Difference of a woodpecker from other birds. Great spotted woodpeckers - orderlies of the forest

About the nesting of woodpeckers should be told in more detail. In spring, almost all woodpeckers hollow out new hollows for nests. Before starting the construction of their capital dwelling, excited males scream and drum loudly.

The green woodpecker and the yellow are especially noisy. Drum roll plays the same role for woodpeckers as singing plays for songbirds. It is characteristic of all our woodpeckers, from a large, almost crow-sized, yellow woodpecker to a small Far Eastern small sharp-winged woodpecker. Only if the loud drum of the bell resounds throughout the forest, then the low trill of the small woodpecker can be heard only close by.

As " musical instrument» birds use a dry, well-resonant bough and, often, often knocking on it, produce a loud trill that merges into a single crackle. Then they begin to hollow out the hollow, spending about a month on this work. In many species of woodpeckers, the male begins to peck him, attracting the female with his work, loud cry and drumming. If she responds to the call of the gentleman, she herself will finish the decoration of the hollow.

Fresh hollows in the spring are easy to detect by wood dust brightening under a tree, thrown out by woodpeckers when cleaning dwellings. Naturally, the dwellings of woodpeckers of various species differ both in size and in a number of other features. About how you can find out which of the woodpeckers the found nest belongs to, and the conversation will go.

Nesting yellow

A hollow hollowed out by a bile tree in the trunk of a large living aspen (45 cm in diameter) at a height of 7 m from the ground (scratches from the claws of the hind legs of a bear cub climbing a tree are visible on the bark)

Zelna hollows holes in thick tall trees with a trunk diameter of about 45 cm. middle lane most often in aspens, pines and birches. However, the choice of wood depends on the structure of its wood and on the habitat of birds. In the western regions, birds use beech, pine, spruce, alder, oak, ash, poplar for the construction of dwellings.

In our area, the zhelny almost always hollow out a new hollow in the spring. Sometimes they make it in the same trunk, but above or below the old hollow. In the western parts of the range, where there are few trees suitable for nesting, black woodpeckers may use an old hollow several times.

Residential hollows of the zhelny were found at different heights, from 2.5 to 20 m. Under a fresh hollow, wood chips are always visible, clearly visible against the dark background of last year's rotten foliage. You notice it already from a distance of 10-15 m. The size of the chips is from 2.5 × 1 to 8 × 3 cm. They are clearly larger than under the nests of other woodpeckers.

The letok often has the shape of an elongated quadrangle, occasionally a pentagonal shape, but I more often found hollows with an oval or almost round inlet. The width of the notch is 6-7, the height is 9-14 cm. The hollow itself has the shape of a cylinder, it is 30-55 cm deep (in rare cases up to 1 m), and 15-20 cm wide. There is no bedding in it, with the exception of a small amount of the remaining wood dust.

The first laid eggs can be found from the end of April to the end of the first decade of May. They are of the correct form, white and glossy, averaging about 32 × 26 mm in size. Clutch contains 3-5 eggs. Both partners incubate them for 13 days. Hatching of chicks continues from mid to late May, and they fly out of the hollow 24-26 days after birth, most often in mid-June. For some time after that, the birds stay together. I observed a litter of 4 chicks sitting all day on a one and a half meter rotten birch stump.

After the zhelna, clintukhs, gray owl, owls, witter-neck, starling, redstart, field sparrow, pied flycatcher, and in the west, in addition to those listed, settle in its hollows - jackdaw, hoopoe, roller owl, goldeneye, horn-legged owl, swift.

During the non-breeding time, the zhelna spends the night in hollows even in summer. However, I have not seen this woodpecker hollowing out new holes for the night, as many of its other brethren do. Black woodpeckers climbed at night into old hollows with a hole darkened by time.

Nesting green woodpecker

The green woodpecker prefers to gouge hollows in aspens, birches, sedges, and willows. I saw his dwellings only in aspen and birch, and in old birch he hollowed out a hollow through the outgrowth of the fungus. (Subsequently, I also found hollows of the great spotted woodpecker, punched through the chaga - perhaps the wood affected by this fungus becomes less durable and easier to hammer.)

The hollows of the green woodpecker are most often located at a height of 3.5-5 m. The bark is often upholstered around the hole in the hollow. The internal dimensions of the hollow are (25-50) x (15-20) cm. In the clutch there are 5-8 pure white eggs of the correct shape, about 32 × 24 mm in size. Incubation lasts 16-18 days, longer than that of the zhelny, by 3-5 days. The chicks fly out at the end of June and in July. I have not found any data concerning the use of the old hollows of this woodpecker by other birds. AT Voronezh region I saw an old hollow of a green woodpecker in which rollers settled.

For the nests of the green woodpecker and yellow wood, the marten is dangerous, since the large width of the notch allows this predator to penetrate inside.

Nesting of the gray-haired woodpecker

The gray-haired woodpecker settles in hollows hollowed out in aspens, willows, lindens, beeches, oaks, spruces, pines, apple trees, and on Far East also in Chozenia. I have seen only in aspen and oak. Hollows were located at a height of 3.5-18 m, the notch was round, 6-7 cm in diameter.

The internal dimensions of the hollow are (25-33) x (15-20) cm. Chips under the nest are from 2.6 × 0.3 to 6 × 0.9 cm. The nest is without litter, there are only a few small chips at the bottom. The eggs are similar to those of other woodpeckers, they are white and regular in shape, and are always less than 3 cm long (28.4 x 22.4 and 29 x 24 mm).

