BIRDS IN THE GARDEN. FROM THE CYCLE USEFUL INHABITANTS GARDEN

Birds in the garden owner garden plot, which most of the time in your garden, hunched and poking in the ground, do not always notice what a turbulent life buzzing around him. His eyes and his thoughts fixed on the ground and the plants and he can not hear the birds singing, does not see how they flit from branch to branch, or running around the garden beds, looking for something under the grass or soil aggregates. If he still would draw their attention to the birds and watched a little bit behind them, there would be a little surprised to find that in his garden inhabited by very diverse bird population. In the gardens there are more than three dozen species of birds. Some live here permanently, and even build their nests, others coiling nest in forests and meadows, garden arrive to feed, others visit only the gardens along the way while flying in spring and autumn. More would be surprised gardener, if he knew what an enormous amount of pests feed on birds in his garden. Perhaps he would have immediately rejected the chemicals and began building birdhouses and sinichnikov. dining Bird Home The benefits of poultry is not that they kill all the pests, all they will never be destroyed, and that they prevent their uncontrolled breeding and keep their numbers in the range which are not dangerous for the garden. Look around you and see what kind of birds live around us. First of all we will see those who used to live near human habitation. Over the millennia of civilization birds of some species are so closely tied to a person that left the woods and bright edge and began to settle near human habitation, where they find shelter for nests and feed. Among them the famous sparrows, crows, magpies, barn swallows, starlings, flycatchers, redstart, these birds feed on animal and plant food. Vegetable food - berries, seeds, grains, animals - insects. Adult birds are eating and then, and more depending on the season. When there are berries, they are happy to eat the berries, as well as grain and seeds of various grasses, but only chicks feed on insects and themselves eat only insects, berries and seeds when not yet ripe. According gathering place your feed garden birds can be divided into three groups. The first group - it's a bird, mainly collect their food in the grass on the ground, in the upper layers of the soil. This group includes crows, rooks, oatmeal, redstart, thrushes, finches. Male oatmeal Song Thrush BlackbirdFinch second group - the birds, collecting insects in the higher tiers - on the branches of shrubs. This warbler, Zoryanka, wrens. Slava-chernogoovka Garden Warbler Zoryanka Wren third group - the birds that produce their own food in the trees: chickadees, orioles, warblers, goldfinches and even occasionally flew out of the forest cuckoo.Willow Goldfinch Oriole Tit most numerous and ubiquitous of all garden birds sparrows difficult to be attributed to any group, as they are gained throughout. Their tweets hear from morning to evening and throughout the year.predominant in the gardens of tree sparrow is different from smaller homes, more graceful and delicate "figure" less pugnacious, as well as color. Field sparrow It can be recognized by their bright chestnut cap, black stains and brackets on the gray cheeks. For the season Sparrow manages to feed 2-3 litters of 4-5 young in each. Almost all of the summer from April to July sparrows work tirelessly vykarmlivaya chicks. You can imagine how stressful this work, if at night sparrow flies to its nest about 300 times and each time the next chick stuffed in his mouth some booty: caterpillar, fly, worm, and so on. D. Feeding first generation chicks coincides with the period of Weevil larvae of codling apple buds. It is a perfect food for baby birds and sparrows pick out these larvae from the buds and are in their nests. Unlike brownie field sparrow makes its nest in the buildings do not, and in the hollows of old trees growing close to the property, and is happy to take birdhouses sinichniki and hung out in the garden. During the second half of the summer sparrows gather in flocks, and sometimes arrange assaults on field crops and keeping up the gardens.However, the benefits which they offer to the sparrows, greatly exceeds the harm caused by them. There is not superfluous to recall the sad experience of China, where obedient team top Chinese peasants have destroyed almost all the sparrows. The Chinese leadership felt that sparrows eat too much grain in the fields, and therefore they must destroy. You can imagine what a huge work peasants had to do to accomplish the task. However, when this was done and sparrows almost gone, very soon began a massive spread of pests that not only had to hang up, but also to deliver urgently sparrows from neighboring countries. So this nimble, all eyes namozolil greyish sparrow - not useless for us to create nature. most desirable garden bird people have long been accustomed to thinking of starlings. It is strongly privechayut starlings, hang them wherever possible, artificial houses - birdhouses. Therefore starlings almost forgot that they were wild birds, and went over to the apartment prepared for them. In early