Little bittern. Spine, or small bittern. Excerpt characterizing the Little Bittern

Appearance. The plumage of the back and upper part of the head is black, the chest and neck are buffy, the belly is white, the wings are yellow-pink with black tips. The legs are green, the beak also has a greenish tint. The female is distinguished by a brownish back, and young birds are completely brown with streaks.

Lifestyle . The top lives in bodies of water in a wide variety of areas (forests, steppes, deserts), but always with thickets of reeds or bushes. An ordinary migratory bird, but it is very difficult to detect, because the top is extremely careful, secretive and stays only alone. Nests in pairs, prefers oxbow lakes, ponds, lakes or reservoirs, abundantly overgrown with reeds, reeds or willows. The nest is constructed from twigs and reed stalks and is located low in trees, in bushes or on bent reeds. The shape is typical of herons, but smaller in size. Laying is carried out from mid-May to June, in a clutch there are 5-9 eggs, white with a rough shell. It is active only at night and at dusk. In case of danger, it hides, stretches its beak and neck upward and becomes like a reed. It does not fly for long, it takes off very easily and quickly, even through dense thickets, but it lands soon. The flight is relatively fast, often flapping its wings, and glides when landing. It moves well along reed stems and bush branches, catching prey from this very position - sitting on a branch above the surface of the water. Food - frogs, small fish, insects. The voice of the top depends on the time of year: in the spring - a jerky and dull “pumb.. pumb”, the rest of the time - a fast and clear “ke-ke-ke”.

Similar species. It differs from other tops by its black back plumage, and from other birds of the heron family by its small size. It is not found together with other types of tops.

Ixobrychus minutus (Linnaeus, 1766)

Order Ciconiiformes

Heron family – Ardeidae

Status of the species in the country and in adjacent regions

The species is listed in the Red Books and is protected in the Moscow (category 3), Ryazan (category 3), Kaluga (category 2) and Lipetsk (category 3) regions.

Distribution and abundance

The range covers the center and south of Europe, South Asia, part of Africa and Australia. In the Tula region - a rare breeding species. Distributed mosaically. Gravitates towards bodies of water of anthropogenic origin. Permanent place meeting place is the Cherepetskoye Reservoir, where at least three pairs regularly nest. The average number of chicks in broods (according to observations from 2003-2005) is 3.3. Broods live on islands overgrown with reeds.

Habitats and biology

Inhabits lakes, ponds, river oxbows with dense thickets of reeds, reeds, willows, and alders. Migrant. Appears on nesting sites at the end of May. Settles in thickets of reeds or other tall vegetation, in coastal bushes. The little bittern makes its nest on bent stems, or, less often, on the branches of trees and shrubs hanging over the water. Birds can settle in separate pairs or colonially. There are usually 4-6 eggs in a clutch. Incubation period is 16-21 days. The chicks leave the nest at the age of about 9 days, after which they actively climb stems and branches in the immediate vicinity. At the age of one month, young bitterns begin to fly and the broods break up. The main diet of these birds consists of aquatic and semi-aquatic invertebrates, small amphibians and their larvae, and small fish. Bitterns most often watch for prey while standing motionless in shallow water.

Limiting factors and threats

A little-studied species. Possible reason rarity - limited habitat suitable for nesting.

Security measures taken and required

The species is listed in Appendix 2 of the Berne Convention, the Red Book of the Tula Region. Continued work is required to clarify the distribution and abundance.

Photo

A. P. Levashkin.

Compiled by

O. V. Brigadirova.

Information sources

1. Stepanyan, 1990; 2. Shvets et al., 2003a; 3. Brigadirova, 2006

Little bittern- the smallest of our herons - it is the size of a corncrake or a thin one-month-old chicken: wing 13.8-16 cm, metatarsus 4.5-5.25 cm, tail 5-5.6 cm. An adult male is colored black on top with a faint metallic sheen on the back. The underparts and neck are sandy-buff with darker narrow long stripes and dark spots running down the sides of the chest. The female, unlike the male, is reddish-brown above. The young are similar to the female, but the top of their heads are reddish-brown, the dark edges of the back feathers are wider, and the wing coverts have dark rachis spots. The eyes and beak are yellow, the legs are grayish-green. The small bittern is distributed from North-West Africa and adjacent islands

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

In spring, the little bittern appears at the end of April - at the beginning of May and is soon distributed among the nesting sites. The nest-building is preceded by a breakdown into pairs. This is accompanied by the characteristic croaking cry of the male, games, fights between males, etc. Males fight both in the thickets and in the air. Sometimes one of the males sneaks up on the other unnoticed and kills the opponent with a strong blow to the head.