White-backed woodpecker nesting

I found a hollow of a white-backed woodpecker in a small birch grove, but it was hollowed out in an aspen (21 cm in diameter) at a height of 1.8 m. the average size eggs 28×21 mm. The chicks of this woodpecker begin to squeal a week after hatching and are heard for 50-70 m. They are in the nest for 19-24 days. Departure in the second half of June - early July.

In the hollow I examined on next year after the woodpecker, the great tit nested. Hollows of this woodpecker are also found in rotten birches and alders.

Great spotted woodpecker nesting

The great spotted woodpecker hollows out hollows on the most different trees, but most of his dwellings are found in aspens. There are reports that in the Moscow region. 88% of hollows were placed on aspen, about 7% - on alder, 3% - on birch and 2% - on pines. I found the dwellings of this woodpecker in lindens, oaks, willows, Norway maple (in Moscow), walnut(in the Caucasus) and even in a wooden telegraph pole. The height at which the hollows were located was from 2 to 16, but more often 3-7 m.

The size of the chips under the nest is from 0.8 × 0.3 to 2.5 × 0.7 cm. The inlet (notch) is round, 4.5-5.6 cm in diameter. The internal size of the hollow is (23-30) x 15 cm. There is no nest litter, only a little wood dust.

Usually every spring this woodpecker hollows out a new hollow. But in 2003, in the near Moscow region, I watched how he recaptured an old hollow from a nuthatch and safely raised his offspring in it.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker chick that has not begun to fledge and an egg

In the clutch of this woodpecker there are 5-7 eggs measuring 27 × 21 mm, however, often even in one clutch they differ noticeably in size. The female lays eggs in different numbers May, both birds incubate them for 12-13 days. It is not entirely clear what woodpeckers do with eggshells after hatching. Only once did I find a “half” of a woodpecker egg stuck in the bark of a leaning birch. She was completely destroyed by the blows of her beak. Most likely, the woodpecker himself pulled it out of the hollow after the chick hatched and broke it with its beak. Chicks usually appear no earlier than the third decade of May and in June. A week after hatching, they begin to squeal loudly.

Those who managed to look at small, not yet feathered woodpeckers, could not help but be surprised at their strange looking. They are completely devoid of fluff, blind. In place of the eyes, bluish tubercles protrude from the orbit, and the long mandible protrudes far forward. On the bend of the leg, a thick calcaneal callus is visible, covered with bumpy skin.

The chicks stay in the nest for about 3 weeks. By the end of their stay in the hollow, it looks very untidy. Babies are selected from the hollow one by one. This lasts for about a week, and at the end of June, young woodpeckers can already be found in the forest, differing from older birds in a duller color, a grayish-pink undertail and a dull red top of the head. Soon after the young become independent, they begin to search for hazelnuts and peck at the still greenish pine and spruce cones.

After the great motley woodpecker, the wryneck, starling, nuthatch, crested and great tits, green tit, redstart, robin, pied flycatcher, field sparrow nest in its hollows.

Nesting of the Middle Spotted Woodpecker

The middle spotted woodpecker hollows out hollows in rotten trunks of thickets of wild fruit trees, as well as in birch bark. Sometimes the corridor is hollowed out from below the inclined horizontal bough. The hollow is located at a height of 1.85 to 3.5 m. Its depth is 18-25 cm. The letok is 4 cm in diameter. Clutch contains 3-6 eggs 22×18 or 25.5×26.1 mm in size. Incubation lasts 12-15 days. The chicks leave the nest at 20 days of age, usually in July.

Three-toed woodpecker nesting

The three-toed woodpecker is a taiga bird, therefore, in its original habitat, it makes hollows mainly on coniferous trees - spruce, larch.

In the middle lane, I found residential nests of this woodpecker only on aspens, at a height of 1-8 m from the ground. The internal dimensions of the hollow are (20-30) x (6-14) cm, it is wider at the bottom than at the top. Letok is rounded, 5-7 cm in diameter. At the bottom of the nest there is a litter of a layer of wood chips about 6 cm thick.

Clutch contains 3-6 eggs about 26×20 mm in size. The chicks hatch in May-June and leave the nest in July. The dimensions of the wood chips under the hollow are (3.5 × 0.8) - (5.5 × 1.7) cm. In autumn, these woodpeckers spend the night in hollows that are hollowed out in rotten birch trees. One day at the beginning of November, I saw a couple of woodpeckers one day, hard at work on hollows in different parts of the forest. Frost hit two days later.

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nesting

The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker nests in hollows of thin (10-20 cm) dead trees. I saw his living hollows in aspen, alder, poplar (in Moscow). His dwellings were also found in birches, willows, mountain ash.

According to my observations, the male hollows out the hollow and this is how it happens. On May 18, 1980, in the forest near Domodedovo, a male woodpecker, having performed several drum trills on a dry aspen bough, darted into an unfinished hollow of an aspen with a broken top next to the “musical” tree and began to throw out dust from there. He worked for about 30 minutes. And during this time he twice began to clean the hollow from the accumulated dust. The rest of the time there was a soft tapping inside the hollow. For the first time during the cleaning, his head from the hollow with a portion of dust was shown 15 times in a row. The bird's forehead played the role of a bulldozer. The second time, the woodpecker threw out the dust 9 times in a row, then 3, and again 9 times. The intervals between chiselling and cleaning the hollow were different. After half an hour of work, he flew away.

