Пяро арлана
Выдавец: Беларусь
Памер: 211с.
Мінск 1991
The number of eggs laid is 3 to 6, in most cases 5, they are of a deep bluish-green tint, 46.5 by 32.6 mm in size. The hatching takes 25 days.
Because of its rarity, this species is subject to state protection in Belorussia.
Night Heron — Nycticorax. L.
A small bird, about the size of a crow. It weighs c., 700 g. The legs are short. It is black on the top of the head and back, white beneath, grey on the wings. In the mating period, the bird has a plume of long white feathers. The bill is black, the legs are pink-yellow. The eyes are red. Younger birds are mottled brown-grey.
In the USSR, it is found from Moldavia to the regions along the Azov Sea and the lower reaches of the Volga, in the Urals, Caucasus, Central Asia and regions of Kazakhstan adjacent to it. Prior to 1975, these birds were considered rare migrants. From that year, after the finding of a nest with five chickens near Turov, in the lower reaches of the Pripet, it was given the status of a rarity. Since then, every mating period would see both young and adult night herons. The incidence of nesting cases grows every year, which points to the expansion of this species' habitat.
In the natural conditions of the middle reaches of the Pripet night herons live in partly flooded osieries and beds of rushes along the shores of flood-land lakes and banks of former river-beds. The presence of osier is vital.
The night heron is nocturnal in habit. It ventures out only in the dark. At twilight, it ussually lights on the tops of the bushes and sits still waiting till it grows darker. Its cry is strong and jarring “kwa-a-ou". It returns from its migra
tion four to warmer places early in May. There is no data about when the night heron's mating and nesting period starts. In the Polesye, the bird builds its nest in the midst of thick bush growth on river banks. This nest is a loose structure, about half a metre in diameter, built of osier, willow twigs and bits of reeds. The hollow is not deep (3 to 4 cm). The bird lays 5 bluish eggs. The chickens come in July. The summer fledgelings are registered early in August.
The night heron feeds on aqueous invertebrates (clubmoss, diving beetles, their larvae, dragonflies) and small fish.
The night heron leaves its nesting-place early in September. The bird is of no commercial value but, because of its rarity, it requires close attention and its biotopes need careful protection.
Little Bittern or „Volchok,,—Ixobrychus Minutus. L.
The local names are "maly gibelyuichik" (Borisov district), "vaouchok" (Mozyr and Zhitkovichi districts), "laz- nyuga", "maly Bugaichyk" (Petrikovsky district).
The smallest of all our herons. It weighs anything less than 170 g. Its length ranges between 314 and 385 mm. In all other aspects it resembles its larger cousins. The bird's plumage is loose. The male is black on the top of the head, back and base of the tail. The bill is yellowish-green. The legs are green. The fraenum is unfeathered, edged with bright-red. The female is dark-brown on the top of the head, back, base of the tail. There are lengthy dark mottles sprinkled over the front of the neck and abdomen.
The nothern frontier of this species' habitat in the USSR runs through Leningrad, Vesyegonsk, Kirov, Perm, Barnaul and Tarbagatai.
In the USSR, the little bittern lives all over the country in spots where it finds appropriate conditions. In the Polesye, it is scarce. The bird is found in the beds of osiers and rushes on the banks of rivers, along former river-beds and lake shores. It takes to partly flooded osieries, i. e. places difficult of access, but often settles near villages and townships. As it leads a secretive life, it is not as wary of man as the other species of herons. This kind of behaviour is made up for by a great capabitily for camouflage.
Camouflage in the natural surroundings in all creatures living in reed-beds is the result of protective colouration as well as using light and shade and particular methods of behaviour. Stretching upwards their yellowish-green bills and long red-brown neck whose white spots imitate patches of sunlight on a bed of rushes, motionless and bluish-coloured like stalks basking in the June sun, little and great bittern adapt their ways of conducting themselves to
their environment. To hide by standing stock-still, to melt into the natural surroundings, using the ancestoral wisdom of camouflage, to escape any predatory attempts by enlisting all resources of patient waiting — such are the natural qualities the bittern is endowed with.
Its ability to stand motionless is so remarkable that neither a noisy stranger ignorant of how to make his way through the marshy reed-bed, nor the experienced aboriginal will be able to discern the bittern standing at arm's length.
The little bittern can be found by its cry which is pretty much the same as the guttural booming of the great bittern.
