Plover - detachment Charadriiformes, family Plovers

Asian brown-winged plover (Pluvialis fulva). Habitat - Asia. Wingspan 70 cm Weight 190 g

Plovers are widely represented almost all over the world, they live in Australia, Asia, America, Africa and Europe.

Most of them lead a migratory lifestyle, overcoming huge distances from nesting places to wintering places. Birds are a kind of champions among birds: it is known that brown-winged plovers make a “non-stop” flight over the sea from the Aleutian to Hawaiian Islands (over 3000 kilometers) in 36 hours.

All this time the birds do not feed and do not rest. But this is not the end of their journey: after a little rest, the plovers again set off on a flight of at least 3,000 kilometers to the pampas of South America. Birds nest in the wet hummocky tundra, moss swamps. The female lays 3 to 5 eggs in a shallow hole sparsely lined with soft vegetation. The chicks that were born, having dried out, leave the nest and feed on their own from the very first days of existence.

golden plover

The sandpiper is slightly larger than the thrush. Males of golden plovers during the mating season have a very colorful appearance. Their belly is black; the black throat is bordered by a white stripe stretching from the forehead to the sides of the undertail. The top of the body is dotted with black and yellow streaks, borders and specks. Their wingspan is 67-76 cm. Typical habitats are tundra, mountain meadows, marshy wastelands. Outside of Russia, the species can be found on the territory from Iceland to the UK. Previously, they flew to the south of Europe in winter, but now they are rare in those areas. Golden plovers form stable pairs, each with its own territory. In Iceland, the arrival of golden plovers is a sign of the coming spring.

In Russia, the range of the species extends eastward to the basin of the Khatanga River; the northern limit of distribution reaches the 70th and 72nd parallels. Nests are arranged in open space; there are 4 eggs in a clutch, they are yellow-brown, with a dark brown pattern.

white plover

White Plover (Chionis alba). Habitat - Antarctica. Wingspan 80 cm Weight 780 g

These birds are inhabitants of the subarctic and arctic latitudes. Because of the conspicuous beaks with "lids", the explorers of the North called the white plovers "case-beaks". A curious feature of these birds is that although plovers are typical coastal birds that are very reluctant to sink into the water, they love to accompany ships, sometimes flying several hundred kilometers deep into the sea.

White plovers are not at all afraid of a person, perhaps because they meet him extremely rarely. They inhabit coastal cliffs, arrange dwellings in their crevices and depressions, willingly use the burrows of petrels. They feed on animal food, do not disdain carrion, and often destroy nests. The female white plover lays 2-3 eggs at intervals of several days. The bird begins incubation immediately after laying the first one, and the first hatched chick survives.

crayfish plover

Crayfish (Dramas ardeola). Habitat - Asia, Africa. Length 40 cm Weight 330 g

The crayfish is the only species in this feathered family. Birds live along the shores of the tropical seas of Asia and Africa, settle in large colonies. Crayfish plovers find food either on the edge of the surf or in shallow water. They feed mainly on mollusks and crustaceans, including crabs, hence their name. Having caught the prey, the bird pecks at the shell of a shell or crab with a short but very strong beak and feasts on the contents.

Crayfish plovers, perhaps the only representatives of the entire order, do not “lead” chicks, but feed them in nests. Nests are long burrows (sometimes more than 2 meters long), which birds dig in sand dunes with their beaks. Burrows end with nesting chambers, in which females lay only 1 large white egg. The chick stays in the nest until it fledges.

Vida

Appearance and behavior. The sandpiper is medium in size, larger than the thrush. The head is large, rounded, with a short, strong beak, with a short neck and relatively short legs. The metatarsus is relatively short, but the fingers are longer than those of. The wings are of medium length, sharp and narrow, the tail is medium in size, with a straight cut. Body length 26–29 cm, wingspan 67–76 cm, weight 155–205 g.

Description. In an adult male, the top of the body from crown to tail is mostly black with small golden yellow spots, which makes it look golden-mottled. The lower part of the body from the chin to the end of the belly is black. The motley, golden top and black bottom are separated by a wide white stripe running from the forehead to the undertail. The tail feathers are grayish-brown, the flight feathers are blackish-brown with white rods in the preapical part; axillary feathers are white.

Females are colored in general the same way as males, but the underparts are not pure black, but black-brown, often with an admixture of individual white or yellowish feathers, especially on the chin, throat, neck, crop or chest. The individual character of coloring is preserved throughout life and does not depend on age. Some taxonomists distinguish 2 subspecies - northern golden plover (R. a. altifrons), inhabiting the forest-tundra and tundra, and southern (R. a. apricaria), living in the swamps of the forest zone of European Russia.

Birds of these subspecies differ slightly: in the southern golden plover, the white stripe running along the side of the body is not as clearly expressed as in the northern plover, or almost not expressed. The legs are four-toed, black or dark gray. There are small webs between the front fingers. The beak is black, the iris is dark brown. Adult birds in winter plumage are black-brown above with golden spots, as in summer. The forehead and throat are white with grayish-brown spots. On the sides of the neck and above the eye, the feathers are pale yellow with a brown center. The underside of the body to the back of the chest is grayish-brown, the belly is white. There are dark transverse stripes on the sides of the chest.

Young birds in juvenile plumage look like adults in summer feathers from above, but they have fewer golden spots. The underside of the body is off-white, in the region of the goiter and chest it is mottled with rounded golden and brown triangular spots, on the belly - transverse dark brown apical stripes forming a scaly pattern. Young birds in winter plumage, like adults in winter, but with a yellowish tinge of plumage on the chest and the remains of a transverse pattern on the sides.

The downy chick is black on top with bright golden endings of fluffs, the forehead and areas above the eyes are golden yellow, the sides of the head are pale yellow, a blackish stripe runs from the beak under the eyes. The throat is whitish, the crop is yellowish, the rest of the lower body is smoky. It differs from the thules by its golden yellow upperparts and white axillary feathers; rump and tail not lighter than back, stripe running along top of wing narrow and inconspicuous.

It differs from it by a wide white stripe along the side of the body, short legs relative to the body, and a denser, squat complexion. The key differences between the downy chicks of the golden plover and the chicks of the thules are the absence of a white necklace on the neck and a bright golden color in the color of the top.

Voice. The contact cry in the flock is a melodic monosyllabic whistle " FDI" or " pliy". The same cry, but more sonorous, is emitted by birds when they are disturbed near the nest or chicks. The song of the male during the current flight is a beautiful, slowly repeating flute whistle, sounding like “ tuu-tiiii". At the end of the current, usually when landing on the ground, the male emits a kind of trill “ thiurirr-thiurirr-thiurirr". This trill is often performed by the male when he accompanies the female.

Distribution, status. In European Russia, it is a nesting migratory species that inhabits the plain and mountain tundra, forest tundra and swamps in the taiga zone. In the taiga, it settles mainly on raised bogs, especially likes bogs with a developed ridge-hollow complex. In the rest of the territory of European Russia it may be encountered during the migration. Usually flies by mainland routes, stops at harvested fields with stubble, pastures, low-grass meadows of various types, silt pits of settling ponds, lowered fish ponds, less often along the banks of reservoirs.

Winters mostly in inland regions, living both on plains and in mountainous areas. It is also found on mud sea coasts, but in small numbers. The wintering area stretches from the British Isles and the Netherlands south to North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) and the countries of the Middle East.

Lifestyle. Arrives at nesting sites at the height of snowmelt, to the south of the range - at the end of April, to the tundra and forest-tundra - at the end of May. Upon arrival at the breeding grounds, the flocks break up, the males occupy individual territories and start displaying. The male usually swims at high altitude, flies, slowly flapping its wings, while flapping upwards, the wings almost touch (as in the Latin letter “ V”), after which they slowly lower to a horizontal position. During slow flight, males emit flute whistles, flying to another part of the territory or descending to the ground - trills.

When mating on the ground, the male and female often run side by side in the same direction, sometimes making sudden stops. It nests in various types of tundra, both dry and wet, on hilly peat bogs, always in places with good visibility. In the swamps of the forest zone, nests are usually arranged on ridges or mounds without trees or with rare oppressed pines, in drier conditions.

The nest lining consists of a mixture of pieces of white or yellow lichens, fragments of twigs of shrubs, dry leaves of willows, dwarf birch and lingonberries, fragments of blades of grass. varies from bluish or greenish to ocher-brown, more often it is pale yellowish. The spots are usually large, thick chocolate-brown or black-brown in color, deeper spots are grayish or violet-gray. Superficial spots are concentrated at the blunt end of the egg.

The male and female incubate in turn for 27–29 days. They are careful at the nest, in case of danger they leave in advance, run away or fly away, then run in the distance, shouting at the source of danger. Some birds sit very tightly and sometimes allow a person to take a few steps. In this case, having flown off the nest, they are intensively withdrawn, depicting a wounded bird. Birds of prey are not driven away from the nest.

The chicks hatch within 1–2 days, often the first chicks leave with one of the parents not far from the nest, and after the last chicks hatch, the brood unites. Families stay in nesting habitats, but in wetter areas. The young stay with the adults for 5 weeks. Juveniles migrate south on average later than adults. Spring migration usually occurs from late April to mid-May. Autumn migration is more extended, peaking at the end of August or beginning of September, although the first migrants (adult birds) can be encountered in significant numbers from mid-July, especially in the northern parts of European Russia.

Features of movement on the ground and methods of collecting food, like in tules (alternating runs and stops with inspection of the soil surface). On nesting sites it collects land insects and their larvae (beetles, centipede mosquitoes, butterflies), freshwater mollusks. On migrations and winterings, it feeds mainly on beetles in the fields, and on shores - on mollusks. In autumn, berries (blueberries, lingonberries) play a significant role in nutrition.

golden plover ( Pluvialis apricaria)

This is the central family of waders, to which the vast majority of species of the order belong. The characterization of this family largely coincides with the characterization of the order as a whole, already given above. All species belonging to the plover family are of medium or small size, with a relatively long neck and long (sometimes very long) legs. Only turnstones have short legs. The wings of most plovers are long, sharp (with the exception of snipe), well adapted for fast flight. The tertiaries are greatly elongated and form a so-called pigtail on the wing opened for flight. The beak in some species is of moderate length, in others it is long, sharp, straight, curved downwards, rarely upwards, sometimes widened at the end, in one case curved to the side (in Anarhynchus).

Almost all members of the family inhabit open spaces - the coasts of the seas, rivers, lakes, grassy or moss swamps; a number of species inhabit the steppes and even deserts. Few species live in forests, some of them nest in trees, others on the ground.

Representatives of the plover family differ in their lifestyle, habitat, appearance, and partly in their internal structure. Their large number and diversity make it possible to single out several groups in the family, which experts assign the rank of subfamilies. There are 11 such subfamilies. This is actually plovers(Charadriinae), lapwings(Vanellinae), stilts(Himantopinae), sickle beaks(Ibidorhynchinae), oystercatchers(Haematopinae), snails(Tringinae), phalaropes(Phalaropinae), Turnstones(Arenariinae), sandpipers(Calidritinae), snipe(Scolopacinae) and godwit(Limosinae).

There are 147 species in the family (in addition, 77 fossil species are known), belonging to 36 genera.

A group of waders united by a common name plovers(subfamily Charadriinae), includes birds of small and medium size with relatively short legs and a short but strong "pigeon" type beak. The anterior part of the upper jaw of such a beak is convex, and its main part is somewhat depressed, and the nostrils open in this depressed part of the beak. The wings of all plovers are long, sharp, strong.

One species in this subfamily is allocated to a special genus - tules(Squatarola) on the grounds that, unlike all other plovers, it has 4 fingers (although the rear finger is very small). The remaining species are combined into one genus - plover(Charadrius), with the larger members of this genus called plovers, while the smaller ones are called plovers.

tules(Squatarola squatarola).

Its weight is 170-225 g, the wing length for males and females is 18-20 cm.

In an adult male Thules, the underside of the body, the sides of the neck, the sides of the head and the forehead are black, the undertail is white. The dorsal side of the bird is black with sharp white transverse streaks. The female is somewhat brownish on the back, and there are white markings on the underside of her body. In autumn, the birds have a whitish underside of the body, and the top is brownish with golden-yellow streaks, than the tules at this time are somewhat reminiscent of golden plovers.

They inhabit the tules of the Eurasian tundra from the Kanin Peninsula to Chukotka and the tundra of North America. For the winter, tules fly off to the coasts of Africa, South Asia and beyond; may be encountered in winter as far as Australia. They also winter in Central America and in the northern parts of South America. In some numbers can be met in winter and in Europe (in England and to the south).

On nesting sites in the European and Asian north, tules appear in early - mid-June.

For nesting, tules are located in damp, but not very swampy tundra and in floodplains, but often occupy relatively dry areas of the tundra. These birds always nest separately, without forming colonies. Even where there are many of these birds, each pair has an area of ​​​​at least 1/4 km2, which the birds vigilantly protect.

The nest is made by the female, who digs an irregularly rounded hole in the sandy-peaty soil with her paws. In the nesting hole there is a litter consisting of dry stems of wild rosemary, moss and lichens.

There are 4 eggs in the full laying of the tules, which lie in the nest with their sharp ends inward and slightly down. Their color ranges from slightly pinkish to brownish or olive with blackish and brownish spots and dots. Even in the same nest, eggs can be slightly different in color. The long axis of the eggs is 45-52 mm and their width is 34-38 mm.

Both members of the pair incubate the clutch for 23 days; at the end of the incubation period, the female sits mainly on the nest, and the male stays near the nest on some elevation. In case of alarm, for example, when a person appears, the male gives a voice and runs away from the nest, and then the female joins the male, who runs away from the nest in complete silence, trying to remain unnoticed. If a person does not immediately follow the birds, they return to him and begin to lead him away.

Just hatched puffballs of tules are observed in the second half of July, but sometimes at the same time you can see half-fledged chicks. Well-flying young tules can be seen throughout the northern tundra by the end of August.

As soon as young birds become independent, adults begin their autumn movement to the south. This usually happens in late August - early September. However, like most tundra waders, some adults, probably not nesting or nesting unsuccessfully, fly away much earlier. In any case, in the British Isles, migratory tules are already celebrated in mid-July. At the same time, tules were recorded in the north of Kazakhstan, in Naurzum.

Young birds fly off later, in the tundra hundreds of flocks can be seen in mid-September; in the south of our country, for example, on Sivash, young tules are at the end of October, near Orenburg - in the first half of October, in the Astrakhan region even in mid-November.

The postmarital molt, which in waders is complete, in adult tules stretches for a long time and proceeds in two steps. At first, even during nesting, small plumage begins to change. Then there comes a pause in the molt, and its end (when the remaining small feather and all the large plumage are replaced) occurs at the wintering grounds. In March, a partial, prenuptial molt occurs in Tules. At this time, small feathers are replaced, and then not all. Prenuptial molting ends during migration, and sometimes even already at nesting sites.

Tules in the tundra is easy to spot. This is a rather large sandpiper, which, moreover, willingly keeps on the tops of large tundra hillocks. He betrays his presence also with his voice, constantly emitting a mournful, but rather melodic cry, far audible. Like all plovers, the tules runs fast, making sudden stops and looking around at the same time. It seizes prey, mostly kept openly on the surface of the soil, as well as in grass or moss, then runs further. He catches aquatic animals from the surface of the water, pulls them out from the bottom of shallow tundra lakes, and during wintering he collects marine invertebrates left in the pools of water after low tide. Amphipods and mollusks, various Diptera and their larvae, larval stages of aquatic insects, less often terrestrial insects and arachnids serve as food for thules. Tules also eat seeds and berries, but in small quantities.