The hollows of these woodpeckers are found at a height of 0.4 to 12 m. The diameter of the notch is from 3.2 to 4 cm. The entrance to the hollow is round. The hollow itself has the shape of a bag, it is 17 cm deep and 7.3 cm wide; other sizes of hollows are also indicated - (15-17-21) x (7.3-16) cm. In the latter case, the hollow should have an almost round shape, but I have not seen such hollows. The size of the wood chips under the hollow is 1x0.5 cm, but more often it is much smaller. There is no bedding inside the hollow.

In a clutch there are from 4 to 8, but more often 5-6 eggs about 19.5-14.5 mm in size. Incubation continues 13-14. feeding chicks -20 days. After hatching, the chicks are fed by adults for some time. I saw a male feeding a fledgling. Gathering the ants scurrying along the bark of a tree, he shoved them into the woodpecker's mouth.

During the non-breeding time, these birds hollow out new hollows for the night. I found them in rotten alder stumps and dry poplar trunks. One of the hollows, discovered by me in October, was located at a height of 1.6 m in the trunk of a rotten alder. The diameter of the notch was 3.3, the depth of the hollow was 25 cm. Fresh dust lay under the hollow.

In the old hollows of the small spotted woodpecker, great, crested tits, blue tit, as well as pied flycatchers and hazel dormouse nest.

Woodpeckers belong to the woodpecker order and form which unites about thirty genera and two hundred and twenty species. Almost all woodpeckers lead either sedentary life, or nomadic.

Flights, as a rule, are made only for insignificant distances, and they fly reluctantly. Woodpeckers do not form colonies, but almost always live alone.

Woodpeckers are small to medium sized birds. Their body length varies from eight to fifty centimeters, and their weight is from seven to four hundred and fifty grams. A woodpecker that lives in South America has a weight of seven grams - it is a golden woodpecker (its body length is only eight centimeters).

The largest member of the family lives in South-East Asia. This is a big Muller woodpecker. The length of his body exceeds sixty centimeters, and his weight is six hundred grams.

The distribution range of woodpeckers covers forest areas. This feature of their life was reflected in particular in the structure of the legs of these birds. Woodpecker legs are short. Long fingers (two of which are directed forward and two back) are endowed with sharp claws.

Basically, individuals of all types of woodpeckers, when climbing trees, have support in the form of tail feathers, which are very well developed in them. The exception is woodpeckers, which form a subfamily.

The beak of woodpeckers is strong and thin. It serves to hollow out wood or bark in search of food or when arranging a nest. For these purposes, the beak of the spiny necks is not suitable. It is too weak and not intended for chiselling wood.

Woodpeckers have a rough long tongue. It serves to extract the detected insect from the passages in the wood. The diet of some woodpeckers includes termites, ants, and even berries, and winter time- plants' seeds.

Woodpecker clutches usually contain three to seven eggs. white color with a shiny surface. Incubation period varies from ten to twelve days. Both the female and the male take part in incubation. Chicks are born helpless and naked.

The distribution range of woodpeckers is huge. These birds are distributed almost everywhere. They cannot be found except in the polar regions, in Madagascar, New Guinea, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland and on some oceanic islands. In Russia, you can meet representatives of fourteen species of the woodpecker family. Of these, the most common are the small motley, large motley, three-toed gray-haired, green woodpeckers, as well as the wryneck and bile. Woodpeckers populate woodlands. Often these birds are tied to forests. Here they live, equipping their dwelling on trees, and feed here. Biodiversity provided, including climatic conditions- abundance contributes, for example, high relative humidity air. The fact is that in humid air more trees susceptible to decay and fungal infection. Thus, ideal conditions for the existence of insects are created. And already the latter are included in the diet of woodpeckers. There are some species of woodpeckers that have been able to adapt to living in desert conditions. This, for example, is found on the territory South America the Andean avocet woodpecker and the South African ground woodpecker found in Africa. Practically only on earth does the green woodpecker find its food.

Woodpeckers nest in hollows. This applies to all members of the family. An interesting fact is that some individuals hollow hollows on their own (they belong to most species of the family), and some do not. For example, vertices are simply not able to hollow out a hollow themselves. However, these birds are able to deepen or expand an existing hollow. As a rule, the construction and arrangement of one hollow takes about two weeks. But the cockade found in the southeast of the United States can build one hollow for several years.

White-billed woodpecker - inhabitant North America. Individuals of the white-billed woodpecker are found in the southeast of this mainland. Representatives of the species have mastered vast areas of swampy forests. Coloring is rigorous. Black is the main color of the white-billed woodpecker's plumage. There are wide white stripes on the sides of the neck (starting from the back of the head). These stripes are connected to each other on the back. Almost the entire wing of the white-billed woodpecker also has a white color. Representatives of this species are endowed with a beautiful crest. In the female it is black, while in the male it is bright red. The beak of the white-billed woodpecker is gray, thanks to which this woodpecker got its name. The white-billed woodpecker has big sizes. The length of his body exceeds half a meter. These woodpeckers live in pairs. Perhaps the established couples persist throughout life. The diet of white-billed woodpeckers, as a rule, includes pupae, larvae and adults of beetles; at the end of summer and autumn they diversify it with fruits and berries of wild trees.

The breeding season for white-billed woodpeckers is in March. These birds are extremely careful. During the nesting period, they look for the most secluded corners of the forest. A hollow is built only in the trunk of a living tree. As a rule, they are oak. The hollow is equipped at a significant height. Often the entrance to the hollow is under a branch or big bough. This is necessary in order to protect the hollow from water flowing into it in rainy weather. The hollow is hammered by both the male and the female. The number of eggs in a clutch varies from five to seven. They have a pure white surface. The eggs are placed directly on the bottom of the hollow. In the south of the range of white-billed woodpeckers, chicks hatch twice a season. AT northern regions In the distribution area of ​​\u200b\u200bwoodpeckers, only one clutch per season is observed.

