Hello, dear guys! The “Projects” section continues its work for children and parents, helping in finding the information necessary for lessons. Today's topic is migratory and wintering birds. We will talk about why, where and which birds fly away from us, and also why some of them are in no hurry to leave the house.
Lesson plan:
Bird species
All birds are divided into three types:
- sedentary - such birds live in one territory permanently, without changing their place of residence, usually they are representatives of the tropics and subtropics; in the northern regions and central part of Russia these are those urban birds that are accustomed to living close to humans,
- nomadic - they constantly move somewhere, and regardless of the weather and time of year, they fly from one place to another, but within their habitat, they do this in order to find more food,
- migratory - these, when the seasons change, regularly make long flights from north to south and back, these include the majority of those living in the northern and temperate zones.
You won’t see migratory birds in winter; they fly away and return to us when it gets warmer. But the sedentary and nomadic ones - wintering ones, they will be with us throughout the cold season.
Who flies away from their homeland and why?
Migratory birds include swallows, wild geese, starlings, rooks and many others. When cold weather sets in, they fly away to where it is warm, returning back to their native places, which they left in the fall.
Why do birds leave their native lands?
Among the main reasons are cold and lack of food. Winter time is not as scary for them as a lack of food. Birds are warm-blooded creatures, their average body temperature is about 41 degrees. In addition, the down under the plumage helps prevent hypothermia. Therefore, they are able to maintain their vital functions in harsh winters, which cannot be said about their activity without a sufficient amount of food.
What do birds eat in summer?
Mainly insects. All their living prey - bugs and worms - either die with the cold or go to sleep, hiding deep in the ground. Therefore, those who do not have grain or plant roots on their menu are forced to fly to warm countries where there are many insects.
Among the inhabitants of forests and settlements half of the birds are migratory. Almost everything that lives in swamps and reservoirs flies to where it is warmer. So, storks and herons get ready for a long journey when ponds and rivers freeze. It is difficult to get frogs and fish out from under the ice, and small rodents have long since hidden in their burrows.
Did you know?! The rook is the last to fly away. But he is among the first to return from wintering to his native land, somewhere between March 4 and March 23. That’s why there is an expression: “Rooks have opened spring.” After them, starlings and larks fly home.
How do birds know when and where to fly?
When autumn approaches, migratory birds gather in flocks, arranging training, so that they can then fly for several hours, covering enormous distances, without losing their course. How do they do it?
Migratory birds can determine the road without a compass. Scientists have proven that they absolutely accurately determine their geographical location, flying long distances every year, perfectly oriented in time and space.
- Ornithologists believe that the sun at noon above the horizon can serve as a guide for them.
- Some experts are confident that for their path, birds use magnetic lines surrounding the Earth, which are located in the direction from the north to the south pole.
- There is also a version that birds know how to use the stars, determining their location by constellations.
Be that as it may, many experiments have already been carried out when birds were taken long distances, and they returned to their native nests over and over again.
Many people prepare for the flight in advance, when it is still warm. The instinct laid down by nature, like a bell, gives them the order to fly south to survive the winter and return back to hatch chicks. Scientists call this the migratory impulse, which serves as the start for the flight. Also, the trigger that calls for flight is the changed length of the day. By the beginning of autumn, daylight hours become shorter.
When flying, some species reach speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour, rising to a height of 3 thousand meters. Bird travel is associated with difficulties and dangers. The smaller the bird, the shorter its path in one flight. Birds are capable of not stopping for 80 hours or more! They interrupt their flight to gain strength and feed, so long-distance flights can last up to three months.
Did you know?! The migratory bird cuckoo flies to Africa. But unlike other birds, no one has yet observed these birds in flocks. They strangely disappear in the fall, with the older ones earlier than the younger generations. And they usually fly at night and, probably, alone.
To which countries do migratory birds fly?
Many of them love Africa. Birds even fly there from the Arctic and Siberia. Most waterfowl, such as ducks and swans, winter in western Europe. From Russia, blackbirds and starlings move to the French or Spanish south, but cranes are lovers of the banks of the river called the Nile. Among the long-distance marathon runners are windbreakers from Eastern Siberia. They chose the shores of New Zealand for wintering.
However, among migratory birds there are patriots who move within our country closer to the warm domestic south. Among them are the hooded crow and the black rook.