The largest sandpiper in the genus plover (Charadrius) - golden plover(Ch. apricarius) somewhat smaller than the already described thules. The golden plover is well distinguished from the latter by the presence of abundant yellowish or golden spots on the dark upper side of the body. If you take the bird in your hands, you can see that the axillary feathers of the golden plover are pure white (whereas they are black in the thules). In addition, the golden plover, like all members of the genus, has only 3 fingers. The wing length of the golden plover is 17-18 cm, weight 200-210 g.

The golden plover is a resident of the tundra and partially forest-tundra from the Kola Peninsula to the Khatanga basin, sometimes also found to the east. In addition, the golden plover inhabits Finland and the Scandinavian Peninsula, nests in the Baltic States, Denmark, the Netherlands, England and Iceland. In our country it is a migratory bird, in England it is partially sedentary.

Golden plovers spend the winter partly already in England, but mainly in the Mediterranean countries (European and African). Some individuals remain for the winter in Transcaucasia, penetrate in winter to the Persian Gulf and partly to the western shores of the Hindustan peninsula.

During wintering, golden plovers keep in fields, dry and wet pastures, and in Algeria they are found in the same flocks with lapwings, spreading there south to the very desert. On the mud of the sea coast, they are much less common than tules.

In February, these birds leave their wintering grounds, in early April they can be observed in the south of the USSR, and in April - May they fly through the mainland parts of our country. On nesting sites in the tundra, golden plovers appear at the earliest at the end of May, more often in the first half of June. During the spring migration, golden plovers stop for feeding in the steppe areas, and in the forest zone in moss swamps and burnt areas.

For nesting, they choose wet hummocky areas of the tundra, sedge and moss bogs in river and lake valleys. In the forest-tundra, they nest in forest clearings. In the Baltic, their nesting habitats are raised bogs.

Pairing takes place a few days after arrival. The mating flight begins immediately, accompanied by cries repeated throughout the day. The male flies up and describes circles in the air, evenly and rather slowly flapping its wings, even soaring for some time. Suddenly, he begins to rapidly flutter his wings, then descends to the female, and both birds start running side by side, sometimes running quite a considerable distance. If pairs nest close to each other, excited males scream and fly even harder, but hostile actions do not occur between them: often birds of different pairs feed in close proximity.

To build a nest, golden plovers choose an elevated, drier place - a flat hummock, a half-rotted fin log, etc. In Iceland, the bird nests in the bushes, but more often still in an open place. The nest of a bird is a shallow hole with a very small litter, where 4 eggs are laid, as an exception, there are 5 eggs, sometimes 3 and very rarely 2. Egg sizes: 48-55 x 33-38 mm. Their color is light, yellowish-brown, often with a dark red tint. The eggs are covered with dark brown and pale gray spots. Both members of the nesting pair incubate. Incubation lasts 27 days.

Usually the chicks are born almost at the same time, but it happens that the last chick hatches from the egg 48 hours later than the first. In this case, the male takes the older chicks out of the nest before other chicks appear. At first, after the chicks hatch, golden plovers energetically and selflessly lead away from the nest. Then the old birds usually stay on large mounds, constantly emitting an alarming, somewhat mournful whistle, and the young ones feed within the limits of their parents' view. At the first alarm signal from their parents, they hide.

In July, golden plovers begin to gradually gather in flocks and begin to fly away in mid-August. However, some individuals appear much to the south of their nesting sites already in July (for example, in the Oryol region). In the autumn migration, golden plovers in the agricultural zone stay mainly on fallow and winter fields, and in spring they can often be seen on winter and spring shoots. In the fields, golden plovers feed almost exclusively on click beetle larvae (wireworms). What the golden plovers eat in the tundra we do not know, but in the raised bogs of Estonia they eat slow-moving leaf beetles, wireworms, elephants and ground beetles. At the end of summer, these plovers also eat berries.

Moulting in golden plovers proceeds approximately as in thules. However, birds nesting in the southern parts of the range (for example, in the Baltic States) start nesting before they have completed their prenuptial molting, in mixed winter-summer plumage. They arrive in the tundra, having managed to completely molt into the wedding attire.

In the east of Siberia, in the tundra from Yamal to the Chukotka Peninsula and to the coastal strip of Anadyr, as well as in the tundra of North America, nests brown-winged plover(Ch. dominicus). Outwardly, it is very similar to the previous species, but a little smaller, its wings are somewhat sharper and relatively slightly longer than those of the golden plover. These two species can be clearly distinguished by the color of the axillary feathers: in the brown-winged plover they are smoky gray, and not white, like in the golden plover. The length of the wing of the brown-winged plover is 15-19 cm.

Unlike golden plovers, brown-winged birds fly far away for wintering and often fly over large areas over the sea. Birds nesting in Asia winter in the coastal strip of East Africa, along the coasts of South and Southeast Asia, in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. In the east, their wintering area covers the Hawaiian and Marquesas Islands. To get to the Hawaiian Islands from the nearest parts of the land (from the Aleutian Islands), brown-winged plovers must fly 3300 km over the sea, and they have nowhere to sit down to rest. This is perhaps the largest non-stop flight of birds that we know of. From the Hawaiian Islands to the Marquesas, another 3000 km. It has been calculated that if a plover flies at a speed of 26 m / s (i.e., approximately 94 km / h) and makes 2 flaps of its wings every second, then in order to reach the Hawaiian Islands, it must fly without rest for 36 hours and make 252,000 flapping wings non-stop! Brown-winged Plovers of North America fly straight east to Labrador, then turn south, many flying over the sea as far as the Bahamas and Antilles. This is not the destination of the journey. Further, the birds fly to wintering grounds located in the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay. Back in the spring, they fly in a different way - along the mainland, through Central America to the north.

In contrast to the spotted and black-bottomed plovers necktie or, as it is sometimes called, big plover(Ch. hiaticula), has a single-color, grayish-brown dorsal side, and the underside of the body is white with a black transverse stripe on the neck (with a “tie”). The forehead is white, the front side of the crown and sides of the head are black. On the tail feathers, except for their middle pair, there is a lot of white. The beak of the tie is short, two-colored. Its main part is orange-yellow, the terminal part is black. Young birds are dimmer than old ones, and instead of black tones of plumage, they have developed brown ones. Bicolor beak in young (autumn) birds is practically not expressed. At any time of the year, the ringed plover can be distinguished from the small plover, which is similar in color to it, in that it has a white color on the stems of all flight feathers, which, however, occupies a small part of the stem. The length of the wing of neckties is 13-16 cm, weight 44-65 g.

Neckties are common throughout the tundra zone of Eurasia and North America (the American neckties have a membrane between the middle and outer fingers, reaching the second joint, there is a small membrane on the inside of the middle finger). In addition, they inhabit the Baltic republics and the northern part of the Kaliningrad region (near the sea coast). Numerous indications in old books about the nesting of ringed mites to the south of the indicated places, for example, in the North Caucasus, are erroneous.

For nesting, they choose sandy and pebbly shoals, dunes. In some places they nest just in the gravelly tundra. By ringing, it has been established that the Ringed Ringers return annually to their old nesting sites and, upon arrival, occupy last year's nesting sites. Birds nesting in the Kaliningrad region have two clutches per summer (4 eggs each, as an exception 3 or 5), and tundra birds nest once a year. Previously, the male arranges several nesting pits - “false nests”, one of which then becomes a real nest. If the clutch of a bird has died, a new one is laid, and this can even happen up to 5 times.

Observations on the coast of the Baltic Sea found that only 37% of the eggs laid hatch into chicks and only 15% of the chicks become adults. Consequently, with eight eggs per year, the ringed beetles bring on average only one chick to adulthood. If we assume, and there are sufficient grounds for this, that approximately 50% of young birds die in winter or even before the start of a new nesting period, then it turns out that each pair, in order to maintain the number of the species at the same level, must produce chicks for four years. The lifespan of a tie is approximately 4 years.

Small necktie, or, as is often said, small plover(Ch. dubius), very similar to the species just described, but somewhat smaller, the beak of this species is one-colored, without an orange-yellow base. On the first primary feather, the entire stem of the feather (with the exception of the very tip) is white, while the stems of other primary feathers are not white. On this basis, a small plover is easy to distinguish from a ringed plover. The length of the wing of the small plover is 10-12 cm, weight 31-46 g.

The Lesser Plover breeds from the Atlantic coast of Eurasia in the west to Japan, Taiwan and the Philippine Islands in the east. To the north, it is distributed to the White Sea and Mezents, to the Yelogui River and to the mouth of the Vilyui River in Siberia. In the south, its nesting area covers the northernmost parts of Africa (north of the Sahara), to the east it goes to New Guinea and the Bismarck archipelago. The small plover winters in tropical Africa, in Southeast Asia and on the islands of Indonesia. The Lesser Ringed Ringworm settles on sandy, rarely pebbly, and sometimes on silty shallows of rivers and lakes. It also nests in holes left after gravel hauling.

In England, it was even noted that the number of small plover began to increase after an increase in construction work and the associated increase in the number of gravel pits. Apparently, there is no real continuous incubation in the little ringed beetle. Birds often lightly cover their eggs with sand and in more southerly places leave them exposed to the sun, so that the development of the embryo occurs largely without the participation of parents. Caring for the offspring of the small ringed lizard is very well expressed. Birds vigorously take away from the nest, and if an unfertilized egg is found in the nest - a talker, then they leave it only a few days after the rest of the chicks hatch. By the way, the chicks of the small plover hatch non-simultaneously, for about 2-3 days. Probably, birds begin to incubate immediately after laying the first egg.

It is very difficult to find a small plover on a pebbly shallow, and one has only to look away for a moment, as it disappears again. He has a habit, noticing the approach of a person, to turn his dark dorsal side to him, cling to the ground and become completely invisible. Then he runs away and only after that rises to the wing.

Very reminiscent of a small plover sea ​​plover(Ch. alexandrinus). It differs from the Lesser Plover in a slightly higher landing on its legs, a shorter body, a disproportionately large head and a rough beak. Through binoculars, the reddishness on the neck is quite clearly visible and instead of a solid black stripe across the goiter, two dark spots on the sides. In sunlight, the color of the sea plover is so close to the color of saline, and even sandy soil, that you can more likely see the shadow of a calmly standing bird than the bird itself.

In the USSR, the plover is distributed along the coasts of the Black and Caspian Seas, to the east throughout Central Asia and in Kazakhstan, then it is found at the southern borders of our country. To the south, it inhabits Asia (without Hindustan), even further south, Australia and Tasmania. In Europe, it settles in a wide strip along the coast of the sea. Inhabits all of Africa and Madagascar, where it breeds in North America, the Greater Antilles and, finally, in Chile. Its favorite nesting places are hard solonchaks with saltwort along the shores of lakes, less often dry clay spaces, a kilometer or more away from the water. It also breeds in wet solonetsous places, also on sandy and pebbly areas. There are 4 eggs in a clutch, sometimes 2.

Khrustan, or stupid plover(Ch. morinellus), about the size of a thrush, with reddish and white stripes across the chest and a black belly. Two wide white supraorbital stripes merge behind the head, forming a "Izhitsu". The top of the head is black. The length of the wing of the Khrustan is 13-16 cm.

This bird is characteristic of the arctic and mountain tundra of Europe and Asia. In the mountains, the nesting habitat of the hrustans lies above the forest level (in Altai, for example, from 2000 m and above). There, birds nest on flat areas formed by stone slabs or small gravel, with sparse alpine vegetation. In the tundra, these birds adhere to elevated dry rocky places. The normal number of eggs in this species is 3, sometimes even 2, very rarely 4. The male is busy incubating, which, in case of danger, energetically moves away from the nest. Usually he lets the observer very close to the nest, and if you act carefully, you can even touch him with a gun barrel, sometimes even with your hand. Then the bird escapes from the nest and takes it away, strongly bent at the same time and fluffing its tail widely. Often she becomes sideways to the observer very close to him and "nervously" raises one wing. In a word, the bird behaves rather “stupidly” near the nest, for which, probably, it is called a stupid plover.

These birds winter in Southwest Asia and East Africa, adhering to semi-desert plains with poor grass vegetation, far from the sea coasts. On migration, the Khrustans stop in the steppe, often in barren clay areas, where there is absolutely no vegetation, or, like many plovers, stick to cultivated fields, sometimes meadows. On migrations in the area of ​​the lower reaches of the Don, it was found that the khrustans feed on the larvae of the black nutcracker, kuska beetle and caterpillars of the Moldavian moth butterfly.

big-billed plover(Ch. leschenaultii) is interesting because it inhabits deserts. It nests on clayey and solonetsous grounds overgrown with wormwood and saltwort, in deserted flat places covered with rubble, with very sparse vegetation, often in places where not a shred of grass is visible at a distance. The conditions where this bird nests are so severe that in the gravelly desert, for example, the big-billed plover is often the only representative of the bird fauna.

The nesting area of ​​the large-billed plover was discovered relatively recently. It has long been known as a numerous bird on migration and wintering in a vast area from the coastal strip of South Asia to Australia and along the eastern coasts of Africa and Madagascar. The nesting area of ​​this bird has been presumably identified as being located in Eastern Siberia, and some naturalists have thought that the large-billed plover breeds in Japan. As it turned out later, the large-billed plover breeds and in some places is numerous in Eastern Transcaucasia and Central Asia, to the north approximately to the Syr Darya and further to the east in Mongolia. It is curious that these purely desert birds, not at all connected with water during nesting time, after the plumage of chicks, move to the shores of rivers, lakes and the sea and then stay near the water all the time. A significant number of non-breeding birds are also observed in the nesting area in summer. Some of them stay in flocks in the same environment as nesting birds, others spend time near the shores of lakes and feed at the splash.

In a full clutch, the large-billed plover has 3 eggs, rarely 4. In the large-billed plover, the forehead and sides of the head are blackish-brown, with longitudinal white spots on the sides of the head. The ventral side is white with a red stripe across the goiter. The dorsal side of the bird is grayish-sandy with a grayish coating, the neck is red. The beak is longer and thicker than that of other plovers. Wing length 13-15 cm.

Caspian plover(Ch. asiaticus) is also a desert bird, only it is distributed to the north of the previous species. The area of ​​its distribution stretches along the saline plains from the Stavropol steppes to Zaisan, north to Turgay, south to Afghanistan. In addition, it breeds in Mongolia. Wintering areas of the Caspian plover are located in Southeast Africa, on the islands of Indonesia and partly in Australia. Like the previous species, the Caspian plover has 3 eggs in a full clutch.

In appearance, the Caspian plover is similar to the big-billed plover, but its beak is weaker, its legs are longer, and the color of the plumage is brighter than that of the big-billed plover, its goiter is red, trimmed behind with a narrow black stripe. Wing length 13.5-16 cm, weight 80-90 g.

Somewhat apart in the subfamily of plovers stands crooked plover, or just crooked plover(Anarchynchus frontalis). In size and color, it resembles a small plover: the dorsal side of the body is gray, the front of the head is white, the ventral side is white with a black transverse stripe on the goiter. The beak of the hook-nosed beak is longer than that of all other plovers, and is bent to the right.

Krivonos nests along the shores of the South Island of New Zealand, from where it migrates to the North Island for the winter. Unlike all other plovers, it usually lays 2 eggs.

The group close to the plovers consists of lapwings(subfamily Vanellinae). These are birds of open, predominantly humid habitats. Their wings are rather broad and blunt. Some species have a spur on the wing fold. The beak resembles that of a plovers - short and straight. Often at the base of the beak there are various, often brightly colored, fleshy lobes. The legs are four-toed. Most lapwings (11 species) are found in sub-Saharan Africa.

