Sviyaz - description, habitat, interesting facts

One of the most famous northern breeds of birds is sviyaz. Often it is called sviyagoy, whistler or sishim. The duck is obliged by its name to its own ability to make sounds like whistling sounds.

The bird lives in the northern forest-steppe and forest-tundra zone, and in the winter hut it goes to warm lands - East Africa and South Asia, as well as Indochina. Sviyazi form numerous flocks, so it is very rarely possible to meet such a bird separately. In some cases, the pack may have up to several thousand birds. Sviyazi gather in the marshland in the fields or wet meadows.

External description of the duck

The appearance of the drake sviyazi is very stately and beautiful, the head is painted chestnut, there is a strip of golden color, the belly is gray-white, and the chest is painted red-gray. From above, the bird has gray plumage, and its sides and tail are black.

The wing at the bottom has small feathers, which are called “mirrors”. They shimmer with greenish-lilac shades, and white spots on the shoulders add sviyazi beauty and pride.

The bird's beak is painted blue, the border is black, and the limbs are gray. As for females, their plumage is more modest - these are reddish-gray tones, allowing them to effectively hide and protect offspring.

Special duck voice

Even at a sufficiently large distance, it is often possible to hear the call sviyazi, and thanks to this they can be distinguished from many other species of migratory birds.An interesting fact is that the duck and drake make sounds unlike each other. In normal times, the males have a soft voice, making smooth and long sounds “swee-and-y” or “pi-and-y”, vaguely resembling the whistle or the sound that makes a squeak in children's toys.

During the mating period, the voice of representatives of this species of birds changes, special notes and overtones are mixed with it. The drake begins to call upon the females to sviyazi, uttering the sounds of "swee-i-wow" or "frr-i-and-y". Ducks respond to such a call with a slightly deaf quack, similar to the sound of "Kerr-rr."

Peculiarities of breeding sviyazy

Wild ducks can mate and create offspring in the first year of their lives. In some situations, females do not start breeding, while waiting for the upcoming summer. This results in the fact that some pairs of Sviyazy are formed in the autumn period, when the flock is heading for the southern edges, and the rest is already during the flight. Often, wild ducks can return to their nesting sites in already folded pairs.

The mating games of representatives of this breed are distinguished by their particular modesty and “innocence”, without possessing any characteristic features and manifestations.The majority of the time drakes are located near the female, demonstrating with all its appearance to the other males that the duck is already occupied. During the mating games, ducks begin to emit specific sounds that are most similar to a deafening whistle, because the breed is thus named.

Sviyazi pick up cozy places somewhere in the thickets of shrubs left from last year. The female duck begins to build a nest in a small hole, using, among other things, its own down. And for one and a half months up to half of June, the duck starts laying eggs. Usually in one clutch can be on average up to eight eggs.

At first, the drake spends time not far from the female, but then flies away for the period in which the molt occurs. Males at this moment are located on the Siberian lakes, in the deltas of the Urals or the Volga.

Hatching eggs takes about 24-26 days. Some time after the chicks appear, they dry out and can be sent for the female. They have already opened ears and eyes, they can swim in the water and run, looking for food themselves. By the age of 45 days, chicks can usually fly.By the time the brood begins to gradually disintegrate. The flock will gather back closer to the end of August, when it is time to set off for the winter.

Sviyaz mostly lives in Russia, Finland, in the territory of the North. Caucasus and Scandinavia. In addition, they can be found in the edges of Iceland and the islands near the Arctic. A large population is located in the Baikal region, near the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and on Kamchatka.

When a duck chooses a spot for nesting, it draws attention initially to small ponds in which the bottom is covered with silt. An essential condition for this will be the presence of water grasses and vegetation in large volumes, which will allow wild ducks to feel a certain security. It is for this reason that sviyazey can be seen in secluded backwaters, in swampy areas or in forest lakes.

In winter, representatives of this breed of birds gather in numerous flocks, heading into the warm southern bays and distant estuaries. Usually it is the territory of Western Europe, Asia, areas of the Mediterranean.

Vegetarian birds

Swiaz can eat only plant food. They are able to find food for themselves not only in the water, but also on the coastal zones, pinching plants. For the most part, the diet of a wild duck consists of the following elements:

• shoots of plants;
• leaves;
• various herbs;
• cereals;
• marsh forest;
• seeds;
• aquatic plant roots or bulbs.

Interesting facts about sviyazy

A wild duck doesn’t have much love for diving, but often its diet includes succulent grass stems and roots that grow on the bottom of rivers. Being quite intelligent birds, they often use outside help, not bothering to dive to the bottom. Sometimes you can be noticed near the swans, where ducks are content with the remnants of food from the water surface.

Shedding in this species of birds takes a lot of time, but during this period, the ship retains the ability to fly. This becomes possible due to the fact that the feathers, which are primary, fall out of the duck gradually, over time,therefore, new ones are already growing back. On average, a duck can live up to 15 years, if it lives at home, in an aviary. Under natural conditions, a rare duck can live more than 3-4 years. This bird has enormous industrial value.

Video: sviyaz (Anas penelope)