Nightingale is considered the bird with the most beautiful singing. In his song you can hear the clicking, whistling and the rumble, which merge to form a wonderful melody. Nightingale song is difficult to confuse with any other.
But apparently the bird is quite inconspicuous. How to live this wonderful bird, what it eats and what peculiarities in harbors, will tell that story.
Appearance
The Nightingale belongs to the family of birds of the thrush. When one hears the song of this bird, he thinks that the Nightingale looks as good as singing. In fact, the bird looks quite unattractive and she doesn’t have the bright plumage. The Nightingale is a small size. The bird runs on a small, slender paws. At the end of each finger of the paw has a claw that helps the bird to stay on the branches. Eyes like beads, black and large.
The color depends on the type of bird. The thrush Nightingale is mostly plain plumage, brownish-olive or brown color. A small part of the throat and abdomen are painted in white color. The flanks and breast are painted in a color that is slightly darker than the main color. The tail has a red tint, a straight line. But also there are individuals that have a rounded shape of the tail at the end.
Some species in the area of breast have the feathers blue, orange or black. For example, the Nightingale – necked stint has a red neck. The bird almost does not change the color of their plumage throughout the year.
Females and males in appearance almost indistinguishable from each other. To distinguish gender only in the brighter colour of the male. The juveniles are spotted or scaly coloration that helps an inexperienced birds to blend with environment and hide from predators. The weight of the birds is small and is 25 grams, and in length an adult grows up to 20 cm, Wingspan 29 cm, with a length of only 9 cm.
Species and habitat of the Nightingale
Depending on the species of Nightingale, it can be found in different parts of the globe.
- Thrush Nightingale lives in Europe and Siberia during the warm time of the year.
- Nightingale-necked stint inhabits Siberia and the far East.
- Blue species lives in the area of the Ob basin and on the coasts of the Okhotsk and the sea of Japan.
- The Nightingale Whistler has a more short singing and lives in the southern part of Siberia and in the territory from Kamchatka to Sakhalin.
All the species that live in places with cold winters, go for this period from Russia to warmer climes. The Nightingale can be found in forests and forest edges with dense shrub vegetation. Birds are attracted to parks where willows grow and the siren located near the water bodies. If a bird like the habitat, you can hear a wonderful tune on the distance of 10-15 meters from her home.
Lifestyle
These birds can be divided into those who lead a sedentary and a migratory lifestyle. Representatives of southern species settle in the southern regions of the globe and do not need to travel. Other species living in the colder parts of Russia, are migratory.
As mentioned above, birds prefer in the winter to fly from Russia to the countries of East Africa, returning with the spring to their homes. This period begins at the end of April to mid of may and can last until early June. At this time, the trees in Russia are already green or are just beginning to leaf out. And there are insects that are a food source for the warblers. First, experienced males arrive and inform everyone that came through singing. Then arrives the young.
Young individuals love the neighborhood experienced Solovyov and try to occupy the territory close to the elderly. Experienced bird defends its territory and chooses who will be her neighbor. With the old warblers can live only young. Thus, there is a hierarchy, at the head of which stands the most experienced individual. Their nests birds build distance up to 30 meters. In rare cases, the nests are located from each other at a distance of 5 meters.
The birds singing
If nests are nearby, the young and the old Nightingale should sing in turn. In the woods you can often hear nightingales choir, which has more than 40 individuals. While the melody may start only an experienced singer. If young begins to sing the Nightingale, more experienced runs, or it begins to sing louder. If the neighbors live far away from each other, each is given their time to the song. Young birds sing awkwardly, gradually learning this art from experienced representatives of this bird.
The bird is considered to be very secretive and often plays hide and seek. If you’re lucky, during the singing, it can be seen high up in a tree with widely opened beak. The Nightingale loves to sing all day. Very clearly the melody of the birds you can hear at night, because of the lack of background noise. In the song of the Nightingale , there are also specific signals. If he combines several signals into one song, it would mean higher anxiety.
It is believed that a more melodious singing of the Nightingale has plain, but the songs of other species less touches the soul and heart.
Family formation and reproduction
These birds live in pairs. The first days after the flight they rest and get used to the new habitat, and then go in search of its second half. The male begins to sing day and night to attract females, only occasionally looking up to eat. To attract females, males adopt different postures, open the tail, lowers his wings, bent over. In turn, the female at dawn begins to primitivity to the male drew attention to it. As soon as the members of the opposite sex chose each other, the female takes off, and the male is playing catch-up, making a sound similar to a squeak.
When a couple is formed, the female begins to build the nest and the male continues to sing. Thus, it notifies the other nightingales that this is his territory and the female.
For the construction of the nest, the female chooses places close to water bodies. The nest the nightingales build on the bushes with a height of 1 meter, but in most cases, on the ground or on dry leaves. The hole of the bird is not sick, and only slightly delve into the forest floor, raking leaves. The sides of the nest are at the level of the dry leaves, and its diameter is 11 to 13 cm and a height of about 10 cm, the Nest turns rough. At the bottom of the trail leaves the edge of the slot vystelite sedge and grass stems. The bird on the construction of the nest takes about a week.
Then the female lays and incubates the eggs, and the male continues to sing. The number of eggs, usually no more than 4-6 pieces. Eggs are painted in olive-brown. The eggs hatch the expectant mother is approximately 2 weeks. The ending song of the male means that the Chicks hatched, and he does not wish to attract attention. The male is a doting father, because it helps the female to nurse the young. He goes in search of food for kids.
The Chicks parents care for 2 weeks, because kids still can’t fly and provide for themselves food. Move Chicks with feet, without moving far from the nest, and with special care. Towards the end of August, the wings kids become strong, and they fly with their parents to warmer climes.
The average life expectancy of a Nightingale is 3-4 years. In captivity, birds live much longer and in good conditions can live up to 7 years.
Food
In the diet of the Warbler includes:
- Small insects such as spiders, ants, caterpillars, beetles.
- In a small number of crops.
- The pulp of ripe berries and fruit.
Nightingales in captivity
These wonderful birds can exist in an unnatural environment. Before fishing Soloviev was even prohibited by law. Catch of thrush Nightingale in the spring of barbaric way. Caught the bird, tie in wings and begin to learn to live in captivity. First, the bird refuses to sing, but then a little getting used to and after that, begins his song.
To the cells the bird gets used quickly, but make it fully manual fails. To contain the Nightingale, you need to be a lot of effort. The cage needs to be spacious. But to prevent obesity in birds, it is best to contain in cages.
In the first days after the capture of the Nightingale is trying to escape and beating on the cage. Therefore, to prevent injuries, the cage in the early days covered with a cloth. Fearful individuals will sing only in a cage, covered with a white cloth.
Food in captivity
Birds in captivity eat:
- Mealy worms for about 8 pieces a day.
- The ant eggs.
- Chopped chicken eggs.
Then gently injected diet: lettuce, grated carrot, boiled meat in powdered form. As soon as Nightingale used to live in captivity, he was transferred to the finished feed with vitamins and minerals.
Who has ever heard the song of the Nightingale, those fall in love with her for life. But it is not necessary to lock these wonderful birds in cages. If you want to enjoy a magnificent melody of the Nightingale, it is best to set aside a day and go to the forest to hear the singing of this wonderful bird.