At lapwing, or lapwing(Vanellus vanellus), head, neck and goiter are black with a blue-green sheen, chest, abdomen and sides of the head are white. The dorsal side of the lapwing is olive green with a purple sheen. On the back of the head is a crest of several very narrow feathers. The legs are four-fingered, somewhat longer than those of plovers. The beak is rather short and straight. The wing is wide and blunt; in males, the inner primaries are elongated. During the current flight, they vibrate, making a peculiar noise, similar to rustling and buzzing. The female differs from the male in that it often has an admixture of white feathers on its chin and throat, its wing is somewhat wider and blunter than that of the male.

The nesting area of ​​the common lapwing covers the whole of Europe, with the exception of its most northeastern part and Greece, in Asia it extends in a wide strip to the southern parts of the Soviet Primorye, in the north reaching the upper reaches of the Lower Tunguska and Barguzin, in the south - to the Syrdarya and Iliysk.

Most of the lapwings do not stay with us for the winter, but fly away not far. They winter already in England, in the eastern parts of France, on the Iberian Peninsula, in North-West Africa, sometimes in South-West and then in South-East Asia. In the USSR, they winter in Eastern Transcaucasia and in some places in Central Asia.

In our country, lapwings arrive quite early, often when their nesting habitats are still covered with snow. In the south of Ukraine and Moldova they arrive in March, near Smolensk they appear at the end of this month, in the first half of April they appear in the Leningrad region. After arrival, the birds are located near snow puddles, on wet fields that begin to thaw plowed in autumn, along the outskirts of swamps, etc. Then they move to their nesting stations - damp meadows, the outskirts of grassy swamps in forests and steppes, less often a dry one is chosen for nesting. meadow area; Increasingly, lapwings are starting to nest in the fields.

Lapwings can nest both in separate pairs and in large colonies. After arrival and even during the flight, mating games are observed in lapwings, which consist in a kind of current flight, accompanied by cries of “whose you are” and a peculiar buzz of wings. Sometimes lapwings lek on the ground. At the same time, the male spreads his wings, spreads his tail and makes them rhythmic movements up and down. Then he presses his chest to the ground and, continuing to raise and lower his tail, vigorously works with his paws, so that as a result a small rather neat hole is formed in this place. One of these holes later becomes a nest, arranged rather primitively, with a small lining of thin stems.

The timing of reproduction in lapwings is very extended, since the first clutches often die from floods, freezing, in the fields as a result of plowing them, or are ruined by boys. However, lapwings often start nesting when field work is already completed.

There are 4 eggs in the clutch, much less often 3, even more rarely 5. They are pear-shaped, brownish-sandy in color with black-brown spots. The average size of the eggs is 45 x 32.7 mm (Table 2). Both birds incubate the eggs, but the female lasts longer. At the slightest danger, the incubating bird quickly and quietly runs away from the nest, but does not take it away, but, having run away, takes off and rushes over the disturber of the peace with a loud cry. Incubation lasts 24-29 days, in bad weather longer, in good weather faster. Parents take hatched chicks to more protected and feeding places. At the age of 33 days, young birds begin to fly, after which the lapwings gradually group into flocks. Lapwings depart quite early. In many places they somehow imperceptibly disappear by the end of August, in others - in the first half of September.

Lapwings are lively, mobile, noisy birds. They quickly and dexterously run among the grass, often on uneven hummocky ground, sometimes suddenly stop (as is, however, characteristic of plovers), look around, and then run further, sometimes grabbing an insect that has turned up. In case of alarm, the bird takes off and easily betrays its presence with an annoyingly sounding, mournful, often repeated cry of “whose are you ... whose are you ...”.

The flight of lapwings is very characteristic, especially at mating time. Noisily flapping their wings, the birds rise steeply, then fall down, fly, swaying from side to side, describing at this time a deeply wavy line, somersaulting in the air, chasing each other.

Lapwings feed mainly on insects and their larvae, as well as mollusks, earthworms and centipedes. Often they eat beetles - click beetles, weevils, leafworms, eat caterpillars of butterflies, such as moths, as well as larvae of Diptera and click beetles (wireworms). On occasion, bears and locusts are caught.

Like all waders, lapwings molt twice a year. In August, they begin a complete, post-breeding molt, which ends in November. Incomplete, prenuptial molting, when small plumage is partially replaced, they have it in February - May.

In the dry steppes and semi-deserts of our country, lapwing or, as it is sometimes called, steppe lapwing(Chettusia gregaria). It differs from the lapwing in a higher landing on the legs, the absence of a crest and a metallic shade in the plumage. It has a brownish-gray back, a smoky-gray neck and goiter, a black chest, and a reddish belly. The female has a brownish head and chest. Previously quite widespread in the steppe parts of Ukraine and Kazakhstan, now it breeds in a small area from Kuibyshev and Kamyshin east to Semipalatinsk and Barnaul, mainly on dry sagebrush and feather grass steppes. It winters in Northeast Africa (south to Lake Victoria), southern Pakistan and northwestern India.

Gyrfalcons usually settle in several pairs (sometimes up to 20-30) and, apparently, change nesting areas within their range from time to time. In a nest arranged in the form of a small hole, there are 4, less often 5 eggs. Apparently only the female incubates.

Found in Central Asia east of the Caspian and Aral Seas and in Southeast Asia white-tailed lapwing(Ch. leucura) is smaller than the lapwing, has longer legs and a short tail. She has a clay-gray back with a purple tint, a brownish-gray goiter, a slate-gray chest, and a pure white tail. The forehead of the bird, the throat and sides of the head are white, the belly is brownish-gray. The wings are rather broad and slightly rounded, with a broad white band. The beak is thin, slender, slightly longer than that of other pigalits. Wing length 16-18 cm.

White-tailed pigalits nest in wide river valleys with a network of channels and lakes, in damp areas near springs and in any other moist places overgrown with grassy vegetation, near rivers or lakes. Do not avoid well-irrigated fields. Most often, birds can be seen wandering in shallow water, sometimes in flooded rice fields, where they catch prey on the surface of the water or take it from the bottom in very shallow places. And they often rest standing in the water, sometimes plunging into it to the very abdomen.

The nest of white-tailed pigalits is placed in a dry place, completely open and usually has 3 or 4 eggs.

For the winter, white-tailed pigalits fly to Northeast Africa, only a few birds remain in the south of Central Asia.

At Indian adorned lapwing(Lobivanellus indicus) the top of the head, throat, neck, crop and forechest are black, the ventral side of the body and the sides of the neck are white, the dorsal side is olive greenish. The beak is red with a black tip. There is a red fleshy lobe above the eye. The wing is wide, but rather sharp. A very sharp, slightly curved spur is developed on the wing fold. Wing length 20-24 cm.

The decorated lapwing is common throughout South Asia, including Ceylon. In the Soviet Union, it is found in Turkmenistan, in the Tejen and Murgab valleys. Everywhere he lives settled and only from the borders of Turkmenistan flies off for the winter to the south. It nests in open spaces near the banks of rivers and other water bodies, chooses swampy places, but always arranges a nest in a dry place. There are 4 eggs in a clutch.

A special group among the plovers are stilts and avocets, usually allocated to the subfamily stilt walkers(Himantopinae). Representatives of this subfamily are rather large waders with very long legs and a long beak, straight or curved upwards. The plumage is variegated, of black and white tones. They settle mainly along the shores of brackish, salty, as well as fresh inland water bodies. They nest colonially.

At the stilt(Himantopus himantopus) wings, back, and sometimes the back of the head and crown are black with a bluish-green tint. The rest of the plumage is white. The wings are long, sharp and narrow. The tail is not long, straight cut. The beak is straight, long, thin and sharp. The legs are red, very long, three-toed, there is a small but clearly visible membrane between the bases of the middle and outer fingers. The female is somewhat duller in color than the male. The wing length is 20-25 cm, and the females are somewhat smaller than the males.

The area of ​​distribution of the stilt is extensive. It covers South Asia, the Sunda Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, a significant part of South America, Central America and the southern part of North America. In Europe, this species breeds on the Iberian Peninsula, in the Netherlands, on the Balkan Peninsula, in the USSR in the strip adjacent to the shores of the Black and Azov Seas, in Ciscaucasia, in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. However, in few places the stilt occupies a continuous area. In most cases, it is distributed sporadically, in patches. Stilts inhabiting the Soviet Union winter partly near the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, and partly fly away from our country.

It is necessary to search for the stilt in the area of ​​​​its distribution mainly near fresh, salty and brackish lakes with open shores. In such places, the stilt usually settles in colonies, settling mainly in a dry place, on spits and shallows, but sometimes in shallow water on a tussock or on a bundle of reed stalks, so that the nest is surrounded by water. If the water level rises, the nest adjusts - the bird lays building material from below.

A full clutch consists of 4, sometimes 3 eggs. They are brownish-buffy in color, typical of all waders, i.e., strongly pointed towards one end. The length of the eggs is 41-47 mm, the width is 29-31 mm. Adult birds guard the nest very zealously, from a distance they fly out to meet a person, pursuing him with extremely annoying cries, somewhat reminiscent of the yelping of a dog. If a person approaches the nest, the stilt begins to withdraw. He limps, flaps his wings, or suddenly falls as if his leg is broken, then jumps up, runs back a few steps and falls to the ground again.

Both members of the nesting pair incubate the eggs, and often replace each other. After 25-26 days of incubation, chicks appear. It usually happens in early to mid-June. At the end of June you can see already flying young birds. Stilt chicks are willing and good swimmers, while adult birds resort to swimming only in exceptional cases.

Stilts feed mainly on small insects and their larvae, which they grab with their beak, like tweezers, from the surface of the water or from its shallow layers. It happens that at the same time the bird plunges its entire head into the water. In the water, stilts walk slowly, raising their legs high with each step. These birds also look for prey in the silt and sometimes collect it on land.

In early - mid-September, stilts already fly off for wintering.

Has a very small area of ​​distribution Australian stilt(Cladorhynchus leucocephalus), which breeds only in the western parts of Australia. This sandpiper is generally similar to the common stilt, but its legs are somewhat shorter, and most importantly, there are fairly well-developed swimming membranes between the fingers, which makes this species reminiscent of the avocet. Apparently, the Australian stilt is a good swimmer. His legs, like those of real stilts, are three-toed.

The plumage of the Australian stilt is mostly white, but a large chestnut-brown patch runs across the craw and along the middle of the chest. The wings are black, they are somewhat shorter and less sharp than those of the common stilt.

The Australian stilt nests in large colonies near the shores of salt lakes.

Avocet(To ecurvirostra av ocetta) is immediately recognizable by the shape of the beak. It is long, thin, flat and flexible, curved upward in an arcuate manner. Its end is sharp. The legs of the avocet are somewhat shorter than those of the stilt, four-fingered. The front fingers are connected by a swimming membrane, which, however, is deeply cut, but its rims reach the ends of the fingers. The top of the head and neck of the Avocet are black, the wings are black with large white spots, the rest of the plumage is white. The beak is black, the legs are bluish. Wing length 21-23 cm.

Avocet is very sporadically distributed along the flat shores of salty steppe lakes from the Danube to South-Eastern Transbaikalia and along the shores of the Black, Azov, Caspian and Aral Seas. Outside the USSR, this bird breeds along the southern shores of the Baltic Sea, in the countries of the Mediterranean, in Western Asia, in Mongolia, in northwestern China, in some places in Africa, in Australia and Tasmania.

In our country, some Avocets winter in the Caspian Sea in the Kirov Bay. Most of them fly to Africa and South Asia.

Avocets arrive in the southern regions of the USSR at the end of March, but more often in April. For nesting, they are located along the flat muddy shores of brackish reservoirs, on sandy and shell spits, along salt licks, dry mud and along the shores of shallow muddy sea bays.

Avocets feed on small crustaceans, aquatic insect larvae, mollusks, and seeds of aquatic plants. Gathering food, they slowly roam the shallow water, not taking (unlike stilt walkers) their feet out of the water at each step, but plowing the water with them. In deeper places, Avocets gather food by swimming. In search of food, Avocets walk with their heads down and immersing the tip of their beak in water, they drive it from side to side. The course of the molting of these birds is not much different from the molting of the stilt.

High in the mountains of Central and Central Asia there is a peculiar sandpiper sicklebeak(Ibidorhyncha struthersi). It belongs to a special subfamily sickle beaks(Ibidorhynchinae), which has only one species just named.

Sicklebill is a fairly large wader with a long, thin, arcuately curved down beak of bright red color. Its legs are long, but shorter than those of stilts, three-toed. The anterior part of the head is dark, brownish-brown, the dorsal side is brownish-gray. The goiter is bluish-gray, the abdomen is white. On the border of the goiter and chest there are narrow white and wide blackish stripes. The tail feathers are brownish-gray with narrow dark transverse stripes. Wing length 22-25 cm.

Crescent beak breeds in the highlands of the Tien Shan and Pamir-Alai, in Kashmir, throughout the Himalayas, in southern Tibet and east to the provinces of Shanxi and Hebei in China. In autumn, it makes vertical migrations, descending somewhat below nesting habitats.

Most often, the sickle beak is found nesting at altitudes from 2000 to 3000-3500 m. In Tibet, it rises up to 4000 m. becomes more even. The sicklebeak avoids rivers with wide, heavily sanded valleys. On wintering grounds, it prefers to stay in approximately the same conditions as in summer, but lower, sometimes at an altitude of only 500 m.

Crescent beak nests in separate pairs, one nest from another is located at a distance of no closer than a kilometer. For the nest, the bird scratches a small hole with its feet. Additional "false nests" are also being built, where the bird sits down during mating games. Naturalists who have observed the mating games of the sicklebeak say that the male at this time makes “bows” to the female, crouches on his paws and shakes his tail, and then takes off on open vibrating wings and screams loudly.

Full clutch contains 4, rarely 3 eggs. Finding a sicklebeak nest is extremely difficult. Its smoky-gray back merges with the general background of pebbles, the bird does not scream at the nest, but silently runs away from it for 300 meters and does not return to it soon. At the end of April, the nests are full of unincubated masonry, in the 10th of May, chicks begin to hatch.

The sickle beak is a calm, unfussy bird. Often it stands on the shallows with its head retracted, so that the rounded outlines of its head, back and even curved beak, merging with the outlines of stones, make it completely invisible. Having come in search of food belly-deep into the water, the sickle-beak resembles a stone sticking out of the water. Its flight is light and graceful. Taking off, the bird makes a melodic flute sound like “tee-li, tee-li”. Crescent beak swims well.

Oystercatchers, or Curves(subfamily Haematopinae), - coastal birds with strong three-toed legs and a straight strong beak. Their colors are piebald: black and white or more or less monochromatic black. Within the subfamily, there are only 4 species combined into one genus Haematopus. The most widespread of these common oystercatcher(N. ostralegus). This bird is almost the size of a dove, has a long straight (sometimes barely noticeable upward) beak, rather high, laterally compressed and blunt at the top. In birds nesting in the north, the beak is somewhat shorter than in southern birds. In adult birds, the head, neck to the front of the chest, the front of the back, part of the wing and the end of the tail are black. All other plumage is white. There is a small white spot under the eye. Northern birds have less white on the wing than southern ones. Some geographic variations of this wader have black or nearly black plumage. The wing length of birds from the Soviet Union is 23.5 - 26.5 cm, weight is approximately 500 g.

In the Soviet Union, the oystercatcher is widely distributed in the river basins of Eastern Europe, but only flowing south, and in the river basins of Western Siberia and Central Asia. In addition, it is characteristic of the shores of the Barents and White Seas.

Breeds in the Far East and Kamchatka. Outside the USSR, it breeds along the sea coasts of Northern and Western Europe, North and South America, southern Africa, New Guinea, Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. In our country and in general in the northern latitudes, this is a migratory bird. It winters in northern Africa and southern Asia.

