests at the end of the third week of life. However, the young begin to fly only at the age of 30 days.

Autumn departure and migration occur in the 2nd decade of August - September, only a few individuals are found in the first half of October.

The basis of the food of the spinning top are aquatic invertebrates, frogs and small fish. Sometimes it eats eggs and chicks in the nests of small birds nesting in reeds.

The number in Belarus at the end of the XX century. was estimated at 300–600 pairs, the trend is a slight decrease. The Little Bittern has been listed in the Red Data Book of the Republic of Belarus since 1993.

The maximum registered age in Europe is 7 years 10 months.

Valery Kiselyov, md. "Gomselmash", Gomel

Valery Kiselyov, pond md. "Gomselmash", Gomel

Literature

1. Grichik V. V., Burko L. D. "Animal world of Belarus. Vertebrates: textbook" Minsk, 2013. -399 p.

2. Nikiforov M. E., Yaminsky B. V., Shklyarov L. P. "Birds of Belarus: A guide to identification of nests and eggs" Minsk, 1989. -479 p.

3. Gaiduk V. E., Abramova I. V. "Ecology of birds of the south-west of Belarus. Non-passerines: monograph". Brest, 2009. -300s.

4. Fransson, T., Jansson, L., Kolehmainen, T., Kroon, C. & Wenninger, T. (2017) EURING list of longevity records for European birds.

Little bittern is the smallest of our herons - it is the size of a corncrake or a thin month-old chicken: wing 13.8-16 cm, metatarsus 4.5-5.25 cm, tail 5-5.6 cm. black color with a slight metallic sheen on the back. The underparts and neck are sandy-buff with darker narrow long stripes and dark spots descending to the sides of the chest. The female, unlike the male, is reddish-brown above. Juveniles are similar to the female, but their heads are reddish-brown, the dark edges of the feathers of the back are wider, the wing coverts with dark core spots. The eyes and beak are yellow, the legs are greyish-green. The Little Bittern is distributed from Northwest Africa and adjacent islands.

Atlantic Ocean to the east to Semirechye and India. To the north, it reaches the Baltic Sea, the Leningrad Region, and approximately to 56 ° N. sh. in Siberia.

In spring, the bittern appears in late April - early May and soon spreads to nesting sites. Nest-building is preceded by pairing. This is accompanied by a characteristic croaking call of the male, games, fights between males, etc. Males fight both in thickets and in the air. Sometimes one of the males quietly sneaks up on the other and kills the opponent with a strong blow to the head.

The nest is built by the female. It looks like a heap of branches and blades of grass, is placed on the reeds, in willow bushes, or even on trees, at a height of 4-4.5 m above the ground. The Little Bittern nests in separate pairs, which is what it resembles, however, often several pairs nest separately in the same swamp. A full clutch of 4-8 eggs occurs at different dates in May. The eggs of the little bittern are white, evenly pointed at both ends, their size is 2.8-2.5 cm. The female incubates mainly, and the male does not leave her and feeds her when she builds a nest, and replaces incubation at first. Leaving the nest in mid-late July, the young begin to move along the branches and bushes and even along the blades of grass, then rise to the wing, and the entire brood disperses. At this time, small bitterns feed intensively and destroy a lot of eggs and chicks. In addition, the little bittern feeds on fish, frogs, molluscs and worms. The Little Bittern is a secretive and cautious bird, very vicious and gluttonous. She leads a twilight or even nocturnal lifestyle. At this time, she is awake and eats intensely, during the day she lurks in the thickets.

With the approach of twilight, and also early in the morning, the voice of the little bittern is often heard in the swamp, which looks like a muffled, abrupt bark, repeated quite rarely; the bird itself at this time usually sits quietly on a willow near the water and lets it get close enough to it that it can be reached with an oar.

The Little Bittern runs beautifully and climbs in the most inaccessible thickets. It takes off quickly and easily, its flight is even and rather fast, it flaps its wings frequently. In the event of danger approaching, the little bittern hides like a great bittern, crouching and stretching its neck, and does this both on the ground and sitting on a branch. The Little Bittern can not only swim, but also dives quite well.

In September, the flight of the small bittern to the south begins, stretching for the whole month. It winters in Africa and India.

In economic terms, the small bittern is a very harmful bird: due to its voracity, it exterminates a lot of chicks and eggs, not only small waders, but even ducks, and also eats a large number of fish fry.

Plan
Introduction
1 General characteristics
2 Distribution
3 Lifestyle
3.1 Nutrition
3.2 Voice
3.3 Breeding

Bibliography

Introduction

Little bittern, or spinning top (lat. Ixobrychus minutus) is a bird of the heron family, the smallest heron.

1. General characteristics

The height of the small bittern reaches only 36 cm. The weight is 136-145 g, the wing length is about 15 cm. The small bittern is the only representative of the stork order, in which the male and female differ in color. The male bittern has a black cap on its head with a green tint, wings and back, head and neck are creamy white, belly is buffy with whitish endings of feathers. The beak is yellow-greenish. The female is brown with streaks on the back, the belly, head and neck are buffy. The beak of the female is yellow with a brown end.

2. Distribution

The Little Bittern breeds in Europe, Central Asia, Western India, Africa and Australia. European bitterns are migratory birds that fly to Africa for the winter. In Russia, the small bittern can be found from the European part (in the north to St. Petersburg) to Western Siberia.

3. Lifestyle

The Little Bittern nests on the banks of large and small reservoirs with stagnant water, overgrown with vegetation. This bird leads a very secretive way of life, deftly climbing the reeds, grabbing the stems with tenacious long fingers. It flies not very willingly, only for short distances, very low over thickets or the surface of the water. Active mainly at night. In Europe, it arrives from winter quarters in April - early May, and departs for winter quarters in August-September. Like the great bittern, the little bittern flies to nesting sites and flies away for wintering singly, without forming flocks. Most often it flies at night.

Feeding The Little Bittern feeds on small fish, frogs, tadpoles, and aquatic invertebrates. Sometimes chicks of small passerines are caught. Voice

3.3. reproduction

Spinning tops nest singly or rarely in scattered colonies. Each pair occupies a fairly large nesting area. The nest is arranged in the thick of reeds or in the branches of a tree. The nest of a conical shape after the hatching of the chicks is trampled down and becomes flat. The Little Bittern lays its eggs between the beginning of June and the end of July, depending on the locality and climate. Clutch contains 5-9 white eggs. Both parents incubate and raise the chicks. Already at the age of a few days, the chicks of the Little Bittern deftly climb the reed stalks, grabbing them with long thin fingers. At the age of 7-12 days, the chicks can already leave the nest for a short time. At the age of 1 month, the little bittern chicks are already on the wing.

Bibliography:

1. Boehme R. L., Flint V. E. Five-language dictionary of animal names. Birds. Latin, Russian, English, German, French. / under the general editorship of acad. V. E. Sokolova. - M.: Rus. lang., "RUSSO", 1994. - S. 24. - 2030 copies. - ISBN 5-200-00643-0