Little bittern or spinning top. Summary: Little bittern. Distribution and abundance

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 rarely 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.

• 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 type 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).

The Little Bittern belongs to the order Ciconiiformes, the Heron family, the Little Bittern genus and the Little Bittern species. The second name of this bird is a spinning top.

Behavior and appearance

We can say that this is the smallest of the herons in our fauna, its body size is no larger than the size of a jackdaw, the body length is from 33 to 38 cm, the wingspan is from 52 to 58 cm, and the weight is from 100 to 150 grams. The physique is slender and light, the beak is thin and long, the paws are long-toed. She very easily moves along the reed stems and branches of bushes, deftly clasping them with her paws. Yet more often they have been seen flying quite low over thickets or water. If compared with the bittern, then the small bittern is not so secretive and can be seen more often, but still, in case of danger, it also takes a “hidden pose”, stretching its head and neck up. In the active state, they arrive at dusk and during the day.

Description

The little bittern has a very pronounced sex difference, although this is rare for herons. Males are most often pale buffy in color, their back, cap, tail and flight feathers are black. In the process of flight, the difference between the light “shield” of the wing and the black flight feathers is very striking. The beak of males can be from light yellow to orange, and the paws are green. The female is much duller. The black color is replaced by brown (many feathers have a light border), the pale ocher is replaced by a dirty sandy color, and dark stripes are visible on her neck (they are almost invisible in males). But the two-tone color of the wings, characteristic of the little bittern, can also be traced in the female, although not so contrasting. During the flight, the bittern folds its neck, and it looks quite short. Juveniles have a light brown plumage, with a large number of dark longitudinal streaks. Well, the chicks are covered with down, light red color.

The Little Bittern has a voice vaguely reminiscent of that of the Great Bittern, but it is not as expressive. She makes hoarse, low sounds, which, from a distance, may resemble dog barking, and near a slightly muffled aspiration. These sounds are called the "song" of the top, and they are heard in the May and June months. At other times, she is quite silent.

Little bittern in a nest with chicks

Spreading

Little bitterns build nests on the continents and islands of the Eastern Hemisphere of the Earth. These are Central Asia, Europe, Australia, Western India, Africa. In our country, it is found on the territory starting from the European part (north to St. Petersburg) and ending with Western Siberia. In European Russia, you will not meet this bird in winter; for the winter, it flies to Africa.

Lifestyle

They arrive in the spring in the last days of April or in May, and fly away for the winter in September. The small bittern, like the big one, flies away to spend the winter and returns to nesting alone. Stay does not form. More often they settle in places where emersed grassy vegetation and reed beds alternate with flooded dense shrubs. It can also choose small reservoirs for living - ponds, river oxbow lakes and similar places.

reproduction

Little bittern forms nests in separate pairs, which occupy a decent piece of land. Arrange nests so that they are well camouflaged in vegetation. The nest is usually built on the branches of a willow bush, it either touches the water with its base, or it can hang above the water at a distance of 50-60 cm. They are also found on low trees, in the plexus of reed stems. It turns out that the height of the nest depends on the vegetation on which it is located. The nest has a cup-shaped shape, initially it looks like an inverted cone, but over time it is trampled down and the bottom becomes flat. The building materials are dry, hard stems of vegetation, sometimes with the addition of alder and willow branches, but inside the nest is lined with reed leaves and thin stems. This type of bittern lays eggs from the first days of June to the last days of July. It depends on the climate and location. Usually 5 to 9 eggs are laid. Both male and female are engaged in incubation and upbringing of chicks. They incubate eggs for 16-19 days. After a few days, the babies begin to climb the reed stems, and after a week and a half, they leave the nest for a while. A month later, they are already beginning to rise on the wing.

Little bittern in flight

Food

Most often, they choose reed stems for hunting. They sit on these stems, which are located above the water itself, near the edge of dense thickets, in close proximity to clear water, and guard their prey. They feed on tadpoles, frogs, small fish, various aquatic invertebrates. They have also been seen destroying the nests of passerine birds that live in dense vegetation near water, stealing both their eggs and chicks.

Security

Many countries in Europe noted a clear decline in the number of small bitterns between 1970 and 1990. The main factor was reclamation, which led to the final disappearance of many small reservoirs, another factor was the destruction of coastal trees, thickets and shrubs for the use of reservoirs for economic purposes, as well as the destruction of nests by various predators.

The Little Bittern is listed in the Red Books of the Leningrad and Tver regions, as well as in the Red Books of the Estonian and Latvian Republics, Belarus. It is listed in the EU Directive on the Protection of Rare Birds, in Appendix 1, in Appendix 2 of the Berne Convention, in Appendix 2 of the Bonn Convention, this species is also assigned to SPEC 3.

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Appearance . The plumage of the back and upper part of the head is black, the chest and neck are buffy, the abdomen is white, the wings are yellow-pink with black tips. The legs are green, the beak is also with a greenish tint. The female is distinguished by a brownish back, and the young birds are completely brown with streaks.

Lifestyle . The top lives on reservoirs of various localities (forests, steppes, deserts), but always with thickets of reeds or shrubs. An ordinary migratory bird, but it is very difficult to detect it, because the spinning top is as cautious as possible, secretive and keeps only alone. Nesting is paired, prefers oxbow lakes, ponds, lakes or reservoirs, abundantly overgrown with reeds, reeds or willows. The nest is built from twigs and reed stalks, located low in trees, in a bush or on a bent reed. The shape is typical for herons, but smaller in size. Laying is carried out from mid-May to June, in laying 5-9 eggs, white with a rough shell. It is active only at night and at dusk. In case of danger, it hides, stretches up its beak and neck and becomes like a reed. It does not fly for long, takes off very easily and quickly, even through dense thickets, but at the same time it lands soon. The flight is relatively fast, often flapping its wings, and gliding when landing. It moves perfectly along reed stalks and bush branches, it catches prey from this position - sitting on a branch above the water surface. Food - frogs, small fish, insects. The voice of the spinning top depends on the time of year: in the spring - a jerky and deaf "pumb .. pumb", the rest of the time - a quick and clear "ke-ke-ke".

Similar types. It differs from other spinning tops by the black plumage of its back, and from other birds of the heron family by its small size. It does not occur together with other types of tops.

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.