Flying from wintering grounds, this bird appears in the Ciscaucasia as early as the 20th of March, in the Moscow region in April, off the coast of the White Sea, in the Kandalaksha Bay, in early May. Arriving flocks are divided into small groups, and males proceed to the current. They fly somehow tensely, stretching their neck forward and lowering their beak down, with a loud cry "kevik ... kevik ... kevik ... kikkivikkvikkvirrr ...". The flight is made in a straight line forward and backward. Often several birds take part in such a flight at once, sometimes up to a dozen. Gradually, pairs separate and occupy their nesting sites. Off the coast of the Barents Sea, the peak of air games is observed in June.

Birds start nesting when they reach the age of three. For nesting, pebble, sandy, shell and rocky sea coasts are selected in bays and bays, where there are shallows and a wide strip of the littoral, which is exposed at low tide. Inland, oystercatchers inhabit the banks of rivers and lakes. In the central regions of the European part of the USSR, nesting of the Oystercatcher has also been noted in the fields, and quite far from the water. Each pair has a small nesting area protected by it, but at the same time, dozens, and in suitable conditions, hundreds of pairs nest in the immediate neighborhood.

The nest is placed openly and is a simple shallow hole. In a full clutch there are 3, sometimes 4 or 2 eggs. The eggs are large, 51-63 mm long, 37.5-43 mm wide. The color is pale buffy with dark brown and grayish-brown spots and dashes. Both parents incubate, replacing each other quite often. The duration of incubation is 26-28 days. Down jackets leave the nest on the day of hatching, but at first they do not go far from it and are often warmed by their parents.

It is curious that adult oystercatchers not only lead their chicks, but also feed them, that is, bring them food in their beak, sometimes from a fairly considerable distance. At the same time, parents have big failures. In cases where they are forced to bring food from afar, they are sometimes unable to properly feed the chicks and the brood dies of exhaustion. Even half-fledged chicks cannot forage for themselves. Parents sometimes look for food right there, very close, and the chicks are indifferent to this. An adult bird brings an insect to the chick, holding it in its beak, sometimes lays it on the sand and stands motionless, lowering its beak and as if pointing at the prey, until the chick finally grabs it.

Every evening, while the parents are feeding the chicks, which lasts about 3 weeks, the family returns to the nesting site, which continues to be protected by adult birds. The attachment of Oystercatchers to the nesting territory they have chosen once is confirmed by ringing: birds from year to year return to the same place in spring and often use the old nest.

The food of oystercatchers is varied. As a rule, they catch openly holding prey on land and in shallow water, they can get animals buried in soft ground. The main food objects of the oystercatcher are polychaetes, mollusks, crustaceans, insects and their larvae (dipterans, beetles, caterpillars of bats, etc.) - In the Orenburg region, oystercatchers are often seen feeding in water-filled gardens, where they destroy the wireworms en masse. Oystercatchers also hunt for small fish. Oystercatchers smash shells of crustaceans with blows of their beaks. Medium-sized shells are often carried by a bird to the rocks, thrust into a crack there and then opened. Getting insects out from under the stones, the oystercatcher either pulls them out from there, slipping its beak down, or turns over the stones, like a turnstone.

A very large group of waders unites under a common name snails(subfamily Tringinae). This is a medium-sized wader with a rather long straight or slightly curved beak. All snails are relatively calm, rather noisy birds, especially in mating season, many of them tend to twitch their tails and “bow”. There are several genera in the group, the central one is the genus of the snail (Tringa).

Very common in the forest zone of the Palearctic blackie(T. ochropus). This is a small snail, about the size of a starling, with relatively short (for snails) legs and a straight, rather long beak. Its back is brownish-black with a greenish tint and small white marginal borders on feathers. The throat, belly and undertail are white. There are dark spots on the goiter and chest. The rump is white, the tail feathers are also white, but with wide dark transverse stripes, which are most clearly visible on the middle pair of tail feathers. Wing length 13-15 cm, weight 70-80 g.

The habitat of the chernysh covers the forest zone from Norway, Denmark and Austria to the shores of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bOkhotsk and the Tatar Strait. To the north, the chernysh is distributed approximately to the Arctic Circle, to the south - to the forest-steppe inclusive. Its wintering area is partly narrower than England and the countries of the Mediterranean Sea, the main wintering places are the vast territory of Africa (of course, excluding its desert parts), South Asia to Ceylon and the Philippine Islands.

Blackies arrive from wintering grounds in March - April, in Western Siberia, for example, near Tyumen or on the Obva River, they appear in early May. For nesting, the blackling chooses the edges of forests, glades, clearings near water, at least for a long time existing puddles. Blackie tends to settle in other people's nests, and, moreover, not on the ground. It lays its eggs in the nests of thrushes, less often pigeons, crows, jays and other birds. Of course, he prefers abandoned nests, but sometimes he also takes a fancy to occupied ones, where there are already eggs of the real owner. Lays eggs in squirrel nests. Much less often, the cherny nest nests on the ground in a very poorly arranged nest.

In a full clutch of a blackie, there are 4 eggs of fawn, pale olive or brown with spots. Both members of the couple incubate them for 20-22 days. The hatched chicks sit for about 2 days in the nest, after which they fall out of it. When the chicks begin to fly, they leave the forests and fly to feed on open places - in wide river and lake valleys and in damp meadows.

In the Leningrad region, the movement of blackies to the south is noticed already in early August, in Bashkiria they disappear in the first half of September, in the Orenburg region - in the second half of this month.

Chernysh usually betrays his presence with a loud melodic cry, similar to "thlui-tlui". Most often, the voice is given at the time of takeoff. In the forests, the blackling can often be seen near puddles. When taking off, it is easily recognizable due to the sharp contrast between the white uppertail and the black color of the back and wings.

Full molt begins at nesting sites and ends at migrations and migration, in some individuals during wintering. Spring partial molt, covering small plumage, occurs during wintering and at the first stages of the journey to nesting sites.

fifi(T. glareola) is generally similar to the blackie. Its back is brownish-gray with a large number of black-brown and whitish streaks, the sides are also in dark streaks. It is well distinguished from the blackling as a somewhat lighter and more variegated bird with several dark stripes on the tail. Fifi does not have the sharp contrast of black and white characteristic of blacks. Fifi wing length 11.5 - 13 cm, weight 60-65 g.

Fifi is a more northerly bird than the blackie. It is widely distributed in the southern parts of the tundra, where there are many shrubs, in the forest-tundra and in the forest zone south to 53-54 ° north latitude. On Sakhalin and in the Primorsky Territory it is not. Fifi winters in Africa south of the Sahara, in South Asia and further to Australia inclusive. Birds that are immature and do not start nesting in a given year spend the whole summer wandering, often staying at wintering grounds. Many of them fly off to the north, but sometimes they linger on the way much to the south of their nesting area.

Fifi is a living little sand, deftly running on wet moss or grass. At the same time, he constantly makes rocking movements: he shakes, like a white wagtail, with the back of his body. This is especially noticeable when the sandpiper has just sat on the ground. After arrival, and even later, fifi easily betrays its presence by courtship flights, accompanied by loud melodic cries. During the current in the air, fifi's "singing" is heard almost continuously. After the birds sit on the eggs, they become hardly noticeable, but as soon as the chicks appear, the cry of adult birds is again heard from everywhere. They fly up into bushes or small trees and cry endlessly in alarm.

Fifi's nest is always on the ground, it has 4 eggs. Both the male and the female incubate, but the female is much larger. The duration of incubation is 22-23 days.

big snail(T. nebularia) - the largest of the Palearctic snails. It is generally a gray bird with large longitudinal dark streaks on the feathers. The ventral side of the bird is white with large tear-shaped streaks on the crop and sides and small streaks on the throat.

Hindquarters and rump are white. The beak is long, its apical part is slightly bent upwards. Legs are greenish. Wing length 18-19.5 cm, weight 150-200 g.

The large snail nests from the northern part of Scandinavia and the Leningrad region to the upper reaches of the Anadyr and Kamchatka, as well as in the north of England. It winters in southern Europe, Africa, South Asia and further south to Australia inclusive. Separate specimens of this species can be found in the summer south of its nesting area in the steppe parts of our country and in the desert (for example, along the Amu Darya). In a small number, non-breeding individuals are also found in Africa and India, on wintering grounds.

The big snail is a cautious bird, it is found more often alone or in small groups. Perches on trees, at least during nesting time. His voice is a loud melodious "thlui-tlui", sometimes "kru-kru-kru".

The large snail feeds mainly on aquatic insects and their larvae - water bugs, beetles, dipteran larvae, dragonflies. This is the only one of our waders (except for the oystercatcher) that occasionally catches fish. Feeding on the water, a large snail sometimes makes quick vibrating movements with its paws along the ground, stirs up the water and then catches the invertebrates that have risen up.

Herbalist, or redleg(T. totanus), widely distributed throughout almost all of Europe, except for the Balkan Peninsula, and in Asia to the Tatar Strait. In the north of Europe it breeds up to Leningrad, in the south of Asia up to the northern foothills of the Himalayas. Winters in Africa, South Asia, partly in England and Italy. This is a fairly large snail, generally light brown in color, with a white back and a white stripe on the wings, which is clearly visible during the flight of the bird. The thin, straight beak is dark, reddish at the base, and the legs are orange-red. A noisy bird nesting in grassy swamps and wet meadows. In Armenia, it can be found at altitudes exceeding 3000 m, and in the Pamirs it occurs at an altitude of 4000 m.

Dandy(T. erythropus) - a large wader, in breeding plumage almost black, at normal times very dark, without white on the wings, but with a white rear part of the back. There are white spots on the dorsal side of the bird. In winter attire, a dandy of dark brown color. The legs are red, orange-yellow in young birds. The beak is slightly curved down.

The nesting area of ​​the goldfinch, apparently, covers the north of the forest zone and the forest-tundra from Finland to Anadyr, but it has not yet been clarified quite enough. The dandy winters in Africa and South Asia.

Carrier(Actitis hypoleucos) is one of the most common and constantly found waders in the middle zone of the USSR, about the size of a lark. His legs are shorter than those of other snails, the beak is also shorter, slightly longer than the head. The overall tone of the plumage is dark sandy-brown with a slight bronze-greenish tint and dull black longitudinal spots on the back feathers. In addition, there are wavy transverse blackish stripes or dashes on the back and upper wing coverts. The belly is white; in flight, white stripes on the wings are clearly visible. The tail is longer than that of other snails and is rounded. Wing length 9.5-12 cm, weight 40-70 g.

The range of the carrier covers almost the entire Palearctic, except for its extreme northern parts, North Africa and Arabia. This is an unpretentious bird that settles along the shores of various reservoirs, mainly near flowing water, and, apparently, avoids salt lakes. It rises high in the mountains, nesting near stormy taiga rivers and simply along mountain streams, rapidly flowing among stones and pebbles. In the Pamirs, it is found up to a height of 4000 m. In the lowlands, it is sometimes quite sufficient for it if there is a small reservoir, on the banks of which there are dry meadow spots and strips of small pebbles and silt. Open area or forest, for the carrier, apparently, is indifferent. On wintering grounds, it is widely distributed in Africa, in South Asia and further south along the islands to South Australia.

After arrival (and this happens in the second half of April - the first half of May), the carriers are energetically moving: they fly, fluttering their wings, and all the time they emit a gentle whistle. They lay their eggs in pits on the ground, which the male makes by pressing on the ground with his chest and making turns in one direction and the other. The clutch contains 4 eggs, which are incubated by both parents. Carrier nests often suffer from spring floods, but if the clutch dies, a new nest is built not far from the old one and eggs appear in it after 8 days. The duration of incubation is 21-22 days.

The carrier feeds mostly near the water and often wanders in shallow water. However, it does not avoid feeding on land. In case of alarm, he has a habit of flying from one bank of the river to the other, often then back (hence the name). On occasion, the carrier swims and dives perfectly. His voice is a melodious whistle, rather gentle, but less sonorous than that of the blackie.

The last snail, which we will talk about here, is Morodunk(Terekia cinerea). This is a small sandpiper, well distinguished from other snails by the monotonous grayish-brown plumage (but the belly is white) with two dark stripes above the wings that are clearly visible (through binoculars). The legs of the morodunka are not very long, yellowish-pink in color, the three front toes are connected at the base by clearly visible swimming membranes. The beak is thin, noticeably curved upwards. Wing length 12-13.5 cm, weight 50-75 g.

Morodunka nests along the banks of freshwater inland water bodies, mainly rivers, in the forest, forest-tundra and forest-steppe zones of Eurasia. Most of its range is in Siberia. Apparently, it is gradually settling to the west: it appeared recently in Finland and more and more often flies into Western Europe up to France and England inclusive. It winters in the coastal strip of East Africa, in the west of Madagascar, in South Asia and further south up to some coastal places in Australia.

Morodunk nests on the ground. Like all snails, she has 4 eggs in a full clutch, sometimes more or less. The first clutches of morodunok often die during a flood, and then there are second clutches.

phalaropes(subfamily Phalaropipae) form a small group of small waders, closely related to water feeding and many swimmers. The fingers of the phalaropes have lobed rims, somewhat reminiscent of the rims on the fingers of a coot. There are only 3 species in the subfamily, united in one genus of phalaropes (Phalaropus). These are northern birds, their females are noticeably larger than males and brighter colored. The males incubate the eggs.

Round-nosed phalarope(Ph. lobatus) is well distinguished from other phalaropes of our country by a thin and sharp beak, the openings of the nostrils on which are located at the base of the upper beak, at the very plumage of the forehead. In an adult female in breeding plumage, the dorsal side of the body is mostly slate-black with a clearly visible ashy coating and with reddish stripes along the edges of the back and shoulders. The head is dark gray, with a rusty-red spot on the sides of the neck. This same color may continue to the underside of the neck. The ventral side of the body is white. The male differs from the female in the absence of an ashy color on the upper side of the body, the red color on the neck is less developed. In winter, both sexes have gray upperparts with whitish edges. Females are larger than males. The wing length for females is 9.5-13 cm, for males 10-11 cm. The weight of males and females is from 26 to 47 g.

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The distribution of the round-nosed phalarope is circular. This is the tundra strip of Eurasia, Iceland, the tundra of Alaska and some places in the tundra north of Canada. Round-nosed phalaropes hibernate mainly: in the sea - off the southern coast of Arabia and Pakistan, off the coast of New Guinea and near the Azores. Apparently, they also winter off the coast of Peru. Sometimes in winter they are also found on land.

On nesting sites, phalaropes appear at the end of May, and more often in the first ten days of June. Females appear in the first spring, and soon after arrival they occupy nesting sites on the marshy shores of small lakes in the tundra. After the arrival of the males, mating games begin, which take place on the water. The female plays a more active role in these games.

The nest is arranged by the male and female not far from the water on a tussock or in a tuft of grass (sedge, etc.); it is quite well hidden by the rapidly growing herbaceous vegetation around. In a complete clutch, there are usually 4 eggs, occasionally 3. They lie, like all waders, with sharp ends inward and slightly down. The color of the eggs is olive or brownish-buffy with spots of black-brown or sepia color. The eggs are 27-33 mm long and 18.5-22.5 mm wide. When the entire clutch is laid, the males begin to incubate, the females at this time stay close to the nests alone or in small flocks. It happens that in the middle of the day the male and female swim together in search of food. However, pretty soon the females begin to roam, although some individuals stay on the nesting sites for a long time.

The chicks hatch on the 19-21st day of incubation and immediately leave with the male to the water, where they first stay near the shore. Down jackets can swim in the very first days of life. In the Malozemelskaya tundra, the first puffballs appear at the end of June, and on July 20-22, most of the chicks from a distance are already completely indistinguishable from adults.