summer, starlings eat mainly insects. They arrive in the spring as the time when the start of the garden and digging the beds. Starlings run on the newly dug earth and deftly caught torn up on the surface of the inhabitants of the soil. Oddly hurry larva burrow back into the saving depth, Starling is quicker and for a split second time to grab it with his beak. During the summer starling lays eggs twice. Insects for fledging seeking mainly on the soil surface, at least - in the trees. Having dealt with the fledging and once free, starlings often form large flocks that meet in joint night on several adjacent trees. Same joint overnight stay in large flocks observed in other birds living near human habitation: rooks, jackdaws, sparrows, gray crows. This is an important moment in the life of birds, allowing them to share information on the availability of food. Place nights compared with the information center. Birds who have found rich food places, such as the place of mass reproduction of any pest or crumbled corn, give to know about 'this particular behavior, and in the morning for a whole flock of them off. Perhaps the most useful and only useful, does not bring any harm to the bird - large tit. It is almost exclusively insectivorous bird which feeds mainly on fruit trees. Methodically examining every twig, every leaf, it kills all pests that live on the tree: both adults and larvae, and eggs. The need for a stern have a very big tits. She lays eggs twice per season at 7-12 pieces at a time. The chicks are very voracious, as soaring: 2-3 days their weight is doubled. Parents have to work tirelessly to feed their offspring. The day they fly up to the nest to feed about 400 times, destroying feeding period of about 10 thousand. Insects, of which 30% are pests, including caterpillars moth. During the breeding season moth in the gardens there are sometimes whole flocks of tits flew up from all neighborhoods. As a result, almost completely exterminated moth. One pair of tits in the summer can be cleaned from pests about 40 apple trees. tits for the winter will not fly away and continue their useful work, clearing the garden of wintering forms of pests, such as eggs sklevyvaya ringed moth caterpillars yellowtail, and so on. d. Great Tit - the forest bird even nezabyvshaya their forest skills. She prefers to nest in their natural habitats - forests.In the gardens she arrives only to feed. Fruit trees with its sparse crown, protecting the nest from bad weather does not seem to be her safe haven. But if you hang in your garden house-sinichnik, then it is possible that tit dwell in it.autumn tits leave their nests together in nomadic flocks and fly closer to human habitation in the hope of finding food.tits, blue tits have got its name because blue cap, a short beak as strong pinchers. They are very convenient to peck from the branches small insect eggs, tear off glued to the bark scale insects. In human habitation or near the nest gray flycatcher, redstart-lysushki, white wagtail. redstart Garden or lysushka (Phoenicurus phoenicurus). This little birds, their nests and they are not hard to find shelter in a variety of human constructions: cracks in the wood siding, gaps in masonry, wood woodpile. Their nests are found even in the mailboxes in the old samovar pipe in boots, forgotten on the fence. They are willing to settle in unoccupied sinichnikah. All of this suggests the need to make their nests of birds in a well-protected, sheltered sites. Under natural conditions, these birds make their nests in hollow trees. Wild birds to human habitation profit and rooks. For old time's sake, they make their nests in the tall trees, and often, like a jackdaw, create large colonies numbering from a dozen to hundreds of nests. Rooks feed mainly on insects, of which 50-70% are pests that live in the upper layers of the soil caterpillars gnaw scoop, chafers, wireworms. In the stomachs of rooks are sometimes several tens of wireworms. Rook so hard digging in the ground with its beak, that the feathers at the base of the black beak wipes and formed a characteristic bright rim. During the fledging pair of rooks daily transfers to the nest 40-60 g insects. In case of mass breeding of pests in fields or gardens rooks are able to provide invaluable assistance to the person. Large flocks, they flock to places where insect pests and indulge in a feast, while the garden is completely cleared. Rook - a fairly large bird, and if he get a chance to profit vole, he would not miss this event. 's gardens can be seen and those birds that make their nests on the edges, in a rare open forests, in the bushes. It 'wryneck, thrushes several species, greenfinch, goldfinch, linnet, Rock ThrushIf your garden has a nice hedge of tall shrubs, the goldfinch, blackbird, greenfinch can settle there permit. Linnet Warbler and prefer to nest in thorny bushes - wild rose, hawthorn, blackthorn. In the thickets of nettles, weeds, raspberries can be found nest garden warbler, which is also called the garden robin, beautiful songstress, whose singing, according to connoisseurs of songbirds, can compete with the song of the nightingale. Sonorous warbling warbler can be heard late at night or at dawn, and sometimes even at night.








































































