The habits of the white-billed woodpecker are special. These birds have an unusually beautiful wavy flight, and during the flight from one tree to another, the white-billed woodpecker first rises to the very top of the tree and then plans down. At the same time, he describes a smooth arc (does not flap his wings). White-billed woodpecker rarely travels long distances. To a much greater extent, he prefers climbing on tree branches and trunks. Often jumps from one tree to another.

The voice of the white-billed woodpecker can be heard within a radius of one kilometer. White-billed woodpeckers emit a three-syllable, clean, pleasant and sonorous cry "pet-pet-pet" so often that it is sometimes difficult to answer the question of whether these birds are silent for at least a minute throughout the day.

Careful examination of trunks by woodpeckers is important for finding food. These birds start their search for food from the bottom of the tree. The woodpecker moves up in a spiral, examining not only the trunk, but also large branches. Woodpeckers gouge cracks and cracks in the bark, where they find insects. Woodpeckers are very strong birds. They can beat off a chip twenty centimeters long with just one blow of their beak. When woodpeckers look for a shrunken tree, they knock down a couple of square meters of the surface of its trunk in just a couple of hours.

The beauty of white-billed woodpeckers is the reason for their destruction. People kill these birds for their unusual head. Travelers often crave to get the head of this woodpecker as a keepsake. For them, this is a kind of souvenir, reminiscent of those places where the white-billed woodpecker lives on marshy soils. Today, the white-billed woodpecker has become a rare bird. Moreover, in a significant part of its distribution area, it has already disappeared.

The acorn woodpecker is thrifty. Its reserves are huge. In autumn, acorn woodpeckers gouge out thousands of small holes in the trunks and branches of pines, eucalyptus, and oaks. They serve as a place for acorns. Sometimes woodpeckers make similar cells even in telegraph poles. Moreover, the sizes of woodpecker pantries are amazing. For example, in one of the forests of California, California, there were about twenty thousand acorns that were driven into the bark of a sycamore tree by an acorn woodpecker. Moreover, about fifty thousand acorns were found in the bark of one pine tree.

Acorn woodpeckers live in separate groups. Each group includes from three to twelve woodpeckers and occupies a rather large territory. Foreign individuals are expelled from the occupied territory, and each member of the group participates in protection. The whole group harvests acorns together and also uses the harvested stocks together if necessary. With the onset of spring, the folded group does not break into separate pairs. One common nest is arranged, and all females lay eggs in it. The incubation of the masonry also occurs collectively, as well as the feeding of the offspring that have been born. The monogamous lifestyle of acorn woodpeckers is rare and almost always temporary. Those are the instincts.

The green woodpecker is distinguished by its beauty. The wings and the dorsal side of the body have a yellowish color, the flight feathers are endowed with a brown color, and the rump is brilliant yellow. The tail is brownish black. It is decorated with transverse stripes of grayish color. The back of the head and top of the head are reddish, while the cheeks and eye area are black. The ventral side of the body of the green woodpecker is pale green. This color is diversified by dark streaks. The body shape of the green woodpecker is somewhat similar to that of the great spotted woodpecker. However, the size of the green woodpecker is somewhat larger. The body length of a green woodpecker varies from thirty-five to thirty-seven centimeters, and the weight reaches two hundred and fifty grams.

The green woodpecker is an inhabitant of mixed and deciduous European forests. It is found east of the Volga, as well as in the Caucasus and Asia Minor. The green woodpecker prefers to develop territories where forests are replaced by open spaces, and open spaces by forests. It most willingly settles in forests rich in trees of different ages. The diet of these birds includes a variety of insects, but ants are the most preferred food. The last woodpecker is ready to eat in huge quantities. Green woodpeckers, like other woodpeckers, look for insects on tree trunks, but to catch ants, a green woodpecker is forced to descend to the ground (which, in principle, does not without hunting). Woodpeckers make deep passages inside the discovered anthills. Similarly, green woodpeckers look for pupae of these insects.

Green woodpeckers are cautious birds. Educated pairs of individuals equip hollows at a distance from each other. In this regard, meeting representatives of this species is not an easy task. Green woodpeckers, however, give out their location during the nesting period, when they begin to publish loud screams. Moreover, both the male and the female scream throughout the day in the next order. Green woodpeckers hollow out hollows mainly in old and decaying trees. It can be willows, sedge, aspens. Eggs are laid in May. One clutch consists of five to nine shiny white eggs. Both parents are involved in incubation of eggs and subsequent feeding of chicks.

The ground woodpecker is a medium-sized bird. The body length of the earthen woodpecker is approximately twenty-five centimeters. The earthen woodpecker has a rather modest plumage color - it is predominantly olive-brown in color. The head of the earthen woodpecker is gray.