Did you know?! Some species of ducks called “mallards” cross more than one country on their way to their wintering grounds. They fly over Belarus, Ukraine, through Germany and Holland, through Denmark and Great Britain, as well as across northern Italy and, ultimately, stop in western Europe.
Who stays with us?
Many birds do not fly anywhere and stay with us for the winter. These include those that, in addition to insects, can peck seeds, grains, berries and bread crumbs. Among such wintering birds are the well-known sparrows and magpies, pigeons and crows, bullfinches and tits.
In winter, in the forest you can hear a woodpecker persistently knocking on the trunk. He is not afraid of cold weather, and obtains food in the form of larvae and insects harmful to the tree from under the bark. In addition to the fact that he is a forest orderly, he also does a good deed for other birds and small animals, hollowing out hollows - houses in which new residents then settle.
The capercaillie does not leave its land either, because its winter forest is full of food - it feeds on pine needles.
Black grouse and hazel grouse will not go hungry, for which juniper berries and buds, as well as alder catkins, serve as food.
Did you know?! The crossbill not only feels good in winter, feeding on spruce nuts from cones. Even in the cold, he manages to build nests for himself and have offspring.
No matter how wintering birds are adapted to winter, our task is to help them survive in cold weather. You can set up dining rooms for birds using feeders. If you sprinkle grain and bread crumbs there every day, the birds will get used to the feeding place and will delight you with their appearance when they fly in for lunch.
There is even a special day of the year when a bird feeder or birdhouse must be hung. After all, on this day all birds celebrate their holiday. When exactly is it celebrated? Find out about it.
This is how you can briefly and interestingly tell about your feathered friends. And I propose to finish the project with a poem on the topic:
Feed the birds in winter.
Let it come from all over
They will flock to you like home,
Flocks on the porch.
Train your birds in the cold
To your window
So that you don’t have to go without songs
Let's welcome spring.
With this I say goodbye to wishes for new discoveries.
Good luck in your studies!
Evgenia Klimkovich.
The most interesting thing for children is to watch live birds on a walk. Children often have their own favorite birds among the birds, to which they give names and even claim that they can distinguish them from all the other birds in the yard.
Make a feeder and pour food into it. Very soon the birds will get used to the fact that there is always food for them here, and will begin to fly to your feeder. Watch them with your baby. The most useful and interesting thing to do is to carry out a whole series of such observations. A series of observations will give the baby much more for his mental and speech development than just reading a story about wintering birds or watching an educational film. After all, the film will most likely be quickly forgotten without consolidating and applying the information received.
In observations of living nature, the child will learn to compare, draw conclusions, ask questions and look for answers to them, describe, and find the exact words to express his thoughts.
What can we see in such observations? What should children pay attention to?
1.How do birds differ from each other? appearance? How are they similar? (They have a head, eyes, a beak to peck seeds, wings to fly, a body, legs, a tail, the body is covered with feathers)
Compare, for example, a sparrow and a crow - how are they different and how are they similar? (The crows are large. And the sparrows are small, gray-brown, they fly in a flock, they are nimble, they jump on two legs. The crows are gray-black, the crow arrives alone. The crow waddles, important, slowly). How are sparrows and pigeons similar and different? (The sparrow is smaller than the dove, it is of a different color. The sparrow jumps, and the dove walks. The sparrow tweets, and the dove coos)
2. How do the habits of different birds differ:
- how they peck at the feeder (they immediately sit on the feeder or are careful and first sit on the bushes, and only then fly up to the feeder),
- whether they quarrel or not, whether they give in to each other,
- how birds fly and walk,
- do they get close to people?
- live alone or in flocks,
- what kind of food do they like (tits and woodpeckers like to eat unsalted lard, lard can be hung on a thread from a feeder, bullfinches and waxwings eat berries, all birds eat seeds, but sparrows and buntings love oats and millet)
- what time of day do they fly to the feeder (when it’s light),
- in what cases do birds make sounds - screaming, calling to each other, and in what cases do they silently peck grains,
- what kind of beak do birds have and is it possible to guess from the shape of the beak what the bird eats (It is possible that birds that feed on insects have a thin and narrow beak, but those birds that feed on grain have a blunter and thicker beak)
- What tracks do birds leave in the snow? (try to sketch them and learn to read “bird stories” from their tracks - which birds flew in, who they met at the feeder, how many birds were there at the feeder?). Children really like this task. They feel like real trackers.