Inhabits bushes gray warbler - exclusively insectivorous bird and is not the last of garden birds belong to the so-called settled, ie. e. will not fly away, and some are migrating to. sedentary include crows, ravens gray, sparrows, chickadees, titmice, goldfinches. In winter, they are moving closer to human habitation, where there is always something to make money. Although they try to discover the trees wintering insects, but of course they do not have enough. And here the great help they can get berry bushes, which are stored and winter berries. Interrupted somehow winter, spring, these birds are in a better position than migrating as early in the spring, in the absence of competition occupy the best places for nesting. Over the summer, they manage to bring two or three litters. Already in mid-February, you can hear the wedding song tits. It consists of two notes and sounds like a joyful bell announcing the approach of spring (though they do nest much later.) Of all the migratory birds before returning rooks. They confidently fly to his old permanent nesting. Followed by starlings, too early spring birds fly away for the winter is not very far away - in the Crimea, the Caucasus, although some starlings prefer to spend the winter in North Africa. Fly close and early return finches, greenfinches, wagtails, gray flycatchers, thrushes. Almost all later from afar, from Central Africa, barn swallows fly - whales. In the old days of their arrival served to farmers sign that severe morning frost has passed and you can start planting. swallows Ancestors lived in the mountains and held their nests under rock ledges . In barn swallows this ancient instinct reflected in the fact that they cleave their glued clay and straws nests to house walls under eaves of roofs and sometimes even inside buildings. Swallows can justifiably be called the children of air. Most of his life is spent in flight and on the ground do not go. And the food they get in flight, grasping on the fly mosquitoes, horse flies, flies, moths, small beetles, aphids flying. This flying midges and they feed their young. In bad weather, when the animals hiding in the shelter and not flying swallows have to starve. Because of this and their chicks grow more slowly than other birds sitting in their nests up to 30 days (other birds 12-16 days). It is estimated that between fledging one swallow consumes up to 130 grams of insects, and in the summer catches a total of 0.5-1 million midges. Different types of garden birds during egg laying and fledging is not the same and the result is that During the summer they like to pass the baton to one another to oversee the garden and catching pests.In every moment of the summer season, birds of a species are under fledging and, therefore, in the process of enhanced hunting. deserves special attention for birds to Colorado potato beetle. Bright coloring beetle and its larvae in itself testifies to the fact that they are inedible for the birds. They do not need to hide, birds and so they will not touch. Bird worth to try once the Colorado potato beetle, and make sure it is a disgusting taste, the second time it will not repeat this mistake. Scientists have experimented with many kinds of wild and domestic birds, and did not find among them no one who would be tempted by the Colorado potato beetle. In the Voronezh region in the potato patch released with family turkey poults, and they grazed all day there, looking for insects, but did not touch the Colorado potato beetle larvae, although potato bushes were covered with them. contrast, American farmers noted that their potato fields frequented by wild partridge and happy to peck beetle. Obviously, the American-born beetle familiar to American birds, and not accustomed to in Europe. Indeed, in Europe, including in Russia, he appeared relatively recently. However, sometimes we hear that and we have a bird, do not disdain Colorado potato beetle - guinea fowl, but it needs to be checked. If you have a pet bird, you can conduct such an experiment: to mix the feed chickens, ducklings, and so on. d. Colorado potato beetle larvae. Maybe then they will get used to its taste and they can be let out to graze on potato fields infested with the beetle. That bird protect gardens from pests has been known for a long time, but when the researchers took to count how many birds that eat, get a figure, amaze. Eating insects, birds, of course, can not distinguish where the harmful where useful. Eat all in a row. However, studies have established that, in gardens predominate harmful insects. For example, in one of the gardens, where the research will be conducted, in the crown of mature apple tree was discovered 70 species of insects, of which 71% were pests, 17% - useful, and the rest - the so-called neutral. Therefore, the birds feeding in the garden, most of the food are pests, of which 60-90% of caterpillars and pupae of butterflies, 10-30% - beetles. Here are the results of studies conducted in the gardens of Moldova. We present only those that relate to the period of breeding, ie. E. Most intense period of hunting birds to insects. So, it was estimated that one hectare of gardens accounted for about 2 million insects with a total weight of 250-350 kg. Of this amount, the birds in the three months wiped out 1.1 million insects a total weight of 140-180 kg, of which 42% were 12.8% and pests - beneficial