The nest is built by the female. It looks like a heap of branches and blades of grass, and is placed on 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 reminiscent of it, but often several pairs nest separately in one swamp. A full clutch of 4-8 eggs occurs on 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 her during the first period of incubation. Having left the nest in mid-late July, the young begin to move along branches and bushes and even blades of grass, then they rise to the wing, and the entire brood scatters. At this time, small bitterns feed intensively and destroy a lot of eggs and chicks. In addition, the small bittern feeds on fish, frogs, mollusks and worms. The little bittern is a secretive and cautious bird, very vicious and voracious. She leads the twilight or even night look life. At this time, she is awake and feeds heavily, but during the day she hides in the thickets.

As dusk approaches, and also early in the morning, the voice of a small bittern is often heard in the swamp, which resembles a muffled, abrupt bark, repeated quite rarely; At this time, the bird itself usually sits calmly on the willow near the water and lets it come so close that it can be reached with an oar.

The small bittern runs and climbs well in the most inaccessible thickets. She takes off quickly and easily, her flight is smooth and quite fast, she flaps her wings often. In the event of danger approaching, the small bittern hides like a large 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 dive quite well.

In September, the migration of the bittern to the south begins, stretching throughout the entire month. It winters in Africa and India.

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

The Little Bittern belongs to the order Acioriformes, the family Herons, the genus Lesser Bittern and the species Lesser Bittern. The second name for this bird is top.

Behavior and appearance

We can say that this is the smallest heron in our fauna; its body size 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 moves very easily along reed stems and bush branches, deftly grasping them with her paws. And yet, more often they were seen flying quite low over thickets or water. Compared to the bittern, the small bittern is not so secretive and can be seen more often, but still, when in danger, it also takes a “hiding pose,” stretching its head and neck upward. They are active at dusk and during the day.

Description

In the little bittern, sexual differences are very clearly expressed, although for herons this is a rare event. Males most often have a pale buffy color; their back, cap, tail and flight feathers are black. During the flight, the difference between the light “shield” of the wing and the black flight feathers is striking. The beak of males can be from light yellow to orange color, and the paws have green color. The female is much dimmer. The black color has been replaced by brown (many feathers have a light border), the pale buff color has been replaced by a dirty sand color, and dark stripes are visible on its neck (they are almost invisible in males). But the two-color color of the wings, characteristic of the little bittern, can also be seen in the female, although not so contrasting. During the flight, the bittern folds its neck, and it looks quite short. Young individuals have light brown plumage, with big amount dark longitudinal streaks. Well, the chicks are covered with down, light red in color.

The little bittern has a voice that is vaguely reminiscent of the great bittern's voice, but it is not as expressive. She makes hoarse, quiet sounds, which, from a distance, can resemble a dog barking, and up close, a slightly muffled aspiration. These sounds are called the “song” of the top, and they are heard in the months of May and June. At other times she is quite silent.

Little bittern in a nest with chicks

Spreading

Little bitterns build nests on continents and islands Eastern Hemisphere Earth. These are Central Asia, Europe, Australia, Western India, Africa. In our country it is found in the territory starting from the European part (north to St. Petersburg) and ending with Western Siberia. IN European Russia You won’t see this bird in winter; it flies to Africa for the winter.

Lifestyle

They arrive in the spring in late April or May, and fly away for the winter in September. The little bittern, like the great bittern, flies away for the winter and returns to the nesting site alone. Does not form a flock. They often settle in places where emergent grassy vegetation and reed thickets alternate with flooded dense bushes. It can also choose to live in small bodies of water - ponds, river oxbows and similar places.

