What does a bird chaffinch eat? Which birds fly away for the winter, and which ones stay at home for the winter? What it eats and where it hibernates

The finch is a songbird of the passerine order, the finch family. The size of the bird is similar to that of a sparrow.

The distribution area of \u200b\u200bthe species is Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. Finches are one of the most numerous birds living in our country. They settle in forests, but they are also found in city parks, in gardens in the immediate vicinity of human habitation.

In order to survive the cold winter, birds migrate to the forests of the foothills of the Caucasus and the Mediterranean.

Finch appearance

Birds of this species are small, do not exceed 15 cm in length. Weight can be from 20 to 40 grams. The wingspan ranges from 24 to 28 cm.

In adult males, the feathers on the head and neck are gray-blue, with a black mark on the frontal part. The upper part of the body is light brown with a greenish tint. The breast is red-brown, the wings are dark in color with white spots. The uppertail has a gray tint. The lower part of the bird's body is light brick in color. In normal times - a gray beak, during the mating season it becomes bluish.

Males are colored brighter than females, in which sexual dimorphism is manifested. Females have a pale brown coloration of the back, the lower body and breast are grayish-brown. Throughout the entire time, the beak is gray. Chaffinch chicks are colored in the same way as females, but dimmer. All chicks have a light spot on the back of their heads.

Chaffinch behavior and nutrition

The chaffinch eats both plant and animal food. It eats the seeds of weeds and harmful insects, protecting vegetable gardens and orchards from pests, which benefits people. For the most part, the bird feeds on the ground. The finch picks up seeds, nibbles shoots, and eats beetles and caterpillars.

Listen to the voice of the finch

For excellent vocal abilities, people keep the finch in captivity, putting it in cages. However, this bird does not become completely tame and does not begin to sing immediately, but after a rather long time of getting used to it. But the life expectancy of a bird at home increases many times.

The population in Europe is 100 million pairs of birds. There are also many finches in Asia, although their exact number is not known.

Reproduction and life expectancy

Finches arrive at their nesting sites at the very beginning of April. Males try to attract females. When a pair is created, the female starts looking for a place to nest. In most cases, the nest is located in the branches of a tree at a height of 2 to 5 meters above the ground. The male brings material for the nest, and the female is engaged in construction. The place for laying is a bowl, woven from thin twigs, twigs and insulated with grass, moss, hairs and cobwebs. Outside, the female covers the nest with plant fluff, pieces of bark, birch bark and lichen, which makes it completely invisible from the outside.

Chaffinch nest usually contains 4-6 eggs of bluish-green or reddish-green color. The embryos develop within 12-14 days. Newborn chicks are dressed up in gray down, both parents feed them. In the beginning, the chicks feed on insects and then move on to seeds. At the 3rd week of life, they become on the wing. After that, the female can lay eggs a second time. The last brood starts flying in August.

In the forests of our country, you can often find birds, the size and shape of the body subtly resembling sparrows. These are finches from the order of passerines. But in contrast to gray relatives, finches have a very bright appearance. The reddish breast and brown-green back are harmoniously combined with the blue-gray head and black and white wings. And finches differ not only in appearance from their gray counterparts. They are also able to present sonorous and cheerful songs to everyone who hears them, for which finches can rightfully be attributed to songbirds.

Finches feed mainly on plant foods. They eat conifer seeds, buds and wild berries. In the summer they include various insects in their diet.

Finches usually delight listeners with their songs in the spring, during the nesting period. Already at the end of March, males of finches begin to return from warm regions to their native places. And a few days later, the females arrive. It is for them that the forest beauties sing their serenades. At this time, a whole chorus of finches is heard in the forest, and everyone is trying to sing out their neighbor as best as possible. And when the female chooses one of the performers, the happy chosen one arranges a whole performance. He selflessly dances, crouching and bowing at the same time, then spreads, then folds his wings, or stamps and spins in one place.

But now a married couple has formed, and the construction of a nest for chicks begins. The main work is performed by the female, with extraordinary skill creating a cozy nest, disguised so that from afar it can be mistaken for a growth on a tree. The male sometimes helps her by bringing several twigs, but most of the time he is carried away by his songs, which he continues to sing even after the start of family life.

Songs subside only after the appearance of the chicks. All worries during this period for a married couple are aimed at feeding the newborns. All day long, young parents drag insects and caterpillars to the nest, and the chicks greet them with wide open bright red mouths. With such a color of the mouth of the chicks, the parents cannot miss in any way, and the food will get exactly as intended.

Finches are friendly birds. If a predator threatens a nest, the neighbors will surely attract the parents with loud shouts and help drive away the intruder.