The earthen woodpecker is an inhabitant of the South American territories. He prefers to stick to treeless areas. The earthen woodpecker often inhabits the slopes of ravines, high banks of rivers or outcrops of mountain slopes. This kind of terrain is unusual for most members of the family. The earthen woodpecker managed to adapt to such living conditions as much as possible. Representatives of this species can occasionally be seen in thickets of dense shrubs. On the ground, earthen woodpeckers move by jumping, this is where the name of the species came from - these woodpeckers do not hammer the bark and wood of trees, but they are able to make moves on hillsides, etc. They need moves both for arranging a home and in search of food. The length of the dwelling of an earthen woodpecker (where offspring is born) reaches about one meter - in appearance it looks like a hole, which at the end forms a small cave. Ground woodpeckers, as a rule, cover the bottom of this cave with shreds of animal hair. The laying of earthen woodpeckers contains from three to five eggs. The eggs are pure white. For a significant part of their lives, representatives of this species dig in the ground in order to find food. Ground woodpeckers can also find food on the surface of the earth. Their diet includes insect larvae and adults, in addition, spiders and worms diversify the diet.

The golden woodpecker is endowed with a bright color. The coloring of this woodpecker is quite bright and beautiful. The dorsal side of the body of this small bird (the body length of the earthen woodpecker is approximately twenty-seven centimeters) has a clay-brown color, which is diversified by black transverse streaks and a white uppertail. The ventral side of the body of the golden woodpecker has a white color, against which black spots stand out. A red stripe encircles the gray head of the golden woodpecker. The tail feathers and flight feathers are golden in color. When flying, representatives of this species flap their wings quite often. The distribution area of ​​​​the golden woodpecker covers the flat territories of the North American continent. The meat of the golden woodpecker is highly valued by hunters.

The red-headed woodpecker is a typical inhabitant of the North American continent. The red-headed woodpecker is relatively small - its body length reaches only twenty-three centimeters. This woodpecker has a dense physique. Its neck is short and its head is large. In North America, red-headed woodpeckers try to stick to sparse forests. For feeding, these birds often fly to the edges. Sometimes these woodpeckers fly into settlements. In the spring, red-headed woodpeckers rarely build a new hollow. Basically, these birds look for existing hollows, clear, "reconstruct" and use them. If several hollows are hollowed out on one tree, then only one of them is again occupied. Red-headed woodpeckers hollow out hollows only in old shrunken trees, while they cannot build a nest in healthy trees.

The red-headed woodpecker has a mischievous disposition. These birds are very inhospitable. They can, for example, knock on the roofs of residential buildings with their beaks and climb on their windows. It is not uncommon for red-headed woodpeckers to hide when a person approaches, and then reveal themselves by drumming on where they are sitting. Thus, they seem to laugh at a person who did not immediately notice their presence. Red-headed woodpeckers can also cause trouble economic life person. Huge flocks these woodpeckers devastate orchards, eat berry crops, etc. These birds deal with apples in a very interesting way - with all their might, plunging their beak into the fruit, they pluck it. With this uncomfortable burden, the red-headed woodpecker flies up to the nearest fence, where, after breaking it into pieces, it eats it. Red-headed woodpeckers cause great damage to grain fields. These birds not only eat grains, they also trample the ears into the ground or simply break them.

Red-headed woodpeckers are capable of predation. These birds do not mind drinking the eggs they find in the nests of small birds. Having satisfied their hunger, individuals of this species gather in small flocks. At this time, they begin hunting for insects. Sitting on the branches, they look out for flying insects, and then, with the help of turns and pirouettes, they grab them. This scene is very interesting to watch. The diet of these woodpeckers includes insects, berries and fruits, as well as grains and seeds of various plants.

The copper woodpecker is an inhabitant of the territories of North America. The distribution area covers the semi-desert western regions of the mainland. The lifestyle of the copper woodpecker is somewhat identical to the lifestyle of the golden woodpecker (in part, these two species are similar in appearance). An important distinguishing feature of the copper woodpecker is its ability to prepare food. This feature is extremely important for those harsh conditions for birds where the copper woodpecker lives. The area, which is lifeless for almost the entire year, on which the copper woodpecker lives, has a negative impression on any traveler who finds himself here, for whom a meeting with copper woodpeckers can be very joyful and positive. In the dry stems of agaves (in the lower part of the stem, and then above, small holes are made), representatives of this species create a kind of pantries - here the birds hide acorns. If the stalk of the agave is split down, it will be found that it is full of acorns, for the stock of which the woodpecker is forced to spend a lot of energy. However, forces and time are needed not only for the construction of such warehouses, but also for finding the acorns themselves. It is possible to get them only from the slopes of the nearest mountains, so copper woodpeckers are forced to make kilometer flights. During the dry season, copper woodpeckers can be seen in places where agaves form thickets - here are the warehouses of these woodpeckers. During the rainy season, copper woodpeckers disperse into the valleys - here they find insects, mainly ants.

The sharp-winged woodpecker is a small bird. Its size does not exceed the size of this woodpecker is endowed with a variegated plumage color. His coloring is garish. hallmark representatives of this species is the presence of sharp wings. The distribution area of ​​​​these woodpeckers covers the territories of Sakhalin, the Ussuri Territory, the Japanese and southern Kuril Islands, the Korean Peninsula, as well as the northeastern provinces of China. During the nesting period, sharp-winged woodpeckers try to stick to plantations of soft tree species. It can be poplars, lindens, velvets, etc. In such trees, it is easier for woodpeckers to hollow out a hollow for themselves or find an existing one. Laying is in May. The rest of the time, representatives of this species can be found in flocks of tits. Together with these birds, sharp-winged woodpeckers look for insects, carefully examining the surface of shrubs and trees.

