The heron is gray: description. Herons - the most agile hunters

Gray heron is a 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 on 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

Telling about these creatures is a pleasure! 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. The head of the heron is rather narrow, decorated with a pinkish and yellowish huge beak that resembles a dagger more than what the birds serve with their nose and mouth. There is a "pigtail" on the back of the head, a black bundle of feathers hanging down. The neck is very long and flexible, it bends backward during the flight. The head, neck and bottom of the body are dirty-white, dark pestrins are visible from the front. The color of the feathers of the rest of the body is gray with a blue. The paws are also gray with a yellow tint. In the mating season the bird looks very beautiful, the color of the beak becomes much brighter and the famous "pigtail" opens.

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 offspring and fly to a hot country for vacation in ostriches and hippopotami, 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 - the banks of all kinds of water bodies, such as rivers, lakes, streams, swamps. The difference is not, if only there was water, though fresh, at least salty. There is only one condition for choosing a reservoir, it should be with shallow water, which serves for the heron a kind of dining room where it feeds.

Does the heron can sing?

Heron is gray, the description of which allows you to imagine 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 happen to be close to 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 produce hoarse, harsh and croaking sounds, which are heard as "fraarq". These are the songwriters!

A clever bird heron hunter

The whole world knows that heron is considered the most clever hunter. This bird looks for the victim in shallow water. Thanks to the beautiful vision and sharp long dagger beak, like a dagger, a gray breadwinner without food never remains. None of the water fry is immune from a lightning strike.

Slowly and noiselessly moves feathered predator on his "dining room" on the water, trying to look out for a 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 prey whole head ahead. The diet of the gray heron is quite diverse, but it can not be called 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 during the mating season. 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 is that the female, after looking at herself 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 perseverance and patience. After driving 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. 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 in those rare cases when the offspring did not work out, 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 shelter for the 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 after the other every 2 days, the whole is hatched from 3 to 5 eggs. 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.

Caring parents for 20 days do not leave the babies alone in a nest for a single moment, nurse them in turn, so that neither rain nor scorching sun harm the young. When the children want to eat, they begin to knock with small beaks on the beak of their parents. The on duty dad or the on-duty mommy regurgitates food directly into the beak. Fly the little gray herons begin after 50-55 days.

These long-legged birds are accustomed to be cautious and do not admit a man closer than 200 m, but 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!