Little bittern. Little bittern or spinning top (ixobrychus minutus) Species status on the territory of the country and in adjacent regions

Appearance and behavior. The smallest representative of the herons of our fauna, does not exceed in size, body length 33–38 cm, weight 100–150 grams, wingspan 52–58 cm. It has a light and slender build, very long-toed paws, a long and thin beak. Deftly climbs the stems of reeds and branches of bushes, wrapping their fingers around them, but most often it catches the eye flying low over water or over thickets. Compared to the bittern, it is far from being so secretive and allows itself to be examined much more often, although in case of danger it can also take a “hidden pose” with its neck and head stretched upwards. Active during the day and at dusk.

Description. Sexual dimorphism is well expressed, which is a unique phenomenon for our herons. The male is mostly pale buff, with a black back, cap, flight and tail feathers. In flight, the contrast between the black flight feathers and the light “shield” of the wing is striking. Paws are green, beak from light yellow to orange. The female is much dimmer, her black color is replaced by brown (many feathers have light borders), and pale buffy - by dirty sand, dark longitudinal stripes are visible on the neck (they are almost indistinguishable in the male). However, the characteristic two-tone coloration of the wing is also noticeable in her, although not so contrasting. In steady flight, like all herons, it folds its neck so that it looks short. Young birds are light brown in color with many longitudinal dark streaks. Chicks are covered with light red down.

Voice not as expressive as that of, although it remotely resembles it: these are low-pitched hoarse sounds, from a distance similar to rhythmic dog barking, but near - to a muffled aspiration. These cries are the "song" of the top, they can be heard in May and June, the rest of the time it is silent.

Distribution, status. Breeds on all continents and many islands of the Eastern Hemisphere, starting from the south of the taiga zone. IN European Russia to the north it reaches approximately the latitude of St. Petersburg. In the north of the range it is rare and is not found in all suitable places; in the forest-steppe and steppe zone becomes quite common. Wintering grounds are located far to the south of the area covered by the determinant - in southern Asia and in tropical Africa, does not occur in European Russia in winter.

Lifestyle. In spring, it arrives relatively late, at the end of April or May, and leaves early, in September. Settles in places where thickets of reeds and other grassy emersed vegetation alternate with dense flooded shrubs. It can live on relatively small bodies of water - river oxbow lakes, ponds and the like. Breeds in separate pairs, sometimes at short distances from each other.

The nest is most often placed on the branches of a flooded willow bush half a meter above the water or touches the base of the water and is a bowl-shaped structure of leaves and reed stems. The tray is usually lined with reed leaves. At the beginning, the nest, like that of other herons, has the shape of an inverted cone, but later it is trampled down and becomes flat. Clutch contains up to 10 pure white eggs. Both parents incubate the clutch and feed the chicks. Newly hatched chicks are completely helpless, after a week they are already standing in the nest and, when a person approaches, they take the same position as adult birds, that is, they stretch their heads and necks up and remain motionless in this position. Very early, the chicks begin to deftly climb the branches and stems of the reed.

Chaplya-lasianik (earlier - Bugai are small)

The whole territory of Belarus

Family Herons - Ardeidae

In Belarus - I. m. minutus (the subspecies inhabits the entire Palearctic part of the species range).

Small breeding, migratory and transit migratory species. It is widely distributed, but in recent decades it has rarely been found almost everywhere. Most of the Belarusian population nests in Polesie.

Zoya Kiseleva, a pond in the md. "Gomselmash", Gomel

The smallest of our herons (smaller than a crow). In the color of the plumage of adult birds, sexual dimorphism is well expressed. The top of the head, back, feathers of the shoulders and uppertail are black with a greenish tint, the top of the neck is gray, the wing coverts are yellow, the ventral side is buffy with a brown longitudinal pattern, the flight and tail feathers are black. The beak is yellow-green, the legs are green. The dorsal side of the female is dark brown with buffy streaks, the sides of the head and neck are reddish-brown, and there is a longitudinal pattern on the front of the neck. Young birds are similar to the female, but there are more dark spots. The weight of males and females is 130-170 g, body length is 31.5-38.5 cm, wingspan is 50-55 cm.

Inhabits various reservoirs with developed coastal herbaceous-shrub vegetation. Keeps in thickets of willows and reeds along the banks of reservoirs, skillfully hiding. It is rare to see a top, usually in the evening hours, when this bird often makes flights from one area of ​​thickets to another. The voice of the male - a repeated jerky "bueh ..." - is also heard mainly at dusk and at night.

In spring, it arrives in April - the first decade of May. Migrates alone at night.