Autumn migration of phalaropes lasts quite a long time. First, females leave the nesting area; in the first ten days of July, they can be seen, for example, in the Naurzum Reserve. Males, which for some reason did not start nesting, can be encountered much to the south of their permanent nesting territory also in July. Nesting males fly away, of course, later. And in August - September, young birds can be found everywhere on the migration. Off the coast of Kamchatka, phalaropes sometimes linger until October.

Round-nosed phalaropes feed on insect larvae and other terrestrial, but mainly aquatic invertebrates. The phalarope usually forages by pecking at prey from the surface of the water while swimming. He is very mobile on the water, spinning all the time in different directions, often spinning and constantly nodding his head. Sometimes phalaropes join ducks, grebes, and avocets, which, while feeding, stir up water and the bottom layer of silt, as a result of which bottom insects and their larvae rise up. Sometimes the phalaropes themselves try to raise the bottom layer of silt.

Round-nosed phalaropes are very trusting birds. During non-breeding time they stay in flocks. The voice of the round-nosed phalaropes is a quick gentle "drink-drink-drink-drink". When taking off, a peculiar grunting is heard, somewhat reminiscent of the grunting of a snipe.

phalarope(Ph. fulicarius) has a beak that is flat and slightly widened. The nostril openings are located at the base of the beak, but do not directly adjoin the forehead plumage. The crown of the phalarope is blackish, the back is black with buffy longitudinal streaks, the chin is slate-gray, the rest of the underparts is rusty-red. There is a white stripe on the wing, which is clearly visible in a flying bird. The male in breeding plumage is somewhat duller than the female. In winter plumage, the phalaropes have an abdomen with a large number of white feathers. The length of the bird's wing is 12-14 cm, and the males are somewhat smaller than the females. Males weigh 42-51 g, females 57-60 g.

Flat-nosed phalaropes nest on Yuzhny Island of Novaya Zemlya, in the tundra of Siberia from the mouth of the Yenisei to the Chukotka Peninsula and Anadyr Bay, on the New Siberian Islands and on Wrangel Island. In addition, they breed in Iceland, Svalbard and the tundra of North America, although somewhat sporadically everywhere. They winter mainly in the open sea away from the coasts of the continents. In particular, they are often found in the east of the Atlantic Ocean against the western and southwestern coasts of Africa. They are common in the Arabian Sea, in addition, they are encountered in the winter in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru. The phalaropes adhere to the areas of the ocean that are richest in planktonic organisms, and gather in flocks of several dozen individuals and even several thousand birds.

Arrival at nesting sites occurs from the end of May to the second half of June. The nest is usually located on the edge of a small lake, sometimes in a depression near a very small puddle. There are 4, less often 3 eggs in the clutch, the male incubates them for 19 days. When brooding, as a rule, there is only a male, but sometimes both parents lead a brood. Before flying, phalaropes gather in large flocks.

big phalarope(Ph. tricolor) differs sharply from other phalaropes in its distribution. This is not an arctic bird. It inhabits the western parts of the north of the United States and the southern territories of Canada. In winter, it floats off the western coasts of North and South America to Chile.

The top of the head of this bird is ash gray, a wide black stripe stretches along the sides of the head and neck. Its beak and legs are slightly longer than those of other phalaropes.

Turnstones(genus Arenaria) are somewhat isolated from other waders, they form a separate subfamily turnstone(Arenariinae). These are small birds with a short beak and relatively short four-toed legs. They have an almost cosmopolitan distribution, but nest only along the narrow coastal strip of the northern seas and in the north of the Baltic Sea. There are 2 species in the genus Turnstone.

common turnstone(A. interpres) has a variegated plumage. Her upper back is greenish-black with rusty spots, her crop and chest are gray, and her abdomen is white. The back of the back is white, the feathers at the base of the tail are black, the tail coverts are white. Tail feathers with white base (weakly expressed), black tip and white tips. There is very little black color on the last pair of steering wheels. The female is somewhat duller than the male. In winter, both male and female are mostly dark brown. The wing length of turnstones is 14-16 cm, weight 95-115 g.

As a breeding bird, the Turnstone has a circumpolar distribution. It nests along the shores of the northern seas and enters temperate latitudes only in the area of ​​the Baltic Sea. Non-breeding birds are found in summer in many places, in particular near lakes in the deserts of Central Asia. They are found in summer in Chile and Peru and in the Greater Antilles. Turnstones winter from England and the western coast of Europe to the southern tip of Africa, Madagascar, along the coasts of South Asia, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and the islands of Indonesia, as well as along the coasts of temperate North America, south to Peru. They winter, in addition, in the Hawaiian Islands and the Galapagos Islands. This bird arrives at nesting sites in late May - early June.

For nesting, turnstones are located in a non-marshy coastal strip, without dense grassy vegetation, mainly in elevated open areas. In Finland and the Scandinavian Peninsula, Turnstones nest in skerries. In some cases, as was noted for example on Kolguev Island, Turnstones may nest colonially. On the New Siberian Islands, they arrange 2-3 nests in suitable places not far from one another, and on the Baltic Sea in skerries they occupy strictly defined nesting areas, not tolerating the presence of another pair nearby. The smallest nesting site was observed in Finland, it occupied 800 m2, and the strip of coast suitable for foraging was 30 m wide. Usually the sites have an area of ​​1 and a maximum of 1.5 ha.

Shortly after arrival, the male proceeds to the device of "false nests", of which there are several. At first, the female treats such nests with complete indifference, later she begins to follow the actions of the male, and when the time for laying comes, she herself determines the place where the nest should be. It settles, if possible, under a stone or between stones, among thickets of crows and heather, in general it is somewhat covered, but there are also nests openly arranged. Sometimes a bird can arrange a nest in a dead end hole, climbing into it to a depth of half a meter, or under a broken boat. A full clutch contains 3 or 4 eggs. Postponing them takes quite a long time, sometimes up to 7 days. Breaks between the appearance of individual eggs in the nest can be from 15-18 to 70 hours. The eggs are brownish-olive or greenish in color with more or less blackish and gray spots.

Birds begin to incubate after the third egg is laid. The change of incubating birds occurs after 8-14 hours. As a rule, the female sits more often at night, and the male during the day. Near the nest, incubating birds are very active. With loud cries, they drive away other individuals of their species that have flown to them, pursue skuas, foxes and other predators.

Incubation lasts 23, sometimes 24 days. For the first few hours of life (about half a day), puffballs stay close to the nest and are constantly heated by their parents. Then they begin to show great activity, and the whole family moves from dry places to more humid lowlands with grassy vegetation. True, from the skerries of the Baltic Sea, turnstones move to the open seashore only after the chicks have fledged. Young birds begin to fly on the 24-26th day of life. Shortly before this, when young birds begin to fly up, the females leave their broods and migrate. Males stay with their families until the chicks become completely independent. Their migrations begin 10-15 days later than those of females. The young birds are the last to leave.

It is interesting that young turnstones (first-years) linger in significant numbers in the first spring and summer of independent life in the wintering area: they can be found at this time in South Africa, the Hawaiian Islands, and also in Australia. Many, however, fly north, but are delayed on the way and then wander in flocks or alone. Few of them fly to their homeland, but continue to lead a nomadic life there, without starting nesting.

Turnstones start nesting no earlier than two years of age.

The feeding grounds for turnstones are mainly seashores. After arrival in spring, birds eat berries preserved from autumn, leaves and shoots of young grasses, fish thrown out by the sea, and if there are no ice shores, then also marine invertebrates. At this time, they often approach people's dwellings and delve into the garbage. In the future, turnstones eat small mollusks, crustaceans, especially amphipods and water donkeys, bugs, Diptera and their larvae, butterflies, spiders, etc.

Often the Turnstone looks for its food under the pebbles that it turns with its beak. She can turn a pebble that is equal in weight to the weight of her body. If the stone is too heavy for her, several birds turn it together. In the steppe places, the Turnstone searches for food under dried camel droppings and under the cracked dried crust, which is constantly formed along the muddy shores of lakes.

Sometimes turnstones rob. Sometimes they drink the contents of the eggs of terns, gulls, some species of ducks and even the eggs of other turnstones. Having found an unprotected egg, the bird pecks a hole in it, drinks what is possible, then turns it and, having made a new hole, finishes drinking the contents.

The group of northern shorebirds, which bear the common name sandpipers(subfamily Calidritinae). They are small birds with relatively short three-toed legs, but one genus (Crocethia) also has a small hind toe. The beak is not long, as a rule, straight, sometimes slightly bent down, in one species it is widened at the end in the form of a flat spatula. For the most part, sandpipers are unhurried, with quiet, gentle bird voices.

Regarding a number of sandpiper species, until recently there was a misconception about their nesting distribution. It was believed that the oystercatcher, white-tailed sandpiper and a number of other species nest in the temperate latitudes of Western Siberia and in Kazakhstan. This misconception is based on the fact that many sandpipers linger there during the flight to nesting sites, some flocks fly very late in the spring, and some fly very early from the north, and thus they can be seen all or almost all summer in temperate latitudes.

One of the smallest sandpipers oystercatcher(Calidris minuta). Its beak is short, completely straight, rather thin. The tarsus is of medium length, the fingers are short, the wings are narrow, but not very long. The extreme pair of tail feathers, as well as their middle pair, is slightly longer than the rest of the tail feathers. The bottom is white, the front of the chest, goiter, throat, sides of the neck and cheeks with a reddish-buffy bloom and brown streaks. The primaries are black-brown, the secondaries are white at the base and with black tips. In winter, the oystercatchers dorsal side of the body is grayish-brown, the middle parts of the feathers of the back are black, the ventral side is white, but there is a dirty buffy coating and brown striation in the area of ​​the goiter. Wing length 8.5-10 cm, weight 22-27 g.

The oystercatcher is mainly a tundra bird. He settles from the tundra of Norway to the lower reaches of the Lena River and on a number of islands in the Arctic Ocean. In some places it also nests in the forest-tundra. Wintering grounds of this bird are located in Africa, South Asia and further south to Australia and Tasmania. In a small number, oystercatchers linger for wintering near the southern shores of the Caspian Sea.

Immediately after arrival, the birds take up nesting places and start mating. During the current, the oystercatcher flies, raising its wings high up, fluttering them and making a trill similar to the crackling of a grasshopper, but less sonorous. The nest of the oystercatcher is a simple hole with flattened last year's grass, often under a bush, sometimes on a dry sandy area. Leaves of northern willows can serve as lining. Often the nest is so poorly defined that if you remove the eggs from it, you can not find the border of the nest.

In a full clutch there are 4 eggs, quite varying in color, but in general they are still brown-olive. Egg size: 27-30 X 19-21.5 mm. Both members of the nesting pair incubate. The duration of incubation has not been determined.

The laying of eggs in these birds begins in the last decade of June, puffballs appear in the second - third decade of July, sometimes at the beginning of this month. In late July - early August, you can observe already fully fledged, but often not yet flying chicks. However, even before the chicks become flying, the broods of several families often unite in a common flock and begin premigratory migrations across the tundra. In the middle zone of the European part of the Union, the migration takes place from mid-August to the end of September.

Sandpipers, as is typical of most sandpipers, are not fussy birds, run slowly, without sudden movements, feed either silently or quietly calling to each other, and are rather indifferent to the presence of a person.

Sandpipers feed mainly on insects, less often on mollusks and small crustaceans. Their food is dominated by larvae of aquatic insects, mainly pusher larvae (bloodworms).

Very similar to the one just described. red-throated sandpiper(C. ruficollis), but it is slightly larger than the oystercatcher and looks, if I may use the word, somewhat heavier. It differs from the oystercatcher in that during nesting time its throat and chest are rusty, hence the name.

The environment in which the red-throated sandpiper nests is not much different from the nesting habitats of the oystercatcher. Where these species are found nesting together, they are very easy to distinguish by the nature of the lekking flight. The redneck flies during the current, holding the wings at the level of the body, often strikes them downwards, rarely raises them upwards. At the same time, the bird relatively often stops in the air without flapping its wings, with large flight feathers slightly bent down. The main direction of flight during the current is up (up to 15 - 20 m) and down; the bird passes to oblique, almost horizontal flight only before landing. The voice during the current is characteristic - a kind of slightly mournful sound, reminiscent of a groan. Already from afar, without seeing the bird yet, you can recognize it by this voice. Around the chicks, the rubythroat quacks in a peculiar way. The eggs of the red-throated sandpiper (there are 4 of them) are slightly larger than those of the oystercatcher. Their color is sharply different from the color of eggs of other sandpipers: sometimes more, sometimes less intense reddish-brown.

The red-throated sandpiper is an eastern tundra bird that breeds in places from Eastern Taimyr to Alaska. To the south, it flies through Eastern Siberia and along the seashores. It winters on the shores of the Malay Peninsula, on the islands between the Asian and Australian continents, in Australia and Tasmania.

long-toed sandpiper(C. subminuta) is very similar to the oystercatcher, from which it differs in longer fingers, especially the middle ones. The edges of the feathers of the back and wings are more buffy than red. Taking the bird in your hands, you can see that only the first primary primary feather has a white core, and the rest of the feathers have brown cores, while in the oystercatcher the cores of these feathers are painted white over a considerable distance.

The long-toed sandpiper is found in the forests of Siberia, ranging from the left tributaries of the Ob to the Commander Islands. However, its exact nesting sites are known only in very few places in Eastern Siberia. Apparently, its main biotope (in Yakutia) is the mountain tundra, as well as swampy valleys of mountain rivers. On the Commander and Kuril Islands, it nests in swamps between dunes.

white-tailed sandpiper(C. temminckii) in size and general stock is close to the oystercatcher, from which it is well distinguished by the brownish-gray (rather than rufous) coloration of the upper side of the body. In addition, the outer tail feathers, unlike those of the oystercatcher, are pure white in the white-tailed sandpiper (sometimes with only a slight admixture of brown).

The distribution of this bird covers the northern tundra and partly the forest tundra of Europe and Asia from the Scandinavian Peninsula to the Chukotka Peninsula and Anadyr. It winters in the Mediterranean countries and east to southern China and Burma.

The white-tailed sandpiper settles in the low, wet tundra, among the thickets of the polar willow, and more often near running water. Often, its nests can be found on the drier "edges" of tundra rivers. Recently, the attraction of the white-tailed sandpiper to the outskirts of European-type settlements has been noted.

During the spring games, the birds behave extremely lively. They constantly fly up, sit on small bushes and fence posts and scurry in different directions with an almost continuous ticking so characteristic of them. In flight, they raise their wings high, bringing them down by about 40 °, and quickly flutter them, without lowering the wings below the plane of the body. For short stretches of the way, sandpipers glide in the air on raised wings, often stopping for a few moments in one place, continuing to flutter their wings. At this time, white-tailed sandpipers are quite fearless, although at other times they are cautious. Like the previous species of sandpipers, they have 4 eggs in their clutch.

Often the White-tailed Sandpiper can be seen in spring and early summer much to the south of its nesting area (for example, in the Pre-Altai steppes) in an environment that suggests its nesting there. Sometimes the birds even lek in such places and, according to the observations of some naturalists, they even take them away, but no one has seen nests and downy chicks in these places.

Widely distributed in the tundra and well known on migration (especially in autumn) in the middle zone of our country. dunlin(C. alpina). It is larger than the species just described: its wing length is 11–12.5 cm, and its weight is 44–57 g. The females are hardly noticeably larger than the males. The beak is rather long, thin, slightly bent down. The dorsal side of the bird is black-brown with rather wide rusty-red edges of feathers. The throat and goiter are in small dark streaks, the chest and anterior part of the abdomen are black-brown (hence the name), the rest of the abdomen is white. In winter, the birds are uniformly smoky above, white below with a smoky coating on the crop. Juvenile birds on autumn migration have rounded dark spots on ventral side.