When the chicks grow up, their parents teach them to sing songs. Children carefully remember all the subtleties of the melody performed by their parents and try to repeat it as accurately as possible. At first, young finches sing simple, children's songs, but over time they also master complex, adult songs.

The songs of finches are so popular with people that bird lovers keep them at home, enjoying the sonorous trills of these little beauties.

does the finch fly to hot countries in winter? THANK! and got the best answer

Answer from Nina Tikhevskaya [guru]
No, finches do not fly to Africa ... Part of the birds (especially old males) winter in Central Europe, the rest fly to the south (mainly in the Mediterranean). It is also common in winter in the foothill forests of the Caucasus. It is not afraid of the cold and arrives in early spring when there is snow in the fields. Yes, and flies away in late autumn, in the cold, as the people say "chilly" time. Therefore, they called him the finch. The name of this bird is given according to the time of departure. In our area, the chaffinch is a nomadic and migratory bird that arrives in Moscow from wintering in April.

Answer from 2 answers[guru]

Hey! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: does a chaffinch fly to hot countries in winter? THANK!

Answer from Jovetlana Dubrovski[guru]
Most finches are migratory birds. Many of them hibernate in nesting areas - mostly males. This fact was already drawn by K. Linnaeus, who, looking for a name for this species, opted for the word "widower" (coelebs). Finches spend winter in the south and west of Europe. Their spring flight occurs in March - April, and the autumn flight - in September - October. Flocks, as a rule, are divided according to gender - males arrive at nesting sites earlier than females and immediately occupy nesting sites, the boundaries of which are marked by intense singing (sedentary males sometimes sing already since February). After mating, the female immediately proceeds to choose a place for a nest. The nest is considered one of the best among those that are built by birds: it is firmly woven of moss and soft stems, from the outside it is masked by lichen from trees where finches nest, as well as by insect cocoons and cobwebs, which makes it almost invisible.

Answer from Natasha[guru]

Answer from Elena Kim[guru]
The arrival of finches is one of the first spring dates after the return of rooks, starlings and larks. There is slush outside, a brown mixture of melted snow and mud. The breeze is warm and humid, saturated with spring scents. In the gardens, the big tits repeat loudly their sonorous melody: “chi-chi-fi ... chi-chi-fi ... "In the villages, near the barns and oomes of straw, the porridge is already humming their ringing" zin-zin-zin ... "It is at this time that we hear the first, advanced finches. Their sharp "ping-ping-ping", similar to the cry of tits, is loudly heard from the tops of bare trees. The singing has not yet been heard. The birds are obviously tired and silent. If you come closer and look through binoculars, you can see that these are only males. They have brownish chests and cheeks, a noticeably dark top with a bluish-gray head, and distinct white stripes on the wings - the most characteristic feature of the finch coloration. Females (grayish-brown, almost monochromatic) are not yet available. They arrive a few days later. Therefore, Linnaeus two hundred years ago called the finch (in Latin) a "single" finch. Flocks of finches move quickly to summer places in the spring, usually returning to their homeland, and sometimes even to the same gardens and groves where they nested last year. By the end of April, birds have already filled their entire nesting area - in the European part of Russia from the Crimea and the Caucasus to the White Sea, and in Asia almost all of Western Siberia - from Kazakhstan to Tobolsk and eastward to Krasnoyarsk Territory. Outside of Russia, the chaffinch lives in the summer throughout Europe and in northwestern Africa, as well as in the mountains of Asia Minor, Palestine and Iran. In the Caucasus, Crimea, the Trans-Caspian Territory and Western Europe, several subspecies of finch have been distinguished, differing in shades of coloration of the back and abdomen. Our finches winter in Transcaucasia, and Western Siberian finches - in Kazakhstan. To the south, wintering reaches Egypt, but in warm winters, some of the birds stay on the southern coast of Crimea, and sometimes in Ukraine and even further north, almost to the middle zone of the European part of Russia. A day or two after arrival, if the weather is not too severe, you can hear the first song of the finch is a vigorous, distinct trill, sounding like “phew-phew-di-di-di-la-la-la-vi-chiu”. This last sharp cry of “vi-chiu” (“flourish”) is very characteristic of the chaffinch song. You can recognize a finch by it even among the polyphonic forest choir. It is worth dwelling on the song of the finch in more detail. It usually has several knees. The song is not continuous, as, for example, in a lark or goldfinch, but is completely finished, has its own definite beginning, middle and end. Having chanted once, the finch begins again, but sometimes it changes some syllables (most often the end). There are singers who have two or three different tunes to be sung in turn. Each male has a song built and sounds peculiar (keeping the general finchiness type), so that with a certain skill, several singers can be distinguished by their voice. One chaffinch has a short song, as it were, “chopped,” the other has a much longer song, “in bulk,” the third has a kind of double song, and so on, with endless variations. Sometimes the chaffinch builds its song both from the borrowed parts of the songs and from the urges of other birds (the so-called "copying"). Especially often other people's sounds are borrowed for the first generation of a song. Sometimes the finch starts just like a forest horse, bunting, or even imitates the river warbler, and then continues “like a finch” and always ends with its usual “flourish”. Often the finch at the end of the song, after the last sharp sound, the “flourish,” makes a “push”: it ends “vi-chiu”, and then “kick”. Some individuals even make two jerks. For fans, this repulsion is considered a song defect.