Valery Kiselyov, pond md. "Gomselmash", Gomel

Favorite nesting places are swampy floodplains of slowly flowing rivers with numerous backwaters and oxbow lakes, gently sloping and low shores of lakes and reservoirs, open water, fish ponds, old peat extraction areas with areas of dense thickets of reed, cattail, willow and alder. For the location of the nest, the presence of extensive arrays of reeds or shrubs is not necessary; sometimes a small clump or a separate bush overgrown with grass, or a narrow strip of thickets along the edges of the dams of fish ponds, is enough. Nests were found even in old quarries and sewage treatment plants flooded with water and overgrown with cattail and willow bushes. Occasionally, the bird settles in small overgrown ponds on the outskirts of settlements or in bushy swamps adjacent to them. Due to a secretive way of life, more active at dusk, and also because of nesting in sparsely visited places, the bird rarely catches the eye. This may give the impression that it is rarer than it actually is. In nesting areas during the day, individuals can be observed flying over the vegetation of water bodies.

The bittern lives in single pairs, each pair occupies a relatively large nesting area. For the nest, it chooses areas of coastal shrubs or grassy-shrub thickets, often flooded with water or at its very edge. The nest is usually well hidden by the surrounding vegetation.

It is built in the lower forks of branches of shrubs or small trees, in a dense interweaving of stems of reeds, undersized willows, nightshade and sedges, on creases in curtains of dry reeds or cattails. The height of its location depends on the nature of the vegetation. Often a nest built among surface herbaceous plants, almost touches the surface of the water with its base, and if there are convenient forks in willow bushes, it can be found at a height of 50-70 cm, and sometimes even higher.

Valery Kiselyov, pond md. "Gomselmash", Gomel

The nest is built from pieces of dry stems of hard vegetation, often with an admixture of thin twigs of willow and alder, when nesting among shrubs - mainly from twigs. The building material does not twist, and at first the nest is a loose structure in the form of an inverted cone with a weakly expressed tray, lined, although not always, with thinner stems and reed leaves. Nest height 12-15 cm (by the end of incubation 5-6 cm), diameter 17-25 cm; tray depth 1-3 cm, diameter 7-12 cm.

In a complete clutch, most often there are 6 eggs, but often 5, as well as 7. There are clutches of 4, and sometimes of 8-9 eggs. As an exception in Europe, a clutch of 10 eggs was noted. The shell is white, without a pattern, greenish in the light. Egg weight 12 g, length 35 mm (33-37 mm), diameter 26 mm (23-28 mm).

The clutches appear late - in late May - early June, occasionally, especially in the northern regions, only from mid-June. There is one brood per year. In water bodies with frequent and sharp fluctuations in the water level, many low-lying nests are flooded, and the birds are forced to nest again. In such places, it is not uncommon to find clutches at the end of June, and sometimes in July.

Both members of the pair incubate alternately for 16-19 days. The chicks remain in the nest for only 7-9 days, after which they begin to skillfully climb the branches of bushes and reed stems near the nest and leave the nests at the end of the third week of life. However, the young begin to fly only at the age of 30 days.

Autumn departure and migration occur in the 2nd decade of August - September, only a few individuals are found in the first half of October.

The basis of the food of the spinning top are aquatic invertebrates, frogs and small fish. Occasionally eats eggs and chicks in nests small birds nesting in reeds.

The number in Belarus at the end of the XX century. was estimated at 300–600 pairs, the trend is a slight decrease. Little Bittern listed in the Red Book of the Republic of Belarus since 1993.

The maximum registered age in Europe is 7 years 10 months.

Valery Kiselyov, md. "Gomselmash", Gomel

Valery Kiselyov, pond md. "Gomselmash", Gomel

Literature

1. Grichik V. V., Burko L. D. " Animal world Belarus. Vertebrates: textbook. allowance "Minsk, 2013. -399 p.

2. Nikiforov M. E., Yaminsky B. V., Shklyarov L. P. "Birds of Belarus: A guide to identification of nests and eggs" Minsk, 1989. -479 p.

3. Gaiduk V. E., Abramova I. V. "Ecology of birds of the south-west of Belarus. Non-passerines: monograph". Brest, 2009. -300s.

4. Fransson, T., Jansson, L., Kolehmainen, T., Kroon, C. & Wenninger, T. (2017) EURING list of longevity records for European birds.

Little bittern is the smallest of our herons - it is the size of a corncrake or a thin month-old chicken: wing 13.8-16 cm, metatarsus 4.5-5.25 cm, tail 5-5.6 cm. black color with a slight metallic sheen on the back. The underparts and neck are sandy-buff with darker narrow long stripes and dark spots descending to the sides of the chest. The female, unlike the male, is reddish-brown above. Juveniles are similar to the female, but their heads are reddish-brown, the dark edges of the feathers of the back are wider, the wing coverts with dark core spots. The eyes and beak are yellow, the legs are greyish-green. The Little Bittern is distributed from Northwest Africa and adjacent islands.