- Why, when a crow flies up, sparrows and doves fly away? (The crow is large, it has a strong beak, and small birds are afraid of it. That is why it is better to feed the crow separately so that it does not take food away from the small birds)
Here are some notes for observing the habits of wintering birds with children.
Sparrows– nimble, cheerful, active, often quarrel. They are bullies, they love to snatch the tit's seeds from under a tit's nose, and they stay in a flock.
Here we are tap dancers. They are noisy and talk to each other. They peck at the seeds. Tap dances can be different. There are brown tap dancers with a gray breast, and there are others with a red breast. Tap dancers are our guests. They come to us for the winter from the north.
Pigeons slow, calm, not so timid, approaching people closely.
Bullfinches- calm, sedate birds. And the sound of their voice is special - they whistle quietly (they ring like bells). If they need to fly somewhere, they perk up, call to each other, and fly away in a flock. Bullfinches love to eat berries, grain, ash and maple seeds. They fly to us from the north - they are also our guests.
Crows, magpies, jackdaws - this is all “the crow’s relatives”. They come to us from the forest in winter. In the forest they always fly away from people, but in the city they are less afraid of people. In the evening they fly in flocks over the city, and then fly to the park, sit there on the branches of trees and fall asleep until the morning. Crows are smart, do not come close to humans, are cautious, and waddle. Magpies are large, gray, and have black heads and wings. Her sides are white. That's why magpies are called "pied". The magpie jumps. She loves to eat unsalted lard at the feeder.
Tits have a yellow chest and a black cap on the head, white cheeks. They love to peck lard, swinging on a rope by which the lard is attached to the feeder.
Goldfinches They fly in flocks. They are very beautiful - there is a red spot on the forehead, and yellow stripes on the black wings. They are very active - real gymnasts! Goldfinches are fidgety, noisy, constantly screaming, quarreling, making noise, squatting, eating seeds.
While observing, you can read poems about these birds to children. You will find poems about wintering birds for the youngest and older children in this series of articles. It is very convenient to write out or print out poems on cards (the size of a quarter of a landscape paper) and carry them with you on a walk in your pocket or purse. At any time you can take out a card and read the desired poem or ask a riddle.
Wintering and nomadic birds in fairy tales, games, stories, riddles and tasks for kids
Very often we, adults, don’t know what kind of bird it is, and we can’t tell our children about it in an interesting way or answer our children’s many questions about why. Therefore, I decided to make a kind of anthology for children and adults on the “Native Path”; I prepared pictures of wintering birds, coloring pages, games, educational stories and fairy tales, tasks, poems and riddles on this topic. This reader will consist of several parts. and about each wintering or nomadic bird you will find a separate article with fairy tales, stories, pictures and tasks, cartoons.
I deliberately did not distribute this material according to the ages of the children. You can choose your favorite passages, games, tasks, fairy tales, poems and use them to develop your kids and familiarize them with the world around them
Wintering birds. Pictures for children.
Compare the birds in these pictures with your baby. How are the two birds in each picture similar? How are they different?
Using such paired pictures it is very convenient to guess riddles-descriptions of wintering birds. And all kids love to solve riddles and invent them! You describe the bird (without naming it) - talk about what wings, chest, head it has, how it walks, what it eats, and the baby guesses who you guessed. Then the baby will be able to tell you a riddle himself, describing the bird.
Speech game “Say the opposite”
In this speech game, the child will learn to use words that are opposite in meaning to a given word (we, adults, call such words antonyms).
Always rely on your child’s experience when coming up with tasks for such games. Show birds in a picture, photo, or real birds on a feeder.
Sample tasks for children on the topic “Wintering Birds”:
- The crow is big, but what kind of sparrow is it? (small)
- The magpie is long-tailed, and what is the sparrow? (short-tailed)
- The woodpecker is long-billed, and what is the sparrow? (short-beaked)
- The crow's beak is large and thick, and what about the sparrow? (small and thin)
- The bullfinch has a red breast, and the titmouse has...?
- The bullfinch flew up to the forest, and the sparrow - ...?
- The bullfinch sits on the top branch, and the sparrow sits on...?
Speech exercise “Call me kindly”
This exercise is aimed at developing a sense of language, which allows the child to experiment with a word and come up with new variations.
