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All residents of the city are accustomed to the abundance of sparrows on city streets, in parks, squares. They sit in the trees, talking among themselves, or roam the earth in search of a worm or something edible. You can meet this brisk little bird under your feet at the bus stop, where they are waiting for bread and sunflower seeds to be thrown at them, there are a lot of whisk and crowds waiting for them near the cafe. And if the sparrow doesn’t even catch my eye, the cheerful tweet is always audible.
A townsman is ready to call any small gray pichuga a sparrow. Not knowing that there are as many as two species in the city - field and house. And a couple of species live in the Caucasus - Spanish and stone. And in the Central Asian region inhabits Indian. And in general - in the family of passerine 8 genera of birds with almost 40 species. There are representatives in this form, which are quite rarely found next to a person - this is the red-headed sparrow.
Description
Appearance and other parameters are very similar to the usual urban field sparrow: the same small, nimble and stocky. He only has one difference - he wears a bright red cap on his head. The redhead is not only the head, but also the back with the upper tail - they are also gray-brown with scattered black speckles. For this outfit the sparrow got its name.
Another nuance - in contrast to urban dwellers, where all the sparrows are the same person, it is outwardly easy for a red-headed sparrow to easily distinguish a female from a male. Females are inconspicuous, devoid of bright colors, appearance looks unpretentious and faded. And the males are bright and elegant: the head on the sides is white, the breast and belly are gray-white, the wings with the tail are brown in color. The throat is black, the same color as the stripe that goes from the eye to the beak and looks like an eyebrow.
The female is dressed paler and not so colorful. Its plumage is devoid of black and red shades. The top of the body is brown, the bottom is the same as in the male - light gray. Above the eye is a bright gray-yellow stripe, similar to an eyebrow.
Habitats
The red-headed sparrow lives mostly in the south and southeast of Asia, its habitat extends from the southern part of the Sakhalin Peninsula and the Kuril Islands on Russian territory to southern China and north-western regions of India, including the Himalayas, Korea, Japan, Laos. Prefers to live in deciduous forests (oak, maple, elm) away from human settlements.
In warm areas (China, the Himalayas) live in colonies, arranging nests next to each other (35-55m), but in Russia they prefer a solitary lifestyle and settle in pairs.
Breeding and nesting
First, the males arrive, and after 7-10 days the females appear. Nest equip most often in old abandoned hollows, can also live in birdhouses, on the eaves of stone walls or in their crevices. In the Kuriles and Sakhalin sometimes build a nest in the bushes. Construct housing from small stalks and roots of various herbs, use lichens as a building material. The bottom is lined with feathers and hair. In the construction process involved both male and female.
The female makes a clutch consisting of 5-6 eggs. The color is whitish or bluish, near the blunt end dotted with brownish specks and spots. Hatching time as an ordinary sparrow - from one and a half to two weeks. Both parents also hatch. The hatched three-five-gram chicks feed both parents 10-14 days. Then the chicks fly away from the nest, forming small flocks.
Behavior and nutrition
Sparrows spend most of their lives in the trees, sitting on a branch, descend to earth only for food. The diet consists mainly of plant foods - seeds, berries, weeds, grains and cereals. Only at the time of reproduction lean on animal feed - caterpillars, worms, beetle larvae. They also feed offspring.
Wintering
Interesting Facts
Ordinary sparrows make several clutches per season, while the red-headed sparrow lays eggs a maximum of two times. In the northern areas - only once.
The life of the red sparrow is about three years.
The red-headed sparrow found a display in Japanese art - images of these birds, dressed in a red cap, adorn national postage stamps.
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