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Have you ever seen how a crow flock noisily and quickly chases a small bird, no more than the crows or jackdaws themselves? The bird that is trying to escape from its pursuers is a sparrowing hawk. In the autumn, when the hawks begin a period of wandering, their flocks are quite large, even within the city. You can recognize these birds by a slim and elegant figure, elongated tail, which is extended backwards.
The hawk is not afraid of disturbances in the flock of birds, leaving them leisurely, often changing the flight vector, turning over in the air. Sometimes, even grabbing someone from the chasing, which causes some panic and chaos. Usually, the sparrow hawk feeds on small birds. Males, possessing not especially large sizes, can catch goldfinches, blood beetles, sparrows and other small birds, while larger females are content with pigeons, starlings, etc.
Hunting methods
As usual, the hawk plucks the captured prey, sometimes without even killing it, but if at this moment it is disturbed by something, the predator will leave the unfortunate prey. Usually this bird settles with prey on a small elevation, and on the place of the meal as a result there are feathers, bones, beak, claws and a bird skull.
When a hawk hunts for various small animals and birds, it can sometimes become a victim of a larger and more dangerous predator. At night, martens attack him, and in the daytime, another species of hawk - goshawk.
Behavior features
This predator is quite cautious and silent. It flies freely and silently between bushes and trees, or right near the surface of the earth, near houses and buildings. Sometimes you can hear his short, sharp cry "Ki-kick-ki." When hawks begin the breeding season, they begin to scream more often. Visual acuity of the eagle's sparrower: its eyes are large, directed strictly forward, and this allows for greater breadth of sight.
For nesting hawk usually chooses the forest edges, small groves, forest belts. In mountainous places, he can build nests at an altitude of up to 2 km, but certainly in the forest zone. During cold periods and in winter, it can be found in parks or forest zones of the city. Habitat habitat: the European part from England to Spain, the western part of Siberia, Central Asia, Africa, p / ο Crimea.
Nests
Sparrow hawks become ready for breeding by the age of a year or a little earlier. Birds use nests once built for several years. A couple may also have several nesting sites that can be used alternately at different times.The nest is a small, loose and slightly chaotic construction of woody branches. The nest tray is deep enough, because the edges of the building are raised up, the hawk erects the lining of thin branches and tree needles. Often the nest is located in a fir or pine fork, not so often - on aspens or birch trees, at a height of up to 8 meters.
The female and the male are engaged in building a nest together. Hawk lays eggs rather late, towards the beginning of May. In laying, on average, about 5-6 eggs that have a matte white shade, covered with specks and specks of brown-dark color. If due to some factors the clutch dies, then the female is forced to postpone future offspring again. Hatching takes just over one month.
Procreation
The process of incubation begins from the moment the first egg appears, therefore, all offspring are of different ages. To the light, they hatch closer to the first half of July, and before the age of ten days each chick needs heating. During this period, the female can not engage in hunting, so this responsibility lies with the male.If during the time when the female heats the chicks, she dies, the hawk will still continue to bring food to the nest, but it does not know how to feed the offspring. Therefore, if the little hawks already know how to tear the meat and feed on their own, they survive, otherwise they die.
As soon as the process of thermoregulation returns to the chicks, the female is also taken to fly out of the nest to hunt. The progeny need a lot of feed, as they need an energy source for proper development. Therefore, sparrow hawks try to catch as much prey as possible, than in non-nesting time. At the same time, both the female and male try to leave the nesting area for not less than 5-6 kilometers.
Pre-migration period
A month later, when the chicks are already growing up, but do not have until the end decorated steering feathers and feathers of the mach, they can already crawl out of the nest and be located in close proximity to it. Only at the age of five weeks, the chicks begin to learn to fly. Females develop faster than males. After another couple of weeks, the offspring are already flying apart from their nest, already knowing how to stalk and catch prey.Adults begin shedding during the nesting period: the process begins with feathers located on the wings and ends with covering feathers. The whole process takes on average from two to three months. Closer to the beginning of autumn, before October, the birds living in the northern part begin flying to the southern countries. On average, during migration, a hawk can reach speeds of up to 40 kilometers per hour.
Interesting facts
Also, the sparrow hawk has a poor ability to tame, so they are almost never used to participate in falcon hunting. The famous prose writer A. Green once managed to lead and tame a hawk chick who was given the name Gul-Gul. The cultivated predator was not able to learn to catch prey, so it quickly died after being released into the wild.This chick became a prototype, participating in the work “Impatiens”, which was never written, and in the story entitled “The Story of a Hawk”.
Video: sparrow hawk (Accipiter nisus)
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