You can play this game in a “magic version”. You give the child a “magic wand”, and the baby turns the big one into a small one (a magic wand is an ordinary but beautiful pen or pencil; to get a magic wand, you can wrap the pencil in foil or decorative paper). A wave of the “magic wand” - and a bird will turn into a small bird, and a large tail will turn into a small tail. Here are sample words for a game on the topic “Wintering Birds”
- Bird - bird
- Feather... (feather)
- Wing - ... (wing)
- Tail - ... (tail)
- Beak - ... (beak)
- Titmouse - ... (titmouse)
- Chick - ...(chick)
- Sparrow - ... (sparrow)
- Crow - ... (crow)
- Dove - ... (dove)
We play hide and seek.
Game “Whose? Whose? Whose?"on the topic “Wintering birds”
Tell your child: “You are already familiar with many wintering birds. They decided to play hide and seek with you. Guess who hid from you behind the twig?” (speech grammatical game “Whose? Whose? Whose?” - we learn to use possessive adjectives - dove, sparrow, magpie, voroniy, titmouse, bullfinch, etc.). It is not necessary to use ready-made pictures. You can hide pictures behind your palm, showing your baby only part of the image - for example, the tail of a bird or only the breast of a bird. And the child will learn from this detail what kind of wintering or nomadic bird it is.
Here are my riddle pictures for kids. All these pictures in good quality and permission is in the presentation at the end of the article. The presentation can be downloaded for free.
Answers to riddles:
- Tail, beak and breast bullfinch. Bullfinch tail, bullfinch beak, bullfinch breast. Ask your child how he guessed that this was the beak of a bullfinch, since other birds have very similar beaks? (on the red breast)
- This passerines The feathers and tail are also sparrow-like. The sparrow is easily recognized by its gray and brown plumage.
- Head and beak pigeon The pigeon is easily recognized by its gray feathers.
Game task on the topic “Wintering birds” - “Lay out the stamps” (for children 5-7 years old)
In this game, your child will learn to classify pictures and identify three subgroups in a group of birds: wintering birds, nomadic birds and migratory birds.
Tell your child a story. Explain what a stamp is and why it is needed, why without a stamp the letter will not reach the addressee. And then tell the story about the boy Van.
Vanya decided to collect stamps depicting various animals, insects and birds. Here are the brands he has.
Ask the child: “Help Vanya put the stamps in his album.” Vanya came up with this idea. Migratory birds will be on one page of the album. On the other are the wintering ones (those who live next to us both in summer and winter). On the third are nomads (our winter guests). But he was confused about which birds wintered where. Can you help him figure it out?
- Look, here's Vanya's stamp album. This is a page with a picture of a palm tree. What kind of bird stamps do you think will be on this page? That's right, there will be stamps with migratory birds that fly south and spend the winter there.
- And here is the second page. It depicts rain and snow, summer and winter. So what kind of birds will be on it? (wintering birds that live next to us both in summer and winter).
- And here is an icicle drawn. This is our “Icicle” resort from a fairy tale. Our winter guests will be here - nomadic birds.
Look at Vanya's stamps. What brands would you put on a page with a palm tree? What are these birds called? (These are migratory birds - swallows, storks)
What kind of nomadic birds are there on Vanya’s stamps? (bullfinch, waxwing) On which page of the album should Vanya place these stamps?
What birds live with us both in summer and winter? (sparrow, crow). Which page of the album will we put these stamps on?
You can use other options for playing this game:
1.Print pictures with stamps and an image of the album on a printer. Then you will get a sheet with a task in which the child will draw lines from the bird to the desired page of the album with stamps.
2. Give the child pictures of birds and ask them to sort them into three groups.
3. If the exercise is carried out with a group of children, then you can give each child a picture of a bird. And draw three circles on the floor with chalk. In one circle put a picture with a palm tree, in the second - pictures of summer and winter, in the third a picture with icicles - a sign of nomadic birds that have flown to us at the Icicle resort.
Children pretend to be birds. At the signal “day” the birds begin to fly. At the signal “Go home!” children look for their flock and run to the right circle. Migratory birds run into a circle with the image of a palm tree, nomadic birds - into a circle with the image of a flying bird, etc. You need to have time to find your home and your flock of birds before the signal: “Night!” Then the birds fall asleep - each flock in its own house. At the signal “Day,” the birds begin to fly again, peck grains, and flap their wings. Then the signal “Go home!” sounds again. and the birds fly to their flocks.
