Mysterious wading bird

Despite the wide distribution area and the fact that the bittern lives in riverine reed thickets or near lakes, that is, where people often are, this long-nosed wading bird can easily go unnoticed. From two steps, even looking at point-blank range, it is almost impossible to detect it. It can be "invisible." And all thanks to its yellow-green plumage, which merges with the color of sedges and reeds. And also because of the pose taken by the bird at the time of danger: it pulls the body, neck and head into a string, making it look like a bunch of marsh grass. And with windy weather and bittern sways along with the surrounding grass!

But the voice of the beverage was probably heard by many. At small sizes this night swamp bird has a rolling bass. In the silence of the night, her roar can scare anyone. It used to be that for the publication of such low sounds, it immerses the beak in water and "blows" like a barrel, but now it is found that the feather expands the esophagus, and the sound amplifies as if through a resonator. For this "sweet voice", remotely similar to the roar of a bull, in Ukraine a bittern is called a "water bull" (a water bull), and popular superstitions ascribe to it a connection with an evil spirit. It is believed that someone who heard the eerie cry of this bird, is waiting for misfortune.

Appearance at vypi quite corresponds to her voice. Naturally, she does not look like a bull, but she looks as ugly and scary as the sounds that this swamp bird publishes. In many nations, it is a symbol of ugliness. Previously, an ungainly and bony man was called a bittern. Even more frightening is the feathered bird when he sees that he has been noticed: as if an eagle owl is fluffy, he spreads his feathers, places his half-bent wings in the sides, gawks his eyes, archs his neck forward. Such a sudden transformation of the "sedge beam" into an awkward scarecrow puzzles the predator for a couple of seconds. This hermit's delay is enough to take off awkwardly. On occasion, the evil bird can also hit the enemy with its faceted sharp beak.

Eats mainly bitter frogs, water and terrestrial insects. He also eats mice, loves fish. This is a very unsociable wading bird. Arrives in our land in the spring, only in this period you can see these birds in the pair. Then you can hear the roar of a male inviting females to mating. If a male has only one female, he feeds the chicks with her together, and if he starts a harem, the females take care of the offspring. Nest bitches on a bump from the stems of dry sedge or reed. In the laying usually 4-5 bluish eggs. Nestlings, one might say, are even more ugly than their parents: goggle-eyed, bony, with awkwardly large paws, making hissing, gurgling and croaking sounds.

Adult individuals of large drinking, which is found in the vast expanses of forest-steppe, subtaiga and steppe, reach a body weight of up to 900 g. This fairly large bog bird, related to short-eared herons, has a large head and a thick neck. The wings are long (35 cm) and wide, and the tail is short. The feathering is camouflage, yellowish-buffy, with a brown pattern. Beak and legs also serve as a heron camouflage: greenish-yellow or pale green. Even in a calm state, the bittern stands in a pose in which it is difficult to notice: on one leg, hunched ugly, stretching out his neck, motionless.

Due to the development of lakes and river banks, draining swamps for economic activities, the number of species is inexorably decreasing. Some birds die during hunting for waterfowl, as the bittern flies clumsily and often falls under bullets. Also, the nests of drinking are ravaged by the swamp moons and crows. However, the main factor, due to which this swamp bird almost disappeared from our places, is the reduction of the reed beds along the shores of lakes and rivers. These birds have a subspecies - an Amur spinning top, which lives in the meadows and swamps of the Amur region. It is the same ungainly and bony, with widely spaced eyes, a bird, only smaller in size and with a darker plumage.