The three-toed woodpecker is an unusual bird. She is very beautiful and brightly colored. Black streaks adorn the white back of the three-toed woodpecker. The tail is black, edged with white stripes. The female three-toed woodpecker has a gray crown, while the male has a yellow one. A distinctive feature of this species is the absence of one toe. Three-toed woodpeckers have only one toe facing back and two facing forward. The three-toed woodpecker is small. The length of the wing of an individual varies from twelve to thirteen centimeters. The distribution range of these woodpeckers covers the territories of Eastern and Central Europe, Siberia, North America. Three-toed woodpeckers prefer to inhabit dense coniferous forests. In the southern regions of their distribution range, they live in mountain forests.

The breeding season for three-toed woodpeckers starts early. It starts from February and continues until May. At this time, males actively knock on dry branches with their beaks, drawl and chirp. Three-toed woodpeckers build hollows in spruces and larches (the latter option is preferable for these birds), most often these are charred or decaying trees. Sometimes you can find a hollow of a three-toed woodpecker even in stumps. Representatives of this species, as a rule, build a hollow at a height of one to six meters. The clutch consists of three to six white eggs. Some time after the chicks fly out of the nest, they wander through the forest with their parents. However, the brood soon disintegrates.

The three-toed woodpecker is a voracious bird. And very useful for the forest. Within one winter day this bird is able to tear off the bark from the spruce that is infested with bark beetles, and the number of larvae of the latter reaches approximately ten thousand pieces! But even if the three-toed woodpecker cannot cope with so much food in a day, the bark beetle larvae will still die in the cold.

The color of different individuals of the red woodpecker varies. The main tone of the plumage of some individuals of this species is really red or rusty-red. The coloration of other individuals may be dark chestnut or Brown color. The tail and wings of the red woodpecker have transverse black stripes. The plumage of representatives of this species is covered with a sticky substance - these are the juices of ants crushed by red woodpeckers. The plumage of red woodpeckers is saturated with the smell of formic acid. The red woodpecker is small bird- The length of his body is approximately twenty-five centimeters. One more interesting feature is underdevelopment thumb. Because of this, the paws of the red woodpecker at first glance seem to be three-toed.

The red woodpecker builds unique nests. In fact, they don't build them at all. Red woodpeckers make their nest in an anthill. True, anthills are also unusual - they are built by large ants directly in the crowns of trees at a height of two to twenty meters from the surface of the earth. But the most surprising thing is that the ants do not touch the female incubating the eggs and the eggs themselves, although the female of the red woodpecker easily pecks at the ant pupae. The clutch of the red woodpecker consists of three eggs. At first, the eggs have a white surface, but constant contact with formic acid does its job, and after a while the surface of the eggs becomes brownish.

The great spotted woodpecker has a variegated plumage color. This is really very beautiful bird. The main plumage colors are black and white. Distinctive feature females from the male is the absence of a red spot on the crown.

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Woodpecker - This bird belongs to the woodpecker order. It is mostly small. Appearance and color features depend on the species. Around the world, there are about 380 species of these birds. On the territory of Russia, there are mainly large motley, small motley, green, gray-haired, three-toed woodpeckers, as well as an ordinary wryneck and bile. There are four families in woodpeckers proper. Woodpeckers live almost everywhere where there is tree and shrub vegetation. On the territory of Russia, woodpeckers are most often found in forest areas where birds eat various tree insects.

The Great Spotted Woodpecker weighs about 100 grams and is about 23-26 centimeters long. The color scheme consists of white and black. The eyes of the bird are red, the beak is black in color, the legs stand out for their dark brown color. Top part back, head and neck predominantly blue-black. The belly is grayish-white in color. hallmark the male from the female is the presence of a red spot on the crown of the head of the male. The tail is not very large. It consists of hard, elastic feathers, which are a kind of woodpecker support when moving along a tree trunk. These birds, although they can fly perfectly, still prefer climbing. In Russia, the great spotted woodpecker is found in the Caucasus, Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Kuril Islands, in Siberia(excluding the northern parts) and in Primorye.

During the day, the woodpecker is constantly looking for food. Located in the lower part of the trunk, the woodpecker rises in a spiral. Having carefully checked the trunk and large branches at a height of up to 12-16 m, the bird goes to another tree. Having found insects under the bark, the woodpecker gets to work. With powerful blows of the beak, he breaks the bark or makes a small hole. With a sticky tongue, he takes out larvae and insects (ants, bark beetles, barbels, weevils, leaf beetles). The tongue of a woodpecker is usually somewhat longer than the length of its body. In autumn, birds feed on seeds that are extracted from cones.

In the period from April to May, the female lays eggs in the amount of 5-7 pieces. Both the female and the male take part in incubation. After 12-13 days, chicks appear. At birth, they do not see anything and do not make any sounds. Having grown stronger, the cubs begin to scream loudly, asking for food. Their cry spreads over a distance of 80-100 meters. Every 2-4 minutes, parents bring them food, in search of which they can fly 10 hectares from the nest. The first 3 weeks the chicks spend in the nest. In color, young individuals practically do not differ from their parents. Woodpeckers prefer a sedentary lifestyle, but in the absence of food they fly.

The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is one of the smallest representatives of woodpeckers. Its body is slightly larger than that of a sparrow. A distinctive feature of the color is the absence of red plumage in the undertail area. On the territory of Russia, the small spotted woodpecker is found in the Caucasus, in (except for the north of the taiga), spreading east to Sakhalin and Kamchatka. The woodpecker prefers to be placed in deciduous and mixed forests, in floodplain groves, where sunlight penetrates in sufficient quantities.