Almost every inhabitant of Russia is familiar with a bird the size of a sparrow - the finch. Unlike its urban counterpart, the finch can be easily spotted by its bright color. The males are especially different here: they have a bright red chest and a greenish-brown back, a blue head. Females are less remarkable looking, they are duller in color. In nature, their life cycle does not last more than two years, but in captivity, finches live up to 12 years.

Bird habitat

Chaffinch nests can be found throughout our country. In addition, finches can be found in North Africa, Asia and Europe. Truly unique creatures. Despite their small size, they easily fly long distances... Most often, birds settle in the forest, but you can find them in urban areas. With the global urabnizatsiya part began to settle next to people and benefit from this neighborhood. Therefore, noticeable birds can be seen in an ordinary park and garden.

A brief description of the appearance of the finch

It is worth looking closely at the appearance of the birds. If you saw a bird finch photo, you will think that he not much different from a sparrow... This is partly true. Males:

1. small size;
2. with a sharp gray beak;
3. on the head a hat of bluish plumage with a grayish tint;
4. There is a small rusty spot on the breast. The back is brick shade. Fun fact: the color of the beak changes with the season. It is brown in winter and blue in warm weather.

The females of the finch appear paler than the males. A calm color scheme is needed for hatching chicks. In this case, the female merges with the nest and it is difficult for predators to notice her. Therefore, their back is dark brown, but the breast is not much different. By

Since the finch belongs to the finch family, insects form the basis of food. This is especially noticeable during the mating season, that is, from May to July. In this segment finches only eat insects, since an abundance of protein food is required for successful reproduction. By the way, small birds bring serious benefits to agriculture. They eat dangerous pests - butterflies and dipterans. In other words, those who actively harm a person's plantings.

On rare occasions, poultry switches to plant foods. Seeds, fruits, berries. It is nutrition that is the main difficulty in keeping birds in captivity. Since it is extremely difficult to provide them with insects in constant access.

Flying season

In September the birds begin to fly away to warm lands... This is especially true of those flocks that live in central Russia. Some birds that live in the south of the country have adapted to wintering in place and have adapted to them. Many flocks simply fly to neighboring regions. All of them return to their native lands.

Finch: will or bondage

It used to be fashionable to keep the finch at home. He became famous as a skillful singer along with a nightingale. Birds have been observed to live longer in captivity. A distinctive feature of the finch: long habituation to a new place and the absence of singing during this period. They very impressionableso I can get scared and die. Therefore, they are not very suitable for keeping in an apartment.

As a result of artificial selection, it was possible to breed a decorative finch. But even they sang only in the presence of a person with his complete immobility. As soon as a man moved, the bird began to beat in madness against the bars of the cage, injuring itself. Therefore, they were kept separately, covering the cage with a blanket. At night, waking up, the bird also began to beat against the cage. Due to the complex nutrition, the bird often becomes obese and eye problems.

Therefore, despite their beauty and singing abilities, such pets are not adapted to captivity.

In nature, finches breed in the warm season, making several clutches of eggs... Nests are made in May; in total, incubation takes two months. Therefore, birds often hatch two broods per season. Males are repeatedly seen in polygamy, that is, to fertilize several females at the same time. There are up to eight eggs in a clutch. After about three weeks, the chicks leave the nest.

Bird nests are also notable. They are small. Males cover them with lichen and moss to hide their family from birds of prey. Due to the color of the feathers, the females fit perfectly into the surrounding objects and this makes her invisible.

Distinctive features of chicks:

1. Fluff instead of feathers;
2. A kind of hat on the head;
3. The first flight is attempted two weeks after hatching;
4. Both parents feed: insects. Most often bugs or caterpillars;

As you can see, there are many interesting specimens among the small birds. Even with a small size, such a pet can sink into the soul. But not all birds can be kept in captivity, no matter how I would like to keep the singer in the apartment. therefore better to choose parrots or canariesas they are used to home content.