Awesome wonder-bird waxwings

If you saw a large beautiful bird with black specks on your throat and a provocative tuft on your head, then you know that it's a waxing man. It is called so not accidentally. In the Old Russian language the word "sviristet" means whistling, loudly screaming. So this wondrous bird. She sits on a twig, chirps, and then suddenly surprises everyone with a loud whistle. She does it not because of fear. The bird has long been used to people. She allows them to come very close to her and admire her beauty.

Appearance

Bird waxing (see photo below) is similar in size to the starling. She has a thick fluffy plumage. The head is decorated with a large crimson.

The bird has a very bright variety of colors. It is pinkish-gray. But her wings are black. At the same time they are decorated with white and yellow stripes. Black throat and tail waxed. The secondary wing wings are bright red at the tips. The yellow strip passes along the edge of the tail, and the black one passes through the eyes.

Walk past noisy flocks of bright waxwings is simply impossible. Pay attention to them, even the constantly hurrying Muscovites. Citizens often call these feathered cocks, crested tits or parrots.

Habitat

A bird waxing prefers the taiga zone of Russia. This is the place of its summer habitation and nesting. You can meet her in the forest-tundra. It prefers mixed forests, felling and conifers located in the northern part of the country. Most often, for birds, the birds choose those places where birches, pine and spruce grow.

Sviristeli - migratory birds. With the onset of cold weather, they move closer to the south, where the places are warmer. Some flocks reach the Crimea, Central Asia and the Caucasus. However, most prefer the middle band. The bird is waxing, as a rule, in the first half of winter, and sometimes even for Christmas, appears in the Moscow region.

During the travel, ornithologists have a great opportunity to study these birds. After all, in a remote and sparsely populated northern zone, a sedentary and secretive way of life is waxing.

Food

At home, the bird waxers eat small fruits and berries, young shoots and kidneys. They love birds and insects. They got used to catching midges and mosquitoes, butterflies and dragonflies on the fly. Feed on also waxed with larvae.

With the onset of the autumn poultry birds leave their habitable places. They drive from there not so much cold as hunger. They fly away in search of places where they can find food. During their flights, the waxwings become vegetarians. They make a stop in those places where there are a lot of berries. During the rest, birds try to eat enough. I like them ashberry and juniper, viburnum and barberry. They can eat berries from other bushes and trees.

Sviristel is a bird with an excellent appetite. Gluttonous feathered eat quickly and in plenty. The berries they swallow whole. At the same time, food is consumed in such quantity that their stomachs are not able to digest it. Interesting is the fact that the appearance of the waxwings is borne out by their litter. Birds leave red-orange spots, consisting of semi-digested berries with pieces of peel. This droppings dirty the playgrounds and steps in front of the houses. Seeds, which leave waxy, sometimes grow in different places. Visit these birds can and prepared by man feeders. Willingly they peck dried berries and seeds.

After the pack has spent several weeks in one place, it flies over to another. The choice of a new habitat depends on the amount of food. Waxwings appear again in the Moscow region at the end of winter or early spring. Here they eat the remaining berries, as well as the already swelling buds of poplars and aspens.

Strange behavior

Bird waxing sometimes happens to be "drunk". This strange behavior of birds is known since ancient times. This phenomenon was observed not only in Russia. Such situations arose in America and in the Scandinavian countries.

"Drunken" waxwings can be observed not only in the autumn, but also in the spring season. Sometimes "intoxication" provokes the juice of trees. In the spring, its trickles flow along the trunk at the slightest damage to the bark. But more often "drunk" waxed in the fall, if the weather is warm and wet. The juice in the berries, which remained on the bushes to the arrival of the birds, begins to wander in such conditions. Gluttonous birds eat everything. They swallow and fermented berries.

The behavior of "drunken" waxwings and changes in their bodies were studied by American ornithologists. It turned out that in case of eating a large number of berries their fermentation begins already in the esophagus. At the same time, the liver can not cope with the increased load. The alcohol that enters the bird's organism changes the behavior of the birds. A flock of "drunken" waxwings is not a funny sight. Birds do not orient themselves in space. They can not fly in a straight line, they crash into various obstacles, fall, get injured, and sometimes die.

Economic purpose

A significant role is assigned to waxwings in the life of the forest. Birds carry seeds of berries on a large territory. They fall on the ground along with the droppings. Seeds do not lose their germination, passing through the intestine, and under favorable conditions sprout.