Unlike the large spotted woodpecker, the small one spends no more than a minute in search of food on one tree. In winter, he searches for food on small twigs of trees. It cannot get the seeds out of the cones, because it has a very small beak. Eats insects: barbel beetle, bark beetle, carpenter ant. During the nesting period, the birds try not to attract attention to themselves, but the rest of the time they are very noisy. Birds make their nest in a rotten tree. The female has 5-7 eggs, which she lays in the nest without bedding. At birth, the chicks lack plumage.

Green woodpeckers - enough large view, with green plumage in the abdomen. Green woodpeckers live in the forest or copses, almost throughout Russia, avoiding northern latitudes Siberia. Their nests are located in a hollow. They cover the nest with wood dust. Green woodpeckers eat insects (they are very fond of ants). Insects are caught by sharp blows of the beak on the bark of a tree or they are taken out with a sticky tongue. Unlike other representatives of the woodpecker genus, green woodpeckers spend less time on trees. Very often they get their food on the ground - in anthills.

The gray-haired woodpecker is a bird of a dull green color. Its rump has a greenish-yellow color. The head, neck and ventral part have a grayish plumage. Males have a red spot on their foreheads, and black plumage resembling a mustache on the sides of their heads. The color of the chicks is dominated by brownish tones, "whiskers" are absent. Woodpeckers live mainly in deciduous and mixed forests. On the territory of Russia, the gray-haired woodpecker is found from the western regions of the country to Sakhalin.

From food, the gray-haired woodpecker prefers ants, which it gets both from under the bark of trees and from anthills. For nesting, it chooses a forest area that is well lit. Sometimes it can settle in a coniferous forest. Nests are located in hollows, which it makes in trees with non-solid wood. Nests are located at a distance of 3-5 meters from the ground. In order to make the nest cozier, the woodpecker uses small wood chips as bedding. The female in early May lays from 3 to 7 eggs with a white, sparkling shell. The incubation period is up to 17 days. In June - July, chicks are born. The grey-haired woodpecker leads a sedentary lifestyle, moving short distances only in winter.

The three-toed woodpecker is found throughout the forest territory of Russia, but mainly lives in the northern part of its range. The size of the woodpecker does not exceed the thrush. The bird has a black and white plumage color scheme. Compared with other representatives of the order of woodpeckers, the color of the three-toed is distinguished by darker tones. As the name implies, this bird has three fingers, the rest of the woodpeckers have four. Two fingers point forward and one back. These birds are very fast in flight. Woodpeckers prefer to settle in dense coniferous forests.

Three-toed woodpeckers eat mainly insects living on trees. The bird has its nests in mixed or coniferous forests. The woodpecker is not averse to settling in wet, even swampy places. The optimal habitat for it are the places of fires, where a large number of dead trees. The woodpecker arranges its nests in hollows, which it makes at a height of 1 to 6 m. The female lays 3-5 eggs. Throughout the year, the woodpecker stubbornly destroys various tree pests, providing irreplaceable benefits for the coniferous forest.

Based on materials big encyclopedia Russia

Detachment - Woodpeckers

Family - Woodpeckers

Genus/Species - Dendrocopos major

Basic data:

DIMENSIONS

Length: 22-23 cm.

Wingspan: 34-39 cm.

Weight: 80

BREEDING

Puberty: from 1 year.

Nesting period: from April to June.

Carrying: one a year.

Number of eggs: 4-7.

Feeding chicks: 20-24 days.

LIFESTYLE

Habits: stay alone in their own territories.

Food: insects living in wood, seeds, nuts, fruits, eggs and chicks of other birds.

Sounds:"kick".

Lifespan: about 11 years old.

RELATED SPECIES

The closest relative of the big spotted woodpecker- Syrian woodpecker, which is also found in the southeast of Austria.

This bird with black-white-red plumage is as widespread today as it was before. The sound of the great spotted woodpecker is heard not only in the forest - the bird has adapted to life in city gardens and parks. Large spotted woodpeckers are especially willing to settle in birdhouses hung for other birds.

WHAT DOES IT FEED

Great spotted woodpeckers feed on spiders, insects and their larvae, they also consume plant food. Woodpecker larvae are found in cracks and voids under the bark. The bird taps the tree with its beak, examining whether there are larvae there. By setting exact location where the prey is located, the woodpecker with the help of its beak expands the hole in the bark and pulls the prey out from under it with the tip of a long, rough tongue. Throughout the year, woodpeckers feed on berries, nuts, and cone seeds. Plant food in the diet of woodpeckers prevails in winter, when insects and larvae are scarce. Woodpeckers make special "anvils" that they use to break a nut or peel a cone: usually a crack in the bark or in a tree trunk, into which a tidbit is placed in a hard "package". Having coped with one prey, the bird puts another. The great spotted woodpecker has been using its "anvil" for quite a long time.

LIFESTYLE

The great spotted woodpecker is the most numerous representative of the woodpecker family, common in Europe. Its range spans from coniferous forests Scandinavian peninsula to deciduous forests in the Mediterranean region.

The great spotted woodpecker lives at different altitudes: from zero to more than 1000 m above sea level. It can be found both in the forest and in the center big city. It nests in ancient cemeteries, parks and gardens, provided that many old trees have been preserved in them. A woodpecker will never live on a single tree that stands in a field, since it will not provide food for it and will not be a convenient place for a nest. For nesting, the bird chooses a tall dead or partially damaged tree with rotten wood, in which it is easy to hollow out a hollow.

In most parts of its range, the great spotted woodpecker leads a sedentary life and rarely flies further than 10-15 km from the nest in which it was born. However, great spotted woodpeckers living in Siberian and Scandinavian coniferous forests often migrate in search of places with the biggest harvest cones.