You can introduce an additional character into the game - a cat or an owl, who will catch birds at night. The rule is that you can only catch those birds that did not have time to hide in their house. If the bird is caught, it becomes a cat (or owl) in the next game.
4. You can introduce a deliberate error into the game - for example, give the child a picture of a squirrel along with pictures of birds. When the baby starts arranging the pictures into three groups, ask where he will put the picture with the squirrel, because she doesn’t live in trees either? This is a problematic situation for a child, because indeed, a squirrel lives in a tree! What to do with this picture?
But is a squirrel like a bird? Does she hatch chicks? Does it have wings? How is it different from birds? Can it be classified as one of these three groups of birds? No!
In such problematic tasks, the child learns to distinguish the main from the unimportant, and this is very important for his intellectual development! He also learns to defend his opinion and not give in to provocations!
Believe it or not, check it.
Folk signs about wintering birds
In the following articles you can get to know wintering birds better. We will talk to each of them, listen to tales about them, solve riddles and find out interesting games. On this topic you can read:
And together with your children you can look at the pictures of this article in high quality as a presentation here. To view the picture in full screen mode, click the icon in the lower right corner.
Presentation for children “Wintering birds”
You can make a presentation for children with pictures from this article in high quality for printing or showing to children on the screen, as well as in our VKontakte group “Child development from birth to school” (see the group section “Documents” under the community videos).
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"Speech development from 0 to 7 years: what is important to know and what to do. Cheat sheet for parents"
Is regular seasonal migratory birds, often north and south along the flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many bird species are migratory birds. Migration incurs high costs due to predation and mortality, including from human hunting, and depends mainly on the availability of food. This occurs mainly in the northern hemisphere, where specific routes encounter natural obstacles such as the Mediterranean Sea or the Caribbean Sea.
Historically, migratory birds were noted as early as 3,000 years ago, by ancient Greek authors including Homer and Aristotle, and in the Book of Job, for species such as turtle doves and swallows. More recently, Johanson Leche began recording the dates of migration of spring migrants to Finland in 1749, and scientific research used methods including bird banding. Threats migratory birds have grown with habitat destruction, especially stopovers and wintering areas, and from structures such as power lines and wind farms.
The Arctic Tern holds the record for long-distance migration among migratory birds traveling between the Arctic and Antarctic every year. Some species of tubenoses (Procellariiformes) such as albatross circle the earth while flying over the Southern Ocean, while others such as the little petrel migrate 14,000 km (8,700 mi) between their northern breeding ground and the southern ocean. Shorter flights are common, including high-altitude flights to mountains such as the Andes and Himalayas.
The timing of bird migration appears to be primarily controlled by changes in daylength. Migratory birds For navigation they use celestial signals from the Sun and stars, the Earth's magnetic field, and probably also mental maps.
Historical observations of migratory birds:
Posts about migratory birds were made in the same way, 3000 years BC, by the ancient Greek writers Hesiod, Homer, Herodotus and Aristotle. The Bible also notes migrations, as in the book of Job, which asks, “Is this your understanding of the hawk soaring, spreading its wings to the south?” The author of Jeremiah wrote: “Even the stork in the sky knows its seasons, and the turtledove and the crane observe the time of their arrival.”
Aristotle noted that cranes traveled from the steppes of Scythia to the swamps of the upper Nile. Pliny the Elder, in his Historia Naturalis, repeats Aristotle's remarks.
Migratory birds list:
(Motacilla alba) - migrant detachment, not large in size, easily adapts to life in urban conditions, feeds on small insects.
(Turdus iliacus) - migrant order passeriformes, small birds with a very large population.
(Riparia riparia) - migrant, swallow family. It has a wide range of habitats, which covers almost all of Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia, and North America. Winters in Eastern and Southern Africa, South America and on the Indian subcontinent.
— migrant order Passeriformes. It breeds in temperate zones of Europe and Western Asia and winters mainly in Southeast Africa. It should be noted the striking imitation of the voices of a wide variety of other birds.
— migrant class Charadriiformes, snipe family, genus Woodcock. They have camouflage, a natural camouflage that matches their forest habitat, with reddish-brown upperparts and lighter underparts.
— migrant order Passeriformes, which was previously classified as a member of the thrush family, but is now considered more commonly believed to be the Flycatchers.