The dunlin is widely distributed in the tundra of Eurasia from the northern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula to the Chukchi Peninsula and in the tundra of Canada, as well as in Greenland. In addition, it breeds along the shores of the Baltic Sea from Estonia south and southwest to Denmark, the British Isles and Ireland. Its wintering grounds are located in southwestern Europe and northwestern Africa, along the shores of the Red Sea, in the south of the Asian continent and in southern Japan. Immature dunlin often stay for the summer in wintering places or migrate to the north, but then linger along the road. Relatively few of them fly to the tundra, but do not start nesting there and lead a flock of life.

Dunlins arrive at nesting sites in the tundra in late May - early June. The mating flight of the dunlin is similar to the mating flight of other sandpipers (except for the rubythroat): the birds fly on vibrating wings, sometimes they glide in the air, and all the time, almost around the clock, their mating trill is heard.

For nesting, Dunlins occupy hummocky, grassy, ​​highly moistened areas, nest in sphagnum swamps, on grassy-moss swampy islands, always near shallow lakes or puddles.

The nest is usually located at the top of a hummock. It is a small depression, well camouflaged from above with last year's grass. Sometimes it is placed under a bush of dwarf birch or under a tussock of cotton grass. The nest is usually lined with willow leaves.

In a full clutch there are 4 eggs, rarely 3 or 5. Their color varies somewhat, but the predominant color is greenish or yellowish brown or light olive; brown streaks are concentrated mainly at the blunt end of the eggs. Egg sizes: 31-40 X 23-26.5 mm.

Already in the middle of June in the tundra one can find nests of dunlin with full clutches, in late June - early July, puffballs appear. The young become flying at the age of about 28 days. By this time, they unite in common flocks with adults, move to the banks of rivers or to the sea, and soon begin to roam, and migrations follow the migrations.

A decrease in the number of adult dunlin is noted in the tundra already in mid-July, and at this time one can see individual dunlin (probably not nesting) in the Moscow, Kursk regions and even to the south. However, dunlin completely disappear from the tundra in mid-September. In October, they appear in large numbers on wintering grounds near the South-East Caspian.

Dunlins are agile birds that run fast and fly well. At the beginning of nesting time, having already finished mating games, they easily give out their presence with a cry, when, suddenly breaking away, they fly low over the bumps with a characteristic trill and then disappear between them. After the appearance of chicks, Dunlins behave even more restlessly: they often take off, and even more often jump on a hummock and follow the approaching enemy with an alarming cry. If the enemy approaches, the dunlin take him away. But outside the nesting time, these are calm and silent birds. When frightened, they emit a kind of "t-r-rr", sometimes "cru ... cru ... cru ...". In a flock, Dunlins fly with a low squeak. Their flight is very fast, with constant turns of the body, in which the observer is shown either the abdomen or the back.

Insects serve as food for dunlin - beetles and their larvae, larvae of flies and chironomus, eggs of weevils, as well as earthworms, mollusks and small crustaceans. Birds are constantly swarming near the shore of the reservoir, they can enter it up to half the length of the tarsus, sometimes deeper, on occasion they swim well. Looking around the coast, the dunlin already from a distance sees the light movement of sand or silt produced by crustaceans or worms and, rushing to this place, quickly extracts prey.

red-throated(C. testacea) in appearance is very similar to dunlin, but somewhat larger than it; the beak is not strongly, but still noticeably bent down. In breeding attire, the red-throated is well recognized by the thick chestnut-red color of the underside of the body. In flight, the white rump of the bird is clearly visible, in contrast to the dunlin, whose rump is dark. The female redthroat has a significant admixture of white on the underside of the body. In winter plumage, both sexes are generally greyish-brown above, whitish below. Bird wing length 12-24 cm, weight 53-91 g.

Redbacks are masters of long-distance flights. They nest in the subzone of the arctic tundra of Siberia (not everywhere), choosing low-lying, moderately swampy hilly places there. For the winter, they fly off mainly to the southern hemisphere and stay mainly in the coastal zone of the continents and islands up to Australia, Tasmania and even New Zealand.

At oystercatcher(C. melanotos) The dorsal side is blackish-brown with reddish edges of individual feathers, the back of the back and the rump are black. The goiter and chest are brown with white speckles, the belly is whitish. The brown plumage of the chest forms a small cape towards the belly on the border with the white color of the belly along the midline of the body. The wing length of males is 14 cm, females 12.5 cm, weight of males is 94-110 g, females are 52-72 g.

This bird breeds in the tundra of Alaska and Canada and the northern parts of the tundra of Siberia from the Chukchi Peninsula to Eastern Taimyr. Perhaps this bird is gradually settling in a westerly direction. In any case, in recent years, pouter flights have been known in autumn to Europe: to the Kirov region, to the Federal Republic of Germany, to France. In the eastern hemisphere, this kulich does not hibernate anywhere. Siberian birds fly first towards Alaska in autumn, and then turn south and winter together with North American pouts in a large area of ​​South America from Ecuador and Bolivia to Argentina and Chile.

The mating games of this sandpiper are interesting. At this time, the male's cervical air sacs (incorrectly called a goiter, which waders do not have at all) swell greatly. The male either flies low above the ground and, having swollen his neck, emits a kind of dull puffing, or runs around the female with a swollen neck, uttering his characteristic “duu ... duu-u”. At times at this time, he slightly resembles a male black grouse. As soon as the females begin to incubate, the males apparently migrate away.

Gerbil(Crocethia alba) is very similar to all sandpipers, differing from them in the absence of a hind toe. Thus, her feet are three-toed. This is a small bird with a wing length of 11.5 - 13 cm. In autumn plumage, when it is usually seen by European observers, it has an ash-gray back with indistinct longitudinal streaks, the ventral side of the bird is pure white. In summer, the back and upper side of the head of this bird are black with rusty-red edges of feathers, the throat and goiter are red with dark speckles.

The gerbil is perhaps the most northern sandpiper. So, in North America, it penetrates approximately to 82 ° 30 "north latitude, and in Greenland even up to 84 ° north latitude. In the Soviet Union, its nesting was noted on the New Siberian Islands, at the mouth of the Lena, apparently in Northern Taimyr and on Severnaya Zemlya. Nomadic and migratory individuals are found in many areas of the tundra, and on the migration of gerbils you can see near water bodies inside the mainland, off the coast of the Aral and Caspian Seas, etc. Near the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, these birds stay in winter, but in the vast majority they fly off significantly further, up to the southern extremities of Africa, South America and up to Australia.

Turukhtan(Phylomachus pugnax) is especially notable for its nuptial attire. At this time, males develop elongated feathers on the neck - in front and on the sides (the so-called collar) and on the sides of the head (ears); on the front of the head, the plumage falls out and special leathery formations appear - red, yellow or orange warts. The plumage of the collar and ears is varied. There can be white, olive, pale ocher, reddish ocher, bright and dark red, brown, black, black-green, black-blue and black-purple tones. At the same time, the feathers often have longitudinal and transverse stripes, large specks or small spots. On the dark-colored parts of the plumage, a metallic sheen is often noticeable. At this time, apparently, it is impossible to find two identically colored males. The rear part of the back and the upper tail of the male turukhtan are grayish-brown with darker, almost black end parts and with lighter edges of the feathers. Flight feathers are blackish, tail feathers are brown, but two middle pairs are in transverse stripes. The belly is white. Legs can be reddish yellow, greenish, brownish yellow, and other colors. The female is much more modestly colored. Outside of mating season, the male and female are similar in plumage. The upper side of the body is grayish-brown, the underside is white, the neck and chest are greenish-olive. Males are noticeably larger than females: their wing length is 17.5-19 cm, while in females it is 14-16.5 cm. Males weigh an average of 184 g, females - 108 g.

Turukhtans nest mainly in the tundra of the Old World. There are especially many of them in the southern parts of this strip. But they also nest further south, throughout the forest-tundra and, apparently, enter the northern parts of the taiga. In Europe, their nesting area also covers more southern territories to the northern parts of Ukraine and to Northern France, but in these places Turukhtans nest sporadically. They nest in places in the south of Western Siberia. Wintering turukhtans are located in Africa and South Asia.

In spring, Turukhtans appear in Crimea at the beginning of the second half of March, in Estonia - in the second half of April, in late May - early June, birds appear on nesting sites in the tundra. First, the first males arrive, singly or in small groups. A few days later, a massive arrival of males and females occurs.

Turukhtans are polygamous birds. They do not break into pairs, males after arrival are grouped into flocks of 5-8-15 birds, occupy a certain lekking ground, usually the same as in previous years, and start peculiar tournaments. Males are located mostly on a dry mound among tussocks, fluff their plumage, take various poses and pounce on each other. There are no noticeable injuries during such fights in birds. Males spend whole days on the current with short breaks. However, the attack of one bird on another usually lasts a short time - a few seconds, but during the day it is repeated many times.

At the end of the currents, the males fly off to the south in flocks and already at the end of June appear outside the nesting area. At this time, they begin to molt: the first to fall out are the decorating feathers of the collar and ears.

Females arrange a nest, placing it on hummocks in wet grassy lowlands, sometimes in a dry place of the tundra. In the nest, which is a deep hole, there are 4 fairly large eggs. Their length is 39-47.5 mm, width 28-31 mm. They are grayish green in color with grayish and reddish brown spots. The female begins to incubate only after laying the third egg. Full unincubated masonry on the Kola Peninsula occurs at the end of June. Incubation lasts 22-23 days. The female behaves very cautiously near the nest. Seeing a person, she jumps off the nest in advance and silently runs, hiding between the bumps. Then he lets a man see himself and leads him farther and farther from the nest.

The first time after the hatching of the chicks, the whole family stays near the nest, returning to it quite often. After a few days, the brood migrates to wet sedge lowlands, where sometimes several families can be found. At the same time, females immediately detect their presence, since at the first alarm they take off and, with a peculiar muffled grunting, curl around the person.

As soon as young turukhtans take to the wing, they begin to roam and gradually move south, sometimes with females, sometimes without adult birds. Turukhtans appear on wintering grounds in Africa in mid-August.

Kulik-lopaten(Eurynorhynchus pygmeus) differs sharply from other sandpipers in the structure of the beak, which has a spatulate extension at the end. In other respects, the oystercatcher resembles the rubythroat, differing from it in somewhat smaller sizes and a brighter striation of the back. The shovel is even more mobile than other sandpipers. He feeds, describing a semicircle with his head and neck with very great speed, and nimbly runs at the same time, entering the water up to his belly. Often he suddenly turns back and runs in the opposite direction without taking his beak out of the water. The wing length of this bird is 9.5-10 cm.

This kulich has a very limited distribution. It breeds in the Soviet Union in the coastal strip of tundra from Cape Vankarem in Chukotka to Anadyr Bay and Korfa Bay (Koryak land). For wintering, the shovel flies to Southeast Asia.

It must be borne in mind that, despite such a remarkable beak, it is not at all easy to recognize the oystercatcher in a natural setting. The peculiar beak of the bird is not striking, and it looks very similar to other small sandpipers, with which it usually keeps together on migration.

Different types of snipe, great snipe and woodcock are combined into a separate subfamily snipe(Scolopacinae). The legs of these birds have a short metatarsus, but rather long fingers, of which there are 4, and the hind toe is well developed. There are no swimming webs on the fingers. The lower leg is feathered for most of its length, while in the woodcock the plumage somewhat covers the articulation of the lower leg with the tarsus.

The wings of snipes are quite wide, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, less sharp than in most other species of waders, in some cases blunt. The tail is slightly or strongly rounded, the outer tail feathers in most species are much narrower than the middle ones. The number of helmsmen ranges from 6 to 14 pairs.

The beak of the snipe is straight, long, narrow and thin. The mandible is somewhat longer than the mandible, and its very top is slightly bent down. The apical part (third or quarter of the beak) is flattened and slightly widened. The flattened part of the beak has a rough surface and a longitudinal median groove.

Snipes have a cosmopolitan distribution and inhabit predominantly humid places: damp meadows, etc. Some species live in forests, some high in the mountains.

Snipe feed mainly on worms and insect larvae living in the upper layers of the soil. Snipes get their food by probing the ground with their beak and then grabbing the prey by touch. Prey is detected with the help of numerous tactile bodies located in the rough part of the end of the beak.

Snipe lead a hidden lifestyle, but easily detect their presence in the spring, since most of them are characterized by current flight, during which the birds make a variety of, usually loud sounds.

Garshnep(Lymnocryptes minima) - a very small little sandpiper, about the size of a field lark. Its wing length is 10.5-11.5 cm. Compared to other snipes, the harshnep has a shorter beak.

Harshnep is widely distributed in the forest-tundra zone and in the forest zone from the north of the Scandinavian Peninsula to the Lena River, possibly much further east, in any case, its nesting is also known in the lower reaches of the Kolyma. The southern boundary of the nesting area of ​​this species is not well understood. In any case, it breeds in the north of the Smolensk region. It winters in South Asia, in some places in Africa and in small numbers in Europe, in particular in England. In the USSR it winters in Transcaucasia.

Garshnep settles in open dirty swamps with a small herbage, along the silty shores of lakes, swamps overgrown with horsetail, sedge or reeds. The nest of this bird is usually located on a hummock, sometimes surrounded by water. A full clutch contains 3-4 eggs.

Harshneps are silent, secretive birds, kept mostly alone. They lead a twilight and nocturnal lifestyle. Harshnep reluctantly takes off, almost from under the very feet, making a sound like “chivik”, and soon sits down in the thickets of the swamp. The flight of this bird somewhat resembles the flight of a bat.

Handling of the harshnep is very peculiar. Usually it can be heard in calm cloudy weather, and the voice of the harrier, as if muffled, is heard alternately from different places, more precisely, from different directions. This is due to the fact that the bird is flowing high in the air and at the same time moving quickly. Having made a series of current sounds over one place, the harrier flies a kilometer or further, there it screams again and flies again, sometimes in a different direction, etc. Thus, it can fly so far that it is no longer possible to see the bird through binoculars and its cries cease to be heard.

Handling the harshnep is very reminiscent of the sound of hooves on a densely packed road. These are three monotonous, muffled sounds “top-top-top” quickly repeating one after another with an accent on the last syllable. The sounds are repeated several times in a row, followed by a pause during which the bird flies from place to place.

common snipe(Gallinago gallinago) is widely distributed in Europe and northern parts of Asia from Ireland to the Commander Islands, south to the Pyrenees, the middle course of the Ili River and the southern tip of Lake Baikal. In the northernmost parts of the tundra, it does not nest, but in the lower reaches of the Lena it occurs at 72 ° north latitude, near Tiksi Bay.

Snipe wintering areas are located partly in Western Europe, in places in Africa, South Asia, and on the islands of Polynesia. In the Soviet Union, wintering snipe can be found in Transcaucasia and Turkmenistan.

The dorsal side of the common snipe is dark brown with rusty-red streaks and whitish-ocher longitudinal stripes. The crown is black-brown with a buffy longitudinal stripe. The ventral side is whitish with a buffy coating on the crop and chest and with dark streaks. The bird is about the size of a thrush (the average wing length is 13 cm *, in its 90-125 g). The beak is very long (6-7 cm), longer than that of other members of the genus. Tail feathers 6-9 pairs, usually 7 pairs. The middle tail tails are black with rufous tips, the rest with light tips.

In the choice of nesting sites, the snipe is unpretentious. These are swamps of various types and damp meadows, often places overgrown with sparse forests.

In the south of our country, this bird appears in the spring at the end of March; in the northern parts of the range, in the tundra, from mid-May, and a mass arrival is observed around May 25.

