Heron Gray: description. Herons - the most agile hunters
Heron Gray - beautiful and very cautious bird. To be constantly on the lookout for her made the sad experience of her ancestors, who in the past nearly disappeared from the face of the Earth. In the mating season, the birds look particularly beautiful in plumage on the head. It was for these trophies that people hunted for a long time, not allowing herons to sit out their offspring. Ladies used feathers hunted by hunters as an ornament for their hats. Thanks to timely measures to protect the birds, herons now live and reproduce.
Heron Gray: description
Talk about these creatures - onepleasure! They are graceful and beautiful, there is in them some kind of aristocratism in appearance. Heron is a large long-legged bird. The weight of an adult specimen reaches 2 kg, the length is 90-100 cm, and the wingspan reaches 175-200 cm.
Gray Herring Habitat
This beautiful bird can be found in the sparing climate of Europe and Asia, the African continent can also boast such inhabitants. In countries where in winter the water in the reservoirs freezes, the gray heron flies to winter in Africa. Russia is also on the list of cold countries, so the birds spend here only 6-7 months, lead the offspring and fly to the hot country for vacation to ostriches and hippopotamuses, but in the spring we meet them again. The colony of gray herons does not change the place of their residence, these birds are very devoted to their nesting grounds.
Ordinary places where birds live - shoresall kinds of water bodies, such as rivers, lakes, streams, swamps. There is no difference, if only there was water, though fresh, at least salty. There is only one condition for choosing a pond, it should be with shallow water, which serves for the heron a kind of dining room where it feeds.
Does the heron can sing?
The heron is gray, the description of which allowsto present a beautiful, long-legged, proud bird, unfortunately, deprived of voice. Simply put, she does not know how to sing, even quite the opposite, she wants to close her ears with her screams. Especially if they are lucky enough to be near the colony of these mountain-singers, they behave very noisily there. The time of nesting and feeding of chicks is accompanied by their loud cries, and they like to scream during the flight, often at dusk. The herons emit a hoarse, sharp and croaking sounds, which are heard as "Fraark." These are the singers!
A clever bird heron hunter
The whole world knows that heron is considered the mosta clever hunter. This bird looks for the victim in shallow water. Thanks to a beautiful vision and sharp long dagger like a dagger, a gray breadwinner never has food left without food. None of the water fry is immune from the lightning strike.
Slow and noiselessly moves feathered predatoron his "dining room" on the water, trying to look out for his prey. If the victim falls too large, the gray heron does not lose his head, immediately beats it with his beak or shakes his head from side to side, trying to kill before eating.
The bird swallows its whole preyforward. The diet of the gray heron is quite diverse, but it can not be called a vegetarian. Her favorite food is fish, eels, tailless amphibians. In addition to these delicacies, the heron menu can include: insects, reptiles, crustaceans and small rodents.
Marriage period
Gray heron is very interesting to behave in the marriageperiod. The nest is building a male. If the birds have wintered in another place, then the strong sex of the birds comes to the nesting area first and immediately tries to occupy the nest better. If there is not one, the male, like a real man, will build it himself.
The next stage of the marriage ceremony isThe fact that a female, after looking at a male with a good "house", flies up to him, begging for wives, but for the first time he will necessarily drive her away. To achieve the location of the host nest, the bride must show persistence and patience. Having driven the female several times in a row, the male will finally let her into her territory. On this such a peculiar matchmaking ends, and the couple creates a family, but this marriage lasts no longer than a year. For the next season, birds are waiting for new games and other partners.
Gray herons - exemplary parents
The gray heron breeds the chicks only once a year, and inthose rare cases when the offspring did not work, the second attempt is made. These long-legged birds are exemplary parents, their care for the offspring is displayed at the very beginning, when only the nest building is going on. The "house" of the gray heron is a whole impregnable fortress, at the same time it is a safe and cozy refuge for chicks. The nest is very large, about 80 cm in diameter, about 60 cm in height, the middle is lined with reeds and grass. A dwelling is being built at a high altitude.
Eggs are deposited one by one every 2day, a total of 3 to 5 eggs are hatched. In hatching, which lasts 26 days, take part, and father and mother. Appearing nestlings are covered with a gray fluff, feathering begins to appear about a week later.
Careful parents for 20 days for a single momentDo not leave the kids alone in the nest, nurse them in turn, so that no rain, no scorching sun harmed the chicks. When the children want to eat, they begin to knock with small beaks on the beak of their parents. The duty dad or the on-duty mommy regurgitates their food directly into the beak. Fly the little gray herons begin after 50-55 days.
These long-legged birds are used to be cautious andThey do not allow a man closer than 200 meters, but the scientists managed to open the veil and find out a lot of interesting from the life of the gray heron. The animal world is so beautiful and so fascinating!
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