Atlantic Ocean to the east to Semirechye and India. To the north it reaches Baltic Sea, Leningrad region and up to approximately 56 ° N. sh. in Siberia.

In spring, the bittern appears in late April - early May and soon spreads to nesting sites. Nest-building is preceded by pairing. This is accompanied by a characteristic croaking call of the male, games, fights between males, etc. Males fight both in thickets and in the air. Sometimes one of the males quietly sneaks up on the other and with a strong blow kills an opponent in the head.

The nest is built by the female. It looks like a heap of branches and blades of grass, is placed on the reeds, in willow bushes, or even on trees, at a height of 4-4.5 m above the ground. The Little Bittern nests in separate pairs, which is what it resembles, however, often several pairs nest separately in the same swamp. A full clutch of 4-8 eggs occurs at different dates in May. The eggs of the little bittern are white, evenly pointed at both ends, their size is 2.8-2.5 cm. The female incubates mainly, and the male does not leave her and feeds her when she builds a nest, and replaces incubation at first. Leaving the nest in mid-late July, the young begin to move along the branches and bushes and even along the blades of grass, then rise to the wing, and the entire brood disperses. At this time, small bitterns feed intensively and destroy a lot of eggs and chicks. In addition, the little bittern feeds on fish, frogs, molluscs and worms. The Little Bittern is a secretive and cautious bird, very vicious and gluttonous. She leads the twilight or even night image life. At this time, she is awake and eats intensely, during the day she lurks in the thickets.

With the approach of twilight, and also early in the morning, the voice of the little bittern is often heard in the swamp, which looks like a muffled, abrupt bark, repeated quite rarely; the bird itself at this time usually sits quietly on a willow near the water and lets it get close enough to it that it can be reached with an oar.

The Little Bittern runs beautifully and climbs in the most inaccessible thickets. It takes off quickly and easily, its flight is even and rather fast, it flaps its wings frequently. In the event of danger approaching, the little bittern hides like a great bittern, crouching and stretching its neck, and does this both on the ground and sitting on a branch. The Little Bittern can not only swim, but also dives quite well.

In September, the flight of the small bittern to the south begins, stretching for the whole month. It winters in Africa and India.

In economic terms, the little bittern is a very harmful bird: due to its voracity, it exterminates a lot of chicks and eggs, not only small waders, but even ducks, and also eats a large number of fish fry.

Plan
Introduction
1 General characteristics
2 Distribution
3 Lifestyle
3.1 Nutrition
3.2 Voice
3.3 Breeding

Bibliography

Introduction

Little bittern, or spinning top (lat. Ixobrychus minutus) is a bird of the heron family, the smallest heron.

1. General characteristics

The growth of the small bittern reaches only 36 cm. The weight is 136-145 g, the wing length is about 15 cm. The small bittern is the only representative of the stork order, in which the male and female differ in color. The male bittern has a black cap on its head with a green tint, wings and back, head and neck are creamy white, belly is buffy with whitish endings of feathers. The beak is yellow-greenish. The female is brown with streaks on the back, the belly, head and neck are buffy. The beak of the female is yellow with a brown end.

2. Distribution

The Little Bittern breeds in Europe, Central Asia, Western India, Africa and Australia. European bitterns - migratory birds flying to Africa for the winter. In Russia, the small bittern can be found from the European part (in the north to St. Petersburg) to Western Siberia.

3. Lifestyle

The Little Bittern nests on the banks of large and small reservoirs with stagnant water, overgrown with vegetation. This bird leads a very secretive way of life, deftly climbing the reeds, grabbing the stems with tenacious long fingers. It flies not very willingly, only for short distances, very low over thickets or the surface of the water. Active mainly at night. In Europe, it arrives from winter quarters in April - early May, and departs for winter quarters in August-September. Like the great bittern, the little bittern flies to nesting sites and flies away for wintering singly, without forming flocks. Most often it flies at night.

Feeding Little bittern feeds small fish, frogs, tadpoles, aquatic invertebrates. Sometimes chicks of small passerines are caught. Voice

3.3. reproduction

Spinning tops nest singly or rarely in scattered colonies. Each pair occupies a fairly large nesting area. The nest is arranged in the thick of reeds or in the branches of a tree. The nest of a conical shape after the hatching of the chicks is trampled down and becomes flat. The Little Bittern lays its eggs between the beginning of June and the end of July, depending on the locality and climate. Clutch contains 5-9 white eggs. Both parents incubate and raise the chicks. Already at the age of a few days, the chicks of the Little Bittern deftly climb the reed stalks, grabbing them with long thin fingers. At the age of 7-12 days, the chicks can already leave the nest for a short time. At the age of 1 month, the little bittern chicks are already on the wing.