insects. During the day, the birds ate 2-2.5 kg of insects. These figures are impressive. And yet, as we see, the birds are not able to cope with the whole armada inhabiting gardens. This is due to the fact that even in the large gardens birds nest is not very willingly, and on small garden plots - even more so. Garden plots, according to scientists, the number of nests approximately two times less than in the large gardens. How to attract birds to your garden - this question has long occupied the minds of gardeners, and something they do come up, and even used. This is primarily artificial nesting-houses. In such houses willingly make their nests so-called hollow-nesting birds, that is. E. Birds in the wild make their nests in the hollows of trees: tits, starlings, Wryneck, Redstart, flycatchers, sparrows. The simplest sinichniki that can not occupy just tits, but other suitable size hollow-nesting birds. Sinichniki made ​​of planed boards slightly soft wood thickness 1-2.5 cm. size bed 12x12 cm, height from floor to roof 25 cm diameter letka 3-3.5 cm, the distance from the tap hole to the bottom 18 cm, height of the suspension of 1-3 m. removable roof was doing and raised above the tap hole 4 cm.poured on the bottom of wood or grass trash layer 1.5 cm. After the season the roof remove and clean out the remnants of the old nest. The entrance can be round or square, facing west. Sinichniki hang no closer than 15-20 m from each other, so as not to compete with the birds for food. Dimensions birdhouses few more bottom 16h15 cm, height from the floor to the roof of 30 cm diameter letka 5 cm distance from the tap hole to the bottom 24 cm, height 3.5 m suspension. roof protrudes above the tap hole, facing south-east, 4 cm. Under the houses do cats protection of barbed wire, thorny branches or collar of tin. During the first year after hanging a birdhouse in mainly settled sparrows, but later they can be replaced by those to whom they are intended - starlings and other birds. Females starlings quite belligerent and will not hesitate to kick out of the sparrows took a fancy to them and even throw birdhouse already laid eggs. For birds that naturally make open nests, the main condition for attracting - hedges of shrubs of varying heights, a minimum width of 2.3 m nekoshenoy grass beneath them. Fences should be varied in composition of the rocks to meet the different tastes of birds, and include thorny bushes (rose, hawthorn, barberry, blackthorn), berry bushes and trees (olive, elderberry irgu, rowan, wild cherry and apple ). In addition to attracting birds feed, berry bushes of wild species play another important role: distract birds from cultivated fruit and berry plants. In birds and humans is not quite the same tastes. People prefer juicy sweet fruits, and birds like sour small wildings. So if around the garden to plant enough wildings to ensure the birds feed, they will not touch cultural trees. All avian robbery due to a lack of food. An American gardener tells how he was forced every year to join the competition with the birds: who used to gather the harvest of strawberries and cherries, and often suffered defeat, as most of the birds getting any. However, having carefully studied the habits and tastes of the birds, he began to plant in his garden of fruit trees around the garden and wild berries that grew in those places. As a result, he received several prizes: the birds ceased to peck cultural fruits and berries, wild berries their flowering is decorated garden, and settled in plantations purified bird garden from pests. It may be added that among these birds were singing, and that all summer charmed his ear. And the last - flowering shrubs in his garden attracted a lot of pollinating insects. Berry bushes benefit by the fact that they are to some extent replaced the winter feeding of birds. Not all gardeners visit their gardens in the winter and can not regularly fill the bird feeders. Those who can do it, should make sure that the feeders were always filled, since the empty bird feeders forget and stop fly for food. The composition of feed includes sunflower seeds, wheat and rye, oats, millet, unsalted bacon, pumpkin seeds, melon. Open trough placed under a canopy or make special houses-feeders with a roof. Summer in the garden are arranged drinkers with water. All of these activities to attract birds - artificial nests, hedges and feeders - lead to an increase in the number of birds in the garden and in 1.5-2 times, respectively, to increase the number of eaten them pests. For example, it was found that in the garden, where she spent the attraction of birds, the number of pests in the spring decreased by 50-60%. Finally, we note another item related to birds. Empirically, scientists have found that birdsong has a positive effect on the plants, and not by chance, such a coincidence: birdsong loudest sound at the end of May - beginning of June, when there is an intensive growth of plants. Only the males sing. Each type of bird has its own distinctive song, but the artistry of its execution depends entirely on the individual abilities of the singer. Especially talented singers diversify their simple song a lot of options, short and long trills and knees. It is noticed that with age singers improve their singing gift. In addition to the nightingale and said warbler-robin beautiful singing can please warblers, finches, goldfinches, greenfinches, linnets. Birds can deliver a lot of wonderful moments and unforgettable experiences.