The spring games of snipes begin even before they arrive at the nesting sites. They happen in the following way. The current male suddenly breaks off with a peculiar quacking from the ground and quickly flies obliquely upwards. Having reached a height of several tens of meters, he suddenly rushes down, folding his wings a little and trembling with them; the tail at this time is open to such an extent that the apical parts of the helmsmen are free and do not touch each other. At the same time, the steering, cutting through the air and vibrating, make a characteristic rattling sound, reminiscent of the bleating of a lamb. Such a fall of 10-15 m lasts only 1-2 seconds, after which the bird rises again with a "chunk" to suddenly drop again soon. In addition, the male calls on the ground in spring, sitting on a stump or on a tree with a dry top. At the same time, he emits a loud “taku-taku” and a sharp “tech”. These cries sometimes he publishes and on the fly.

The nest of snipes is most often arranged on a hummock and is a flat depression lined with dry grass stalks. There are 4 eggs in a full clutch, sometimes there are 5 or 3. They are pear-shaped, olive or brownish-ocher in color with grayish-brown spots.

Contrary to old views, snipe must be recognized as monogamous birds: they form pairs for the summer. However, the male does not take any part in the construction of the nest and incubation of the eggs. This business is occupied by the female, who starts incubation after laying the third or last egg and incubates from 19 to 22 days. Having dried out, the chicks leave the nest, after 19-20 days they are already able to fly. Both members of the nesting pair stay with the brood, and in case of danger, the parents carry their downy chicks a short distance on the fly. An adult bird clamps the down jacket between the metatarsus of the legs and flies with it low above the ground.

The snipe, with the exception of the breeding season, is a silent bird leading a hidden, twilight lifestyle. He runs well even among the grass and, frightened, often escapes without resorting to flight. It takes off, uttering a kind of grunting, and flies, waddling from side to side. During rest hours during the day, he often stands, hiding near a bump and somewhat sinking his head into his shoulders. On the contrary, during feeding, the snipe is very lively - it runs from place to place, sometimes seizes openly sitting insects, and in addition, it constantly plunges its beak into the ground, often to the ground. Sometimes he wanders in shallow water, plunging his beak into the bottom. Snipe swallows small prey without removing its beak from mud or water. Its food is worms, slugs, beetles and their larvae, Diptera. Sometimes the snipe also pecks at the seeds of plants.

Great snipe(G. media) is slightly larger than the snipe, and its beak is somewhat shorter. The wing length is 12.5-13.5 cm. In terms of color and plumage pattern, the great snipe is very similar to the common snipe, but is somewhat lighter on top, and the spots on the underside of the body are slightly more developed and occupy a large area (for example, the abdomen). In contrast to the snipe 3, the extreme pairs of tail feathers in the great snipe are almost entirely white or only with weak dark speckles. In addition, white tips are well developed on the middle wing coverts (they are wider than those of snipes).

The great snipe is distributed from Denmark and Southern Finland to the east to the Yenisei. To the north in the tundra, it reaches 68 ° north latitude. In addition, great snipe breeds in Norway. Great snipe wintering grounds are located mainly in Southeast and South Africa.

The spring arrival of great snipes stretches from the end of March in Ukraine to mid-May near the Arctic Circle. The main habitats of great snipes during nesting time are damp meadow spaces with grassy swamps, turning into tussocks and willows. In general, great snipes choose drier nesting sites than snipe. As for the mating life of great snipes, there is no unanimity among naturalists who have studied this bird. Some consider this bird to be polygamous, but, according to others, great snipes form pairs and males take part in building a nest. However, only females incubate.

Great snipes lek on the ground, gathering for this with the onset of twilight in fairly significant groups. Birds excitedly run along the current and chirp animatedly, taking various poses. Males ruffle their feathers, stretch their necks and, pointing their beaks up, quickly snap them. They lower their wings, spread their tail like a fan and bend it over their back, then pull their heads into their shoulders, lowering their beak and pressing it to the plumage of their chest, etc. There are also fights between males.

The nest is a flat depression in the turf and contains 4 eggs. If there is a repeated laying, then from 3 or even 2 eggs.

forest snipe(G. megala) in essence, not a great snipe, but a snipe. It differs from the common snipe mainly in the structure of the tail. It has 10-12 (but sometimes 8 to 13) pairs of tail feathers. The three extreme pairs of helmsmen are very narrow and short, rather stiff. Their width is 2.5-3 mm. The fan of the outermost helmsman is sharply asymmetrical. The length of the wing of the forest snipe is 13-14 cm.

The forest snipe breeds in the south of Siberia from the ribbon forests of Kulunda in the west to Irkutsk in the east. In addition, it breeds in the south of Primorsky Krai. Its wintering grounds are located in Southeast Asia and on the islands of Indonesia.

The favorite habitats of the forest snipe are deciduous and light coniferous forests that do not form a continuous massif. The presence of clearings and spots of shrubs or young growth of aspen or birch can be considered mandatory. This bird avoids heavily moistened forests. It has been established that 70, and possibly more pairs of great snipes per 1 km2 live under favorable conditions.

According to recent observations by R. Naumov, males at the height of the lek alone and in groups of 5 individuals fly in large circles over the forest at high altitude. From time to time one of the birds in the group raises its wings, folding them behind its back, and for some time glides, slightly descending, then catches up with its fellows. Suddenly, one of the great snipes begins to fall obliquely towards the ground with ever increasing speed, wings folded and carried slightly back and tail turned. At the same time, at the beginning of the fall, a jerky and whistling noise is heard, rapidly increasing and turning into a continuous, slightly trembling whistle, somewhat reminiscent of the noise from a jet aircraft flying in the distance. Then the great snipe catches up with its group and another bird starts to fall, and so on.

The female starts nesting at the very height of the current. She lays 4 (in the second clutch there are also 3) eggs of two types of color - lighter and darker (Table 2). In mid-June, you can already see young birds in downy plumage everywhere. During the incubation period, males are kept separate from females and do not take part in incubating eggs, protecting nests and raising chicks. In the stomachs of forest great snipes, mainly earthworms are found.

Asian snipe(G. stenura) is very similar to common snipe and forest snipe. It has 12-13 pairs of tail feathers, of which only the middle 5 pairs are normally developed. The extreme tail feathers are sharply narrowed and shortened, do not reach the top of the tail by 1-2 cm. The width of the feathers of the extreme pair in the apical part is 1.5 mm, their fans are symmetrical. Wing length 12.5-13.5 cm.

Not so long ago, it was believed that the Asian snipe is characteristic only of the highlands of Central and Eastern Siberia. In fact, its range is much wider. It breeds from the Northern Urals (and, apparently, somewhat to the west of it - in Europe) to the headwaters of Anadyr, north to 72 ° north latitude, near Tiksi Bay. It winters mainly on the mainland of Southeast Asia and on the islands of Indonesia. During the current, the Asian snipe flies like an ordinary snipe, but at the moment of falling, sounds are heard that resemble the buzz of a diving aircraft. This bird has 4 eggs in a full clutch.

hermit snipe(G. solitaria) - a mountain bird, it is sometimes also called a mountain snipe. The goiter and chest are earthy-brown, with white transverse speckles. The outer web of the first primary feather has a white marble pattern, the outer webs of the two primaries following it are pure white. The back is brownish-brown with lighter transverse and white longitudinal streaks on the shoulder feathers. Sides with earthy-brown transverse stripes, belly pure white or, like sides, striped. According to the structure of the tail, the hermit snipe is close to the forest snipe, but the fan of its extreme helmsman is symmetrical. The number of tail feathers varies greatly - from 9 to 12 pairs. The length of the bird's wing is 15-17 cm, weight 140-160 g. This bird inhabits the Alpine belt of the mountains of Central Asia (except for Kopetdag), southern Siberia and the Far East.

The hermit snipe leads a semi-sedentary life, descending for the winter to the lower belt of those mountains in which it nests. It usually keeps alone, is very silent, even when taking off it does not always give a voice. Its current is somewhat reminiscent of the current of a forest snipe, but often it “sings” while sitting on the ground or a tree. Judging by the fact that the hermit snipe swims alone over a certain area of ​​the territory, one can think that this is a monogamous bird.

On small islands near New Zealand (the Auckland Islands and others) there are small and very peculiar snipes, approaching in their structure to woodcocks - oakland woodcocks(Coenocorhypha aucklandica). They nest in burrows dug in the ground by other birds, fly very little and are nocturnal. Apparently, when looking for food, they rake the soil with their paws - a habit that is completely uncharacteristic of waders. They lay only 2 eggs. Wing length 10-10.5 cm.

Woodcock(Scolopax rusticola) - a relatively large sandpiper with rather short legs and with plumage on the legs, covering the articulation of the lower leg with the metatarsus. The beak is long and strong. The dorsal side of this bird is rusty-brown with dark spots and longitudinal rows of gray-olive spots along the shoulder feathers. Nape with black-brown transverse stripes. The ventral side is whitish-buffy with brown-brown transverse stripes. Tail feathers 6 pairs. Wing length 18-20 cm, weight 270-305 g.

The nesting area of ​​this bird covers the forest zone of Eurasia from England and France east to Sakhalin and Hokkaido. In addition, the woodcock nests in the Caucasus, the Himalayas, the Azores, Canary and Madeira islands.

For the winter, woodcocks fly off to the countries of the Mediterranean, in a small number they winter already in England, in addition, their wintering grounds are located on the Sunda Islands and New Guinea. In some numbers they winter in the Soviet Union.

The woodcock is a forest bird. It inhabits dense mixed or deciduous forests with bushes, hollows and swamps along small springs and rivers.

Woodcock belongs to polygamous birds: pairs are usually formed for one night and are separated for a day.

Current flight of woodcocks - the famous "draught" - often begins even during the flight and sometimes continues even until mid-July. The draft occurs in the evening, after sunset, when dusk sets in and you can only hear the singing of the last robins and blackbirds. The male flies over the forest clearing a little higher than the tops of the trees, while emitting a peculiar croak and a special whistle - chicane. In warm weather with fine drizzle, the draft is more abundant. The craving lasts intermittently until dawn. In the north, for example, in the forest-tundra, where the nights are very short, the draft begins in bright sunlight. Sometimes females take part in flights over the forest, but they only whistle, do not croak.

As soon as the current male hears the response call of the female, he stops the flight, lands and starts courting the female on the ground.

The nest is built by the female without the participation of the male. It is placed most often under the protection of a bush, near a stump or tree trunk, and is masked by overhanging branches or a tuft of grass. Sometimes the nest is arranged in a felling among dense grass, or less often it is placed completely open. The building is very simple - it is a shallow hole lined with stems, dry leaves and dust.

The female lays 4 eggs (there may be 2 in the repeated laying) of a grayish or ocher-white color with reddish and grayish mottles (Table 2). After all laying is laid, incubation begins, which lasts from 20 to 24 days. The female sits on the eggs, almost without changing position, and comes down to feed only for a short time in the morning and in the evening twilight.

In case of danger, the female can transfer her chicks to another place. The bird either drags the chick on the run in its beak, or clamps it between the body and bent, raised metatarsus and flies with it.

The autumn movement of woodcocks begins shortly before the first frosts and the first snow falls. In the Leningrad region, for example, birds of passage are observed from mid-September to mid-October, in Bashkiria birds fly by until the end of October, in the Kharkov region late birds were caught at the end of November.

Woodcocks are hidden, silent birds. During the day, they sit out in various shelters - among deadwood and dense sagging. A case is known when a woodcock hid for a day in a hollow near the roots of a tree. Sometimes woodcocks sit on thick branches of trees or bushes. In the forest, the woodcock flies dexterously and quickly, tacking freely between trees, but prefers to move on wings only for short distances.

The main food of the woodcock is earthworms, as well as insects and their larvae, mainly beetles and Diptera larvae. The woodcock obtains food mainly by sounding, plunging its beak into the soil. Sometimes he also consumes plant foods (seeds of buttercup, milkweed, buckwheat, etc.), but in small quantities.

AT subfamily Godwit(Limosinae) include birds with long, straight or downcurved beaks. These are curlews, godwit and snipe-shaped godwit. They have long, sharp, but not very narrow wings, the tail is short and straight cut or slightly rounded. Legs long or medium length.

They nest in the northern hemisphere - the Holarctic, fly to Africa and Madagascar for the winter, also winter in South Asia and further along the islands to New Zealand and Australia. Found in winter and on the islands of Polynesia.

During nesting time, they can be seen mainly in various types of swamps, in wet floodplain meadows, in the steppes, occasionally even in forests, as well as in low-lying wet areas of the southern tundra.

There are 13 species in this subfamily.

The largest representative of the subfamily - Curlew(Numenius arquata): wing length 28-33 cm, weight 750-920 g. Females are slightly larger than males. The legs are long, the beak is long and thin, its apical part is strongly bent downwards. From a distance, the bird appears earthy grey, but its back and rump are white. From other types of curlews, in addition to size, it is well distinguished by a uniform longitudinally striated crown. Males and females do not differ in color. Unlike most other shorebirds, they also lack seasonal dimorphism.

Curlew nests in forest and steppe areas from Ireland and Norway to the east to Transbaikalia. To the north, it is distributed to Arkhangelsk and Salekhard, to the east only to the northern tip of Lake Baikal. The southern border of distribution runs along the Black and Aral Seas and Lake Zaysan.

The curlew winters partly already in England, but the bulk of the birds winters along the eastern coast of Africa, along the coast of South Asia and on the Greater Sunda Islands. In the USSR, the curlew winters in small numbers in Azerbaijan and eastern Turkmenistan. Birds keep here in rice fields or among saltworts on land. A certain number of birds, mostly immature individuals, remain for the duration of the summer in the wintering area and roam there in flocks. Some birds that remain single fly north, but linger on the road without starting nesting.

Arrival to the territory of the European part of the USSR takes place in April. After arrival, current games begin. The male rises obliquely on trembling wings, flies in circles, uttering loud trills all the time, which sometimes resemble the neighing of a foal. At times, a current bird lingers in one place, fluttering its wings, slides down and sometimes even turns over on its side.

Curlews usually nest in isolated pairs. Nests are arranged in damp meadows and swamps, and in Siberia this curlew is most numerous in the feather-grass-sandy steppe.

In a nest arranged in the form of a small hole, there are 4 olive-greenish eggs with brown spots. Eggs are laid at intervals of 1-3 days, and incubation lasts, depending on the weather, 26-28 days. Chicks hatch within 2-4 days. Both members of the pair incubate in turn.

Soon after the chicks hatch, the family migrates to more protected places. Then flocks are formed that feed in the steppe or in the meadow; in the middle of the day, the birds fly to the watering hole and then rest for a long time near the water, standing on one leg or lying on their belly.

Curlews partially fly out of our country already in July, but the main migration takes place in September.

Curlew is a cautious bird, takes off at the sight of a person long before his approach. At the same time, the bird emits a loud and melodic "kui". On the ground, he walks with leisurely steps, sometimes lingering for a long time in place. On the move, the torso is held almost horizontally, with the head drawn into the shoulders. The curlew can swim.

In the southern parts of Primorye and near the Karaginskaya Bay in Kamchatka, a very similar to the large Far Eastern Curlew(N.madagascariensis). It is well distinguished from the Curlew by the absence of white on the back of the back and rump. It winters on the islands between Asia and Australia, in Australia and Tasmania. It nests in vast open moss and rarely grassy or peat bogs.

Thin-billed, or small, curlew(N. tenuirostris) is similar to the large one, from which it differs in a slightly smaller size (wing length 24-27 cm), as well as a shorter and thinner beak. The area of ​​its nesting can presumably be attributed to the southern strip of the taiga of Western Siberia, where several nests were found (near Tara, for example). Non-breeding individuals are found in the steppe areas of Kazakhstan and in the so-called Volga-Ural sands. The wintering quarters of this curlew are located in the Mediterranean countries. The Little Curlew is an endangered or now extinct bird. In any case, its nests have not been found for several decades.