Bibliography:

1. Boehme R. L., Flint V. E. Five-language dictionary of animal names. Birds. Latin, Russian, English, German, French. / under the general editorship of acad. V. E. Sokolova. - M.: Rus. lang., "RUSSO", 1994. - S. 24. - 2030 copies. - ISBN 5-200-00643-0

The Little Bittern belongs to the order Ciconiiformes, the Heron family, the Little Bittern genus and the Little Bittern species. The second name of this bird is a spinning top.

Behavior and appearance

We can say that this is the smallest of the herons in our fauna, the size of her body is not more sizes jackdaws, body length from 33 to 38 cm, wingspan from 52 to 58 cm, and weight from 100 to 150 grams. The physique is slender and light, the beak is thin and long, the paws are long-toed. She very easily moves along the reed stems and branches of bushes, deftly clasping them with her paws. Yet more often they have been seen flying quite low over thickets or water. If compared with the bittern, then the small bittern is not so secretive and can be seen more often, but still, in case of danger, it also takes a “hiding position”, stretching its head and neck up. In the active state, they arrive at dusk and during the day.

Description

The little bittern has a very pronounced sex difference, although for herons it is a rare event. Males are most often pale buffy in color, their back, cap, tail and flight feathers are black. In the process of flight, the difference between the light “shield” of the wing and the black flight feathers is very striking. The beak of males can be from light yellow to orange color, and the paws have green color. The female is much duller. The black color is replaced by brown (many feathers have a light border), the pale ocher is replaced by a dirty sandy color, and dark stripes are visible on her neck (they are almost invisible in males). But the two-tone color of the wings, characteristic of the little bittern, can also be traced in the female, although not so contrasting. During the flight, the bittern folds its neck, and it looks quite short. Juveniles have a light brown plumage, with a large number of dark longitudinal streaks. Well, the chicks are covered with down, light red color.

The Little Bittern has a voice vaguely reminiscent of that of the Great Bittern, but it is not as expressive. She makes hoarse, low sounds, which, from a distance, may resemble dog barking, and near a slightly muffled breath. These sounds are called the "song" of the top, and they are heard in the May and June months. At other times, she is quite silent.

Little bittern in a nest with chicks

Spreading

Little bitterns build nests on the continents and islands of the Eastern Hemisphere of the Earth. This middle Asia, Europe, Australia, Western India, Africa. In our country, it is found on the territory starting from the European part (north to St. Petersburg) and ending Western Siberia. In European Russia, you will not meet this bird in winter; for the winter, it flies to Africa.

Lifestyle

They arrive in the spring in the last days of April or in May, and fly away for the winter in September. The small bittern, like the big one, flies away to spend the winter and returns to nesting alone. Stay does not form. More often they settle in places where emersed grassy vegetation and reed beds alternate with flooded dense shrubs. It can also choose small reservoirs for living - ponds, river oxbow lakes and similar places.

reproduction

Little bittern forms nests in separate pairs, which occupy a decent piece of land. Arrange nests so that they are well camouflaged in vegetation. The nest is usually built on the branches of a willow bush, it either touches the water with its base, or it can hang above the water at a distance of 50-60 cm. They are also found on low trees, in a plexus of reed stems. It turns out that the height of the nest depends on the vegetation on which it is located. The nest has a cup-shaped shape, initially it looks like an inverted cone, but over time it is trampled and the bottom becomes flat. building materials dry, hard stems of vegetation serve, sometimes with the addition of alder and willow branches, but inside the nest is lined with reed leaves and thin stems. This type of bittern lays eggs from the first days of June to the last days of July. It depends on the climate and location. Usually 5 to 9 eggs are laid. Both male and female are engaged in incubation and upbringing of chicks. They incubate eggs for 16-19 days. After a few days, the babies begin to climb the reed stems, and after a week and a half, they leave the nest for a while. A month later, they are already beginning to rise on the wing.

Little bittern in flight

Nutrition

Most often, they choose reed stems for hunting. They sit on these stems, which are located above the water itself, near the edge of dense thickets, in close proximity to clean water and guard their prey. They feed on tadpoles, frogs, small fish, various aquatic invertebrates. They have also been seen destroying the nests of passerine birds that live in dense vegetation near water, stealing both their eggs and chicks.

Security

Many countries in Europe noted a clear decline in the number of small bitterns between 1970 and 1990. The main factor was reclamation, which led to the final disappearance of many small reservoirs, another factor was the destruction of coastal trees, thickets and shrubs for the use of reservoirs for economic purposes, as well as the destruction of nests by various predators.

The Little Bittern is listed in the Red Books of the Leningrad and Tver regions, as well as in the Red Books of the Estonian and Latvian Republics, Belarus. It is listed in the EU Directive on the Protection of Rare Birds, in Appendix 1, in Appendix 2 of the Berne Convention, in Appendix 2 of the Bonn Convention, this species is also assigned to SPEC 3.

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