— migrant- squad. This species predominantly breeds in temperate regions of Europe and Asia. Most populations winter in tropical Africa and in South Asia from Iran to the Indian subcontinent, but some live in northwestern Africa. It's a bird open rural areas, forests and orchards.
- migrant, family Charadriiformes, genus plovers. Living on the banks of rivers and lakes. It is a small bird that breeds in Arctic Eurasia. Adults measure 17-19.5 cm in length with a wingspan of 35-41 s.
— migrant, swallow family, passerine order, especially common in Europe, North Africa and temperate latitudes of Asia. City swallow, and migrates in winter to sub-Saharan Africa and tropical Asia.
(Hirundo rustica) - migrant, is the most common species of swallow in the world. These swallows have blue upperparts, a long, deeply forked tail, and curved, pointed wings. They are found in Europe, Asia, Africa and America.
(Turdus viscivorus) - migrant, common to many countries in Europe, Asia and North Africa. It is a year-round resident in many areas, but northern and eastern individuals migrate south in winter, often in small flocks.
Robin
Green Warbler
Finch
Badger Warbler
Reed Bunting
Buzzard
Klintukh
Landrail
Wren
Wood Accentor
forest pipit
Meadow mint
Coot
Little flycatcher
Pied Flycatcher
Common redstart
Common Shrike
Common oriole
Common nightjar
Common cuckoo
Common Nightingale
Common lentils
black-headed gull
song thrush
Warbler
Warbler rattle
Quail
Harrier
Kestrel
skylark
Chiffchaff
common tern
Fieldfare
Garden warbler
garden warbler
Gray flycatcher
Gray Warbler
gray heron
Whitethroat
Warbler
Hobby
Black swift
Chernysh
Blackbird
Lapwing
Wintering birds are those birds that, with the arrival of winter, do not fly south, but remain to spend the winter in their native land. Those that fly south are called migratory birds. And there are also nomadic birds. They are called nomads who constantly move from place to place in search of food. Nomadic birds can be found both in winter and summer. But most often we see them in winter. Why? Yes, because in search of food in winter, birds constantly huddle close to human habitation. Therefore, in winter you can see wintering and migrating birds. All of them can be called hibernating.
And what birds stay for the winter? It would seem that the answer to this question is clear. Those who are able to withstand the cold remain. But this is not at all the main reason. Only well-fed birds can tolerate the cold. Therefore, only those birds remain that are able to find food for themselves in winter. Those that feed on insects will not be able to feed themselves in winter. All insects disappear during cold weather. Some hide in warm and secluded places. Most insects simply die, having previously left a sufficient supply of eggs. So the birds are forced to fly to those regions where there is no winter and there is enough food. Only those who eat seeds, grains, and berries remain to spend the winter. But it’s not easy for them either.
For birds, winter is a very difficult time of year. The poor birds are hungry and cold. Because of the cold, winter birds lose a lot of heat. In order to keep warm, birds need to eat a lot, and in winter they need much more food than in summer. Finding food is the main activity for birds in winter. It gets dark quickly, and in the dark there is no food to be found. Therefore, from dawn to dark, birds search for food in winter. And whoever remains hungry will disappear at night and freeze! “A well-fed person is not afraid of frosts” - this can be said about birds.
And yet, in severe frosts, winter birds feel very bad. Especially when the frost is prolonged. Many fairy tales of northern peoples say: “It was so cold that the birds froze in flight.”
Often in frosty conditions birds do not fly, but sit with their feathers ruffled. Why? It turns out that they do not fly in cold weather, because the bird freezes much faster in flight. When a bird sits, it has still air between its feathers. It prevents cold from reaching the bird's body and retains heat. In flight, frosty air rushes towards the bird’s body from all sides, and it freezes in flight.
And you can also see in winter frosts how the bird stands on one leg or the other. Why is she doing this? The bird warms its legs by alternately lifting them from the cold ground.
To keep warm, birds hug each other closely and hide their beaks under their wings. Even those birds in winter that live alone in summer flock together. This makes it easier for them to endure the winter. One bird found food and immediately notified everyone. So everyone is full. It is easier for the flock to notice approaching danger. And the birds keep warm by huddling together.
How else do birds escape the cold?