BREEDING

Every year in early spring, males begin to tap "drumroll" on the trees. So they chase away competitors and attract females. marriage ritual includes playing in the air "tags" between the trees and dancing - flying with wings and tail widely spaced. Birds that have entered into a "marriage alliance" choose an old rotten tree for nesting, in which, at a height of 1 to 20 m above the ground, a hollow is hollowed out - a pear-shaped chamber with a narrow corridor that leads outside. The inside of the chamber is covered with wood shavings. A pair of large spotted woodpeckers takes turns incubating the clutch. In order for the chicks to grow well, parents often have to fly hunting and get caterpillars, which the kids immediately eat. Often only the strongest of the chicks reach sexual maturity. Most woodpecker babies die.

After leaving the nest, the chicks sleep for several nights, leaning against a tree trunk. Then they look for more suitable places for spending the night, occupy empty other people's hollows or hollow out their own. Young woodpeckers quickly learn the art of foraging. 8-10 days after departure from the nest, the parents drive out the young, forcing them to start an independent life.

Great Spotted Woodpecker OBSERVATIONS

The great spotted woodpecker is a common bird. His knocking, as well as his rattling voice, can often be heard in the forest. But to see it is not easy - for this you need to look at large old trees for a long time. If you sneak closer, you will see red feathers on the underside of the bird's tail. A red spot on the head indicates that you have a male in front of you. A great spotted woodpecker chick can be mistaken for a medium spotted woodpecker, which has the same red cap on its head, only without a black border. The European Spotted Woodpecker is an inhabitant of mixed lowland forests. From big woodpecker it is smaller and faster.

• In the past, people believed that knocking was one of the sounds that a woodpecker makes. Only in 1930, it was proved that this sound occurs when a woodpecker strikes a tree with its beak.
• seeds from pine cone the great spotted woodpecker pecks out in less than four minutes, making 800 blows with its beak. On a winter day, the bird eats about 1700 pine seeds, 8000 larch seeds or 10700 juniper seeds.
• The great spotted woodpecker is a useful bird, a real forest orderly. Contrary to popular belief, the woodpecker, destroying insect pests, hollows out only diseased trees. Empty hollows left by woodpeckers are occupied by other birds, as well as bats.

FEATURES

Chick: the plumage color is the same as that of an adult bird, with one characteristic feature - a bright red cap with a dark border on the head.

Plumage: the feathers of a large woodpecker are speckled with large white spots; only its back is black. White feathers around the ears and cheeks and edging with black stripes running from the beak to the neck. The belly is white, the flight feathers have parallel white stripes. The male has a red spot on the back of the head; birds of both sexes have red feathers on the underside of the tail.

Legs: two fingers are directed forward and two back - thanks to their arrangement, the woodpecker can climb a vertical surface.

Eggs: a woodpecker in a pear-shaped hollow lays 4-7 white shiny eggs.

Woodpecker language: The woodpecker knocks on the tree with its beak, listening for voids in which the larvae can hide. The bird takes out prey with its tongue, to which insects stick or are pierced by its end.

- Range of Great Spotted Woodpecker

WHERE Dwells

Great spotted woodpeckers nest throughout Europe, with the exception of Ireland and Iceland, and also in a wide Asian strip to Kamchatka and North Vietnam.

PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION

The populations of this woodpecker are quite numerous, in some places of the range their numbers are even increasing. Birds are disappearing from industrial areas and places mass felling forests.

Report on the topic "Woodpecker" tell you about these wonderful animals.

woodpecker report

The woodpecker is a bird from the woodpecker family, which has about 220 species. The most common are the Greater and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers. Main habitat - North Africa and Europe, and only 5 species live on the American continent.

What does a woodpecker eat?
The woodpecker feeds mainly on bark beetle larvae and insects, which it takes out from under the bark.

The woodpecker is a very useful bird, it saves trees from bark beetles. Eats 750-900 bark beetles per day. Every year he makes a new hollow for himself, and leaves the old one for other birds.

In winter, the woodpecker feeds on the seeds of coniferous trees.

Woodpecker Description

The woodpecker has a variegated coloration. He climbs trees well, they help him in this: short legs with sharp claws. The hard tail makes it possible to securely rest against the trunk in order to form a strong support. The woodpecker's beak is straight, strong and sharp.

The device of the skull of this bird allows you to protect the brain from sharp and frequent blows. In addition to the strong bone of the head, there is a whole softening system, represented by additional fluids and sinuses.

The nest is made jointly by the male and female, hollowing it out in the trunk of an aspen, alder or birch. At night, woodpeckers rest in an upright position, clinging their claws to a tree trunk or to the walls of a hollow.

The woodpecker is called the orderly of the forest! The woodpecker culls diseased, pest-infested trees.

Woodpeckers move along the tree in a spiral and constantly tap, hollowing out the bark. The bird's tongue is covered with sticky saliva and small cloves with which it pricks insects.

How do woodpeckers live?

These birds are sedentary. They don't fly to warm countries for the winter. The most they can do is a short flight to another forest, where there will be food all winter. The way they feed allows them to winter in the same places, because in winter, when there is no way to find insects, they can eat the seeds of pine trees.
For its nest, the woodpecker makes a hollow, finding depressions in dry trees and enlarging them with the help of its beak.
In spring, males arrange real duels on drums. Having found a dry, standing trunk, the duelist chooses a place on it that is as dry as possible in the sun. It is it that makes the loudest and most sonorous sound when the musician begins to quickly tap on it with his beak. It is these fractions that we hear in the spring forest.