The little bittern makes its return migration journey to the Polesye within the first ten days of April and, in Vitebsk region, a fortnight or so later. Its breeding season starts late in May. The bird usually builds its nest over water on the osier bushes. Sometimes upon broken reeds. The building materials are rushes, small osier and willow twigs. The nest's diameter does not exceed 20 cm. The distance to the water surface is from 0.5 to 1.5 m. The bittern lays up to 9 eggs, white, with a slight greenish tint. The egg’s average size is 34 by 25 mm.
The chickens hatch out in June and start learning to fly early in August.
Little bitterns feed on aqueous insects and their larvae, small fish and frogs. Their diet is sometimes varied by the eggs of small aqueous birds.
They migrate late in September — early in October. Great Bittern — Botaurus Stellaris. L.
The local names are "abukhalo", "bukhalo" (Slutsk district), "bugai” (Petrikov district), ’’gibeilo" (Zhitkovichi district), "vadzyany buk" (Pinsk district), The most common one is "vadzyany bugai".
The Latin name (a stellar bull) brings out the bird's outward qualities. A bull because of its booming cry, stellar — of stars i. e. resembling the sky dotted with stars. Here: mottled (about the bird's plumage marged irregularly with variously coloured dots).
This is a large bird (it weighs up to 1700 g) with the body being c., 80 sm long. The plumage is loose, dark-ochre in colour with irregular dark-brown dots. The bird is black on the top of the head and back. The feathers, beginning from the back of the head, have yellow outward rims. A particular feature of the colouration is the "whiskers" — two black bars running from the corners of the mouth down the neck. The neck is yellowish. The bird is chrome-yellow beneath. The neck and abdomen are covered with brown spots. The bill
is pointed, yellow green, with a dark brown tip. The legs are green and much shorter as compared with those of the other herons. The eyes are chrome-yellow. The females are markedly smaller than the male birds.
This species' habitat covers the greater part of the USSR, extending approximately to 60° of latitude north of the eguator. In the 19th century the great bittern used to be common in Belorussia. Now it has become a rarity nearly everywhere, which has made it necessary to enter it in the BSSR Red Data Book.
Great herons flourish in beds of rushes covering the banks of rivers, former river-beds, lakeshores and also in marshland. The bittern's cry is guttoral booming ending in a sound reminding a suppressed letting one's breath out. This cry issues from the bird's throat as it moves its bill from the usual vertical position onto the breast and back again.
Bitterns start on their migration flight to the Mediterranean area and Central Africa when the fledgelings have grown ten weeks old. They fly singly. The time when they are due to migrate may be shifted. Cases are reported when bitterns linger till the rivers freeze over.
The great bittern, as a species nearing extinction in this country merits close attention and its habitat needs protection and care.
There are two more birds which rarely nest in Belorussia but, nevertheless, have been discovered by us in the lower reaches of the Lan'. Those are birds of prey.
The first of them belongs to the genus Falco.
Peregrine Falcon — Falco Peregrinus. GM.
The old Latin name was 'pilgrim falcon', so named because young peregrines were caught in passage ("pilgrimage") from their breeding place, rather than taken from the nest.
It rarely nests in our parts and yet can supposedly be considered even a settled bird. According to Reichenov, it is the "commonest species among the noble hawks".
The bird is dark-bluish ash on the back, white or creamy white beneath, dotted with lengthwise and drop-shaped dark-brown spots, nearly black on the head, white on the cheeks, barred with black below the eyes ("whiskers”). The wing primaries are dark-brown dotted with cross-cut white spots. The knob on the bill is yellow so are the legs, the bill is bluish-pink, black at the tip. The iris is dark-brown.
The male weighs up to 700 g., the female up to 1300 g. The wing is up to 375 mm, the bill up to 29 mm.
The peregrine falcon nests near upper swampy areas and river-beds on the edge of the forest, on high trees, It occupies and rebuilds to its own taste nests of other large
birds. It is reported to settle in the midst of heronries with the aim to hunt them. It lays up to 4 eggs, 53 by 42 mm in size, 42—46 g in weight. Their colouration ranges from white to pale-blue. The chickens are fewer than the eggs. They take 28—29 days to hatch.
The peregrine falcon hunts in the «hawk's way». It arranges an observation post on the top of a tall tree and, catching sight of a passing prey, swiftly takes off, shoots skyward, then takes aim and dives on its prey at appeds of up to 100 m per second (350 kilometres per hour). There is a pursuit plane for you!
When plunging down on its prey the bird's legs are nearly pressed to the body and the long sickle-shaped claws are pointed forward to strike the deadly blow. The peregrine falcon kills the small victim in mid-air or drops to the ground with the larger prey in its talons.
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