Black grouse, hazel grouse, wood grouse and partridges escape the cold in deep snow. In the evening, a flock of stones falls from the trees into a snowdrift and hides in it from the wind and frost. And in the morning it takes off to feed on buds and needles again. In severe frosts, a flock can remain in the snow all day. But even in a snowdrift, danger can lurk for birds if a hard crust forms on it, and the birds do not have enough strength to break through it and get out.
The long winter forces some birds to make substantial reserves. This is how the nutcracker stores pine nuts. She makes tens of thousands of 10–20 pieces of nuts in secluded places and remembers them for several months! Of course, some of the reserves are stolen by other inhabitants of the taiga, from chipmunks to bears; sometimes forgotten “treasures” sprout and give rise to new groves of Siberian pine.
There is a bird that has adapted to winter conditions so much that it even hatches chicks in winter. This is a crossbill. The spruce crossbill lives in our country. These birds feed on seeds from the cones of coniferous trees, deftly extracting them from the cones with their crossed beaks. In January-February they begin to build warm, two-layer nests. The male brings food to the female sitting on the nest; she incubates the eggs for a little more than two weeks, and then the parents feed the chicks for another three weeks.
Flocks of bright bullfinches and waxwings noisily fly from one tree or small-fruited apple tree to another. A lot of pecked berries remain on the snow under the trees. Overripe berries can ferment during a thaw, and then the birds, having eaten them, behave like drunken people. They become disorientated, hit walls and fall.
Birds need help in winter, make feeders for them and regularly pour food into them.
Feed the birds in winter.
Let it come from all over
They will flock to you like home,
Flocks on the porch.
Their food is not rich.
I need a handful of grain
One handful -
And not scary
It will be winter for them.
It’s impossible to count how many of them die,
It's hard to see.
But in our heart there is
And it's warm for the birds.
How can we forget:
They could fly away
And they stayed for the winter
Together with people.
Train your birds in the cold
To your window
So that you don’t have to go without songs
Let's welcome spring.
Proverbs and sayings about winter birds
The sparrows chirp in unison, which means there will be a thaw.
In which direction the crow sits with its nose, the wind will come from there.
Crows hide their beaks under their wings - to the cold weather.
Birds sit on the treetops - it will be warm.
The titmice squeak in the morning, which means it will be frosty.
Poems about wintering birds
Poems about Crow
The color is greyish,
Habit - a thief,
Hoarse screamer
Famous person.
Hoodie!
Poems about Sparrow
The sparrow jumps and jumps,
Calls out to little children:
Throw crumbs to the sparrow -
I'll sing you a song
Tick-tweet!
Throw in millet and barley -
I'll sing to you all day long
Tick-tweet!
Poems about Magpie
Magpie flew to us
Belogruda, Belobok,
She chattered, she galloped,
I crushed the loose bed,
I dug here and there with my beak,
I wet my tail in a puddle,
Then she shook the feathers,
She ran and flew up!
Poems about tits
Birds jump early in the morning
Along the snow-covered branches -
Yellow-breasted tits
They flew to visit us.
"Tin-shadow, Tili-shadow,
The winter day is getting shorter and shorter -
You won't have time to have lunch,
The sun will set behind the fence.
Not a mosquito, not a fly.
There is just snow and snow everywhere.
It's good that we have feeders
Made by a good man!
Poems about waxwings
Blizzards are blowing outside the window,
But it happens sometimes -
Waxwings arrive
Peck berries in the spring.
The hawthorn bush bends
From the pressure of flocks of birds.
The silver ringing is rushing,
Glorifying the frozen harvest.
They moved to the rowan tree,
We drank scarlet berries,
And trills into the frosty air
They rushed with a subtle echo.
Poems about the Bullfinch
Bullfinches are a funny bird,
Not afraid of winter at all,
In winter he comes to visit,
Kholodov doesn’t notice.
This red-breasted bird
Forest winter singer.
The forest is a glorious home for her in winter,
Bullfinches are looking for food there.
The bird is small in size,
Can be an example for many:
How to live in a cold forest,
Live and not bother at all.
Bullfinches fly in a flock,
The gifts of the forest are collected:
Dry flower seeds,
And berries from forest bushes.
Their flocks of red-breasted ones in a row,
It's like a parade for the forest.
Often flocks of bullfinches,
They fly into people's cities.
They eat winter rowan,
Everyone is waiting for spring together.