Reproduction

The small bittern forms nests in separate pairs, which occupy a decent area of ​​land. The nests are located so that they are well camouflaged in the vegetation. The nest is usually built on the branches of a willow bush; it either touches the water with its base, or 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 is cup-shaped, initially it looks like an inverted cone, but over time it is trampled and the bottom becomes flat. Construction materials dry, hard stems of vegetation serve, sometimes with the addition of twigs of alder and willow, but inside the nest is lined with reed leaves and thin stems. This type The bittern lays eggs from the first days of June until the last days of July. It depends on the climate and terrain. Typically 5 to 9 eggs are laid. Both the male and female are involved in incubating and raising the chicks. They incubate the eggs for 16-19 days. After just a few days, the babies begin to climb the reed stems, and after a week or a week and a half they leave the nest for a short time. After a month they are already starting to fly.

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 dense thickets, in close proximity to clean water and guard their prey. They eat tadpoles, frogs, small fish, and various aquatic invertebrates. They have also been observed destroying the nests of small passerine birds that live in dense vegetation near water, stealing both their eggs and chicks.

Security

Many European countries 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 in economic purposes, as well as the destruction of nests by various predators.

The small 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. Listed in the EU Protection Directive rare birds, in Appendix 1, in Appendix 2 in the Berne Convention, in Appendix 2 of the Bonn Convention, this species is also classified as SPEC 3.

In contact with

Lesser bittern - Ixobrichus minutus Linnaeus, 1766

Order Ciconiiformes

Family Heron -Ardeidae

Category, status. 3 - rare, sporadically widespread species with naturally low numbers. The species is included in the Red Books of Tver and Leningrad regions. Included in the Red Books of Belarus, the Latvian and Estonian Republics, and also included in Appendix I of the EU Directive for the Protection of Rare Birds, Appendix II of the Berne Convention, Appendix II of the Bonn Convention, classified as SPEC 3.

Short description. A very small heron (body length 33-38 cm, weight 130-170 g). The top of the head and back are black, the neck and chest are buffy, the wing is pinkish-yellow with a black tip, the beak and legs are greenish. Young birds are brown with streaks. The flight is quite fast(1).

Area and distribution. The nominative subspecies I. m. lives in the Pskov region. minutus, whose range runs through the whole of Europe (north to the latitude of St. Petersburg), Malaya and Central Asia. Kazakhstan, south western Siberia; to the south it reaches northwestern India and northern Africa. Information about the nature of the distribution of the species in the Pskov region is fragmentary. Two adult birds were noted in 1957 on a channel of an unnamed lake overgrown with willows and reeds in the Plyussky district on the border of the Leningrad and Pskov regions (2). During the nesting period of 1984, the top was noted near the village of Maksyutino, in 1986 on lake. Come, in 1978 on Lake Nishcha. In August 1985-1987. hunters caught individuals of this species near the lake. Poverty and on old ponds near the village of Idritsa (3). In June 1994, it was recorded in flooded willow forests in the Lovat floodplain below Borisogleb in the Velikoluksky district (4). In 1986, a nest was found on Lake Sebezhskoye in which tops raised 5 chicks (5). In July 2004, one female was noted on one of the ponds near the village of Fedorovskoye, not far from the village of Loknya (6).

Habitats and biological features. It nests in thickets of bushes, reeds, cattails and other tall emergent vegetation on stagnant bodies of water or slowly flowing watercourses: in quarries, on ponds and lakes, at the mouths of rivers. In the Pskov region, it is a transit migrating, nesting migratory species. Arrives in late April - mid-May. It leads a secretive lifestyle with twilight and nocturnal activity, but in nesting areas it can be observed during the day, flying over the water. Breeds in separate pairs. The clutch contains from 4 to 9 white eggs, which are incubated by both parents for up to three weeks. The chicks fly on the wing when they are one month old. Autumn departure in August - September.

The diet includes animal food - small fish, aquatic invertebrates, and amphibians.

Species abundance and limiting factors. In the 1970-1990s, a significant reduction in numbers was noted in many European countries. The main limiting factors are land reclamation, leading to the complete drainage of small shallow water bodies; destruction of high coastal vegetation in the process economic use bodies of water; nest predation terrestrial predators and corvid birds.

Security measures. Preservation of the species in specially protected areas natural areas. It is necessary to carry out regular censuses in order to identify the population in the region, identify nesting sites, and organize their protection.

Information sources:

1. Boehme, 1998; 2. Malchevsky, Pukinsky, 1983; 3. Fetisov et al., 2002; 4. Bardin et al., 1995; 5. Fedorov, 1997, 6. Medvedev, 2005.

Compiled by: E. G. Fedorova.