In the large bird world there are migratory and non-migratory birds. For migratory birds, the change of seasons is preparation for a big journey, and for non-migratory birds, the onset of the cold season becomes a long and difficult time to survive this difficult time.
Spring
Birds in spring
With the arrival of the first warm days, migratory birds return to their native lands. There is a lot of work waiting for them at home: building nests and hatching chicks.
Wagtails are the first to return to their habitats. They are especially punctual, so they never miss the beginning of ice drift.
At a time when the earth was almost freed from the heavy snow cover, the rooks had already arrived. They are the very first to hatch their chicks, which is why their nests are already built in March.
Also early migratory birds are starlings and larks. The first song of the lark is evidence that the cold will not come again. As a rule, males return first, followed by females. And the last of the starlings and larks to return are those who were delayed or lost on the way.
Birds return home from warm regions not because there is nothing to eat there. It's all about the instincts of birds. They are drawn to their homeland by the desire to reproduce.
The flight of birds to their native lands is much faster than their departure. And the whole point is that they are in a hurry to hatch their cubs, which does not tolerate delay.
It is possible to roughly determine the periods of arrival of birds to their native lands. In mid-March, rooks return to their homeland, and by the end of this month starlings arrive.
In early April, larks, swans, thrushes, finches and kites can be seen. In the middle of this month, geese, ducks, gulls, cranes and waders arrive. And at the end - warblers, redstarts, woodcocks and tree pipits.
But May is characterized by the arrival of swallows, flycatchers, nightingales, swifts and willows.
Summer
Bird life in summer
The main task of each species of birds for the summer is feeding and adapting the chicks to life. If the summer turns out to be rainy and cool, then the life of birds becomes somewhat more difficult. Chicks die from colds and hunger. And the parents themselves are in great danger while it rains.
Drought is also not a favorable state of nature for birds. For birds living in swamps, drought is a disaster. During such periods, wading birds are forced to go out in search of a new habitat. And if the hot days drag on, the vegetation begins to dry out. This situation is dangerous for all types of birds.
The main task of birds for the summer is to teach their chicks to fly, so that in the fall they can fly south with their parents.
As a rule, summer days are accompanied by early dawn and late sunset, so the days of many birds become longer. So, for example, chickadees, they wake up with the first rays of the sun and fall asleep at sunset.
And the songs of the redstart can be heard at any time of the day, because they wake up before sunrise and fall asleep at dusk.
IN summer time During the year, birds are especially active and lead their usual way of life. Day and night predators hunt in forests and steppes. The familiar inhabitants of crowded places fly along the streets of cities and villages.
Autumn
Which birds fly away in the fall and which ones stay?
Why do birds fly south? Because in winter they do not have enough food, and there is a possibility that their body will not survive severe frosts. Migratory birds are most inhabitants of the tundra, and in the taiga some species are such. The number of migratory species depends on how suitable the habitat is in terms of food - whether there are enough food supplies. Thus, it turns out that half of the forest feathered inhabitants fly south. And fields, swamps and ponds are left to spend the winter without their winged inhabitants.
Migratory birds include finches, wagtails, song thrushes, chiffchaffs and swallows. Lapwings, tree pipits, larks, orioles, robins and redstarts also prefer migrating to warmer lands.
But there are birds that are able to withstand cold days; they are called sedentary. These birds include: woodpeckers, tits, pikas, nuthatches and jays. Cold days are not scary for wood grouse, black grouse and hazel grouse. And the crossbill bird can generally build nests in winter and breed offspring.
It is worth highlighting the nomadic bird species. They do not fly away to warmer climes, but constantly move from place to place. For example, waxwings, titmice, walnuts, redpolls, bullfinches and many others.
Winter
How birds winter
Winter is not an unexpected period in the life of birds. Those who stay for the winter are truly prepared for harsh conditions. Birds stock up on food and seeds. And sometimes they go out in search of fallen earrings, cones and nuts.
So, for example, jays. They can often be seen searching for acorns, even potatoes and grain.
And the hazel grouse grows a special fringe on its legs, so it can hold on to icy tree branches.
Birds that feed on buds, seeds and catkins are more provided with food in winter period. These are - white partridges, hazel grouse, black grouse, wood grouse.
But birds that prefer to eat seeds and leaves are always in a difficult search for food. For example, goldfinches, linnets, siskins, redpolls. These birds are saved only by the seeds of spruce and pine trees.
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