Curlew(N. phaeopus) differs well from the large one in that its black-brown crown is divided in the middle by a light longitudinal stripe and bordered by light eyebrows. The middle curlew is smaller than the large one, its wing length is 22.5-27 cm.

It breeds in the USSR in the forest-tundra and moss swamps from the Kola Peninsula and Latvia to Anadyr and Kamchatka, but with large gaps. Outside our country, the Curlew breeds in Western Europe and in the north-west of North America. It winters from the Mediterranean Sea and Southeast China and further south to Tasmania and New Zealand, to southern Africa and South America.

The smallest curlew of our country is called that curlew baby(N. minutus). It is really small - its wing length is 16.5-19 cm, the beak is shorter than that of other curlews, and is only slightly bent down. According to the color of the top of the head, this curlew is similar to the average. It has a very small range - along the crooked forests of the mountains of the Yana and Kolyma basins. Pretty common in places.

Tragic fate eskimo curlew(N. borealis). Previously, he inhabited the tundra of North America and wintered in the pampas of South. Sometimes flew to the Chukotka Peninsula and the Anadyr basin.

This bird was subjected to unlimited persecution on flights. Close-knit flocks of these gullible birds in relation to humans provided an excellent opportunity to exterminate them by the thousands on the arable lands of the Mississippi Valley. Within about three decades, the Eskimo curlews were exterminated. Of great importance in the catastrophic extinction of the Eskimo curlews was also the rapid change in landscapes at their wintering grounds, namely the plowing of pampas. It is interesting that the impetus for the accelerated development of agriculture in South America was the crop failure of 1891 in the Volga region, after which the export of grain from Russia was prohibited. Then the countries of Western Europe turned to another supplier, to the countries of South America. The last small flock of Eskimo Curlews was seen in the spring of 1926 in Nebraska.

The Eskimo curlew is very similar to the baby curlew, from which it differs in color details. Its wing length is 20-21.5 cm.

Godwit(genus Limosa, 4 species) have a long straight or slightly curved beak and long legs. The general tone of their plumage is red. The size is large.

At godwit(L. limosa) wing length 19-24 cm, weight 235-270 g. In flight, the contrast of the white base and black top of the tail is striking, the white stripe on the wings is clearly visible. The godwit is distributed in the USSR from the Baltic states to Altai and then from Vilyui to Anadyr, Kamchatka and Primorsky Krai (eastern godwit is smaller and darker than western godwit). It also inhabits Iceland and northern Central Europe. It winters locally in Africa, southern Asia and further south to Australia. The arrival of the Black-tailed Godwit to the nesting sites takes place in April - early May.

The main habitats of the great godwit are damp meadows near water, swamps overgrown with grass, and marshy grassy shores of lakes. In Kazakhstan, any depression in the steppe with lush grass serves as a nesting place for it.

Black-tailed Godwit breeds mostly colonially and starts nesting at the age of about one year. After arrival, the males play in the air, flying back and forth over the place chosen for nesting, swaying from side to side and striking strongly and abruptly alternately with their right and left wings, and emit a call similar to a “spindle”. However, in Western Siberia they believe that the great godwit shouts the words “avdot, avdot”, and they call this bird there an avdotka.

Simultaneously with the spring current, the male is engaged in the construction of "false nests". Sometimes the female also takes part in this. Then one of these nests is completed and serves for laying eggs. In a full clutch there are 2 eggs, which are incubated by both parents for 21-23 days.

During the first half of summer, the godwit feeds mainly in the steppe, where various terrestrial insects serve as food for it, mainly beetles, sometimes locusts, naked caterpillars of butterflies. Later, on reservoirs, these godwit eat larvae of swimmers and water lovers, water bugs, crustaceans, and pond snails. Seeds of various plants are sometimes found in their stomachs.

Autumn departure begins already at the end of July, but the majority of birds fly away in August - September.

Little Godwit(L. lapponica) is very similar to the big one, but differs well from it in the absence of a white stripe on the wings and in the fact that its tail is in white and dark stripes or divorces. The rufous color of the plumage is brighter and denser than that of the black-tailed godwit, and is distributed over the entire underside of the body, including the rump. In addition, the godwit is smaller: its wing length is 19-22 cm, weight 195-275 g. Females are somewhat larger than males and less brightly colored.

The little godwit inhabits the tundra and forest-tundra from the north of the Scandinavian Peninsula to Chukotka and the west of Alaska. Apparently, it does not have a continuous area of ​​​​distribution. The Bar-tailed Godwit winters partly already in the British Isles, but mainly in the eastern parts of Africa, on the islands of Indonesia, partly in Australia and New Zealand.

in the genus snipe godwit(Macroramphus) only 2 species. They are very similar to the godwit described earlier, but their beak in the terminal part is somewhat expanded, flattened, has a rough surface and a slightly pronounced median groove. With these features, the beak of snipe-like godwit resembles the beak of snipes.

Asian snipe godwit(M. semipalmatus) is so similar to the barwit that for a number of years specimens of this bird in the collections of some museums were mistaken for barwits. The wing length of the described bird is 17-18 cm.

This is a rare bird, perhaps even endangered. Its distribution area is limited to a small area in the southwest of Western Siberia. This godwit breeds in Mongolia in the area of ​​Lake Orog-Nur, apparently in Dauria, near Lake Khanka in Primorye and in the vicinity of Qiqihar Station in Northwestern China. On wintering grounds, this bird is found in South Asia and the Greater Sunda Islands.

This monogamous bird nests in damp meadows (in China - in dry ones). Birds nesting in Western Siberia have 2 eggs in a full clutch; birds nesting in China have -3 eggs. Fresh eggs were found in the nests in the first half of June.

American snipe godwit(M. griseus) smaller than the previous one and lighter. The back of his back is white, without streaks, the front side of the neck and the goiter are in brown spots, the wing length is 13.5 - 15 cm.

This bird inhabits mainly the tundras of North America. In the USSR, it is distributed from the lower reaches of the Indigirka to the Chukotka Peninsula. It is quite probable that the American snipe godwit in the USSR is gradually settling to the west. In any case, in 1956, one female, and, moreover, with a brood spot, was caught west of the Lena, in the lower reaches of the Anabar River. The wintering grounds of these birds are concentrated in America and occupy the territory from the southern parts of North America to the coastal parts of Brazil and the coasts of Peru.

Biological Encyclopedia

Scientific classification ... Wikipedia

Male in winter attire ... Wikipedia

Tules ... Wikipedia

Necktie ... Wikipedia

Small plover ... Wikipedia

Ussuri plover ... Wikipedia

The group includes birds of small and medium size, with relatively short legs and a short but strong pigeon-type beak. The anterior part of the upper jaw of such a beak is convex, and its main part is somewhat depressed, and the nostrils open in this depressed part of the beak. The wings of all plovers are long, sharp, strong. Typical representatives are plovers and plovers.

brown-winged plover/ Charadrius dominicus

Brown-winged plovers nesting in Asia winter in the coastal strip of East Africa, along the coasts of South and Southeast Asia, in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. In the east, the wintering area of ​​brown-winged plovers covers the Hawaiian and Marquesas Islands. To get to the Hawaiian Islands from the nearest parts of the land (from the Aleutian Islands), brown-winged plovers must fly 3300 km over the sea, and they have nowhere to sit down to rest. This is perhaps the largest non-stop flight of birds that is known. From the Hawaiian Islands to the Marquesas, another 3000 km. It has been calculated that if a brown-winged plover flies at a speed of 26 m / s (i.e., approximately 94 km / h) and makes 2 flaps of its wings every second, then in order to reach the Hawaiian Islands, it must fly without rest for 36 hours and make 252 000 flaps of wings non-stop! Brown-winged Plovers of North America fly straight east to Labrador, then turn south, many flying over the sea as far as the Bahamas and Antilles. This is not the destination of the journey. Further, brown-winged plovers fly to wintering grounds located in the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay. Back in spring, brown-winged plovers fly in a different way - along the mainland, through Central America to the north.

golden plover/ Charadrius apricarius

In addition, the golden plover inhabits Finland and the Scandinavian Peninsula, nests in the Baltic States, Denmark, the Netherlands, England and Iceland. In our country, the golden plover is a migratory bird, in England it is partially sedentary. Golden plovers spend winter partly already in England, but mainly in the Mediterranean countries (European and African). Individual individuals of the golden plover remain for the winter in Transcaucasia, penetrate in winter to the Persian Gulf and partly to the western shores of the Hindustan peninsula. During wintering, golden plovers keep in fields, dry and wet pastures, and in Algeria they are found in the same flocks with lapwings, spreading there south to the very desert. On the mud of the sea coast, they are much less common than tules. In February, golden plovers leave their wintering grounds, in early April they can be observed in the south, and in April - May they fly across the mainland. On nesting sites in the tundra, golden plovers appear at the earliest at the end of May, more often in the first half of June. During the spring migration, golden plovers stop for feeding in the steppe areas, and in the forest zone in moss swamps and burnt areas. For nesting, golden plovers choose moist hummocky areas of the tundra, sedge and moss bogs in river and lake valleys. In the forest-tundra, they nest in forest clearings. In the Baltic, their nesting habitats are raised bogs. Pairing takes place a few days after arrival. The mating flight begins immediately, accompanied by cries repeated throughout the day. The male golden plover flies up and describes circles in the air, evenly and rather slowly flapping its wings, even soaring for some time. Suddenly, he begins to rapidly flutter his wings, then descends to the female, and both birds start running side by side, sometimes running quite a considerable distance. If pairs nest close to each other, excited males scream and fly even harder, but hostile actions do not occur between them: often birds of different pairs feed in close proximity. To build a nest, golden plovers choose an elevated, drier place - a flat hummock, a half-rotted fin log, etc. In Iceland, the bird nests in the bushes, but more often still in an open place. The nest of a bird is a shallow hole with a very small litter, where 4 eggs are laid, as an exception, there are 5 eggs, sometimes 3 and very rarely 2. Egg sizes: 48-55 x 33-38 mm. Their color is light, yellowish brown, often with a dark red tint. The eggs are covered with dark brown and pale gray spots. Both members of the nesting pair incubate. Incubation lasts 27 days. Usually, golden plover chicks are born almost at the same time, but it happens that the last chick hatches from the egg 48 hours later than the first. In this case, the male takes the older chicks out of the nest before other chicks appear. At first, after the chicks hatch, golden plovers energetically and selflessly lead away from the nest. Then the old birds usually stay on large mounds, constantly emitting an alarming, somewhat mournful whistle, and the young ones feed within the limits of their parents' view. At the first alarm signal from their parents, they hide. In July, golden plovers begin to gradually gather in flocks and begin to fly away in mid-August. In the autumn migration, golden plovers in the agricultural zone stay mainly on fallow and winter fields, and in spring they can often be seen on winter and spring shoots. In the fields, golden plovers feed almost exclusively on click beetle larvae (wireworms). What the golden plovers eat in the tundra is not known, but in the raised bogs of Estonia they eat slow moving leaf beetles, wireworms, elephants and ground beetles. At the end of summer, these plovers also eat berries. Moulting in golden plovers proceeds approximately as in thules. However, birds nesting in the southern parts of the range (for example, in the Baltic States) start nesting before they have completed their prenuptial molting, in mixed winter-summer plumage. Golden plovers arrive in the tundra, having managed to completely molt into the breeding attire.

The golden plover is a typical representative of its family. This is a rather large, densely folded sandpiper with short legs and a strong short beak.

The upper part of the plumage of the bird is dark, with frequent golden streaks, the bottom is black; between the lower and upper parts is a bright white stripe. The underside of the wing and axillary feathers are white. This is what males look like in breeding attire, females are a little dimmer. Winter clothing of birds is less bright, without a black "apron" on the abdomen. Juveniles are similar in color to females.

FUNNY NAMES

The plover is a typical northern tundra bird, and is found from as far as Central Siberia. The main places of its summer residence and nesting are various types of tundra, from the south of the Arctic zone to the moss swamps of the middle zone. It is also found in the mountain tundra, upland meadows and wastelands.

Shrubs, tall grasses and other thickets of plover are avoided, preferring open, even, with a good view of the place. On migration, waders stay in fields, meadows and swamps, often feed in spring on sprouted winter crops, for which they were called before " sevka "or, in the Ukrainian manner," sivkami ". The funny appearance of the bird is reflected in other folk names: cockerel , seed , field grouse .

TREATMENT ON GROUND AND IN THE AIR

Golden plovers arrive at nesting sites in May, and in the far north - in June, when snow melts in the tundra. In Iceland, where the plover is common, it, like the rook in the middle lane, is called the herald of spring. Even on the migration in flocks of sandpipers, group display begins: males show off in front of females, bowing and showing a bright black belly. Couples gradually fight off the pack and occupy their own site, where courtship continues, only in the air. The male performs ritual flights around the female; it can hover, flutter its wings, or even hover briefly, like a very large hummingbird! Having fallen to the ground, the newlyweds run side by side, sometimes for quite a long time.

PARADISE IN THE HUT

Dancing dancing, but it's time to think about the children. Like most waders, shorebirds need swamps for nesting. The nest of these birds is a simple hole in the ground, carelessly lined with dry blades of grass. Here the female lays four olive or yellowish eggs with dense dark speckles. Both parents incubate them, regularly replacing each other. At the same time, they behave very carefully: if someone approaches the nest, they quietly leave it and give a voice only in the distance.

FOLLOW THE PARENTS

After about a month, puffballs appear. Like all birds with a brood type of development, plover chicks are sighted, hear perfectly, are covered with thick warm fluff and are quite capable of running after their parents a few hours after hatching. The baby, like mom and dad, feeds mainly on insects - small beetles, caterpillars, worms and various larvae (by the way, she loves caterpillars of the winter scoop - the worst pest of plants). At the end of summer and autumn, berries also appear on the menu. At first, the parents lead the brood behind them, and at the slightest danger they selflessly try to take the enemy away from the nest (plotters are very caring parents). Having become older, the chicks already feed quite independently under the supervision of adults, but for about a month the alarming whistle of the parents makes the children instantly hide.

TIME TO FLY!

At the age of 10-14 days, young plovers are already trying wings, and after 40-45 days they fly quite confidently. At this time, families begin to stray into larger flocks and roam - first within the nesting area, and then further, moving south. Pairs that are unlucky with nesting set off earlier, as early as July. The main span of tundra sandals takes place in September. Plovers unite in small flocks of 20-40 birds. Most often they fly at night, and during the day they stop in the fields, swamps and burned areas to feed and rest. Quite large flocks sometimes gather at the most “delicious” places, up to several hundred or even thousands of individuals. It is interesting that the birds, which are rather cautious in summer, behave much more trustingly on the migration and sometimes let people in by ten meters.

FROM ENGLAND TO ALGERIA

Wintering places are varied: golden plovers can be found in and in the countries of the Mediterranean, and North Africa, and the Middle East. At this time, they keep, of course, not in swamps (there are no swamps in Africa), but in fields, meadows and pastures. Interestingly, they were met in flocks along with lapwings almost in the desert! Unlike their closest relatives, golden plovers rarely feed on the muddy coasts of the seas in winter, preferring drier places.

Two subspecies of golden plover are known - northern and southern. Northern - quite common, and sometimes numerous. Southern, nesting in the Pskov, Tver, Novgorod regions, is very rare and is listed in many regional Red Books.

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF

Class: birds.
Order: Charadriiformes.
Family: plovers.
Genus: plovers.
Species: golden plover.
Latin name: Pluvialis apricaria.
Size: body length - 25-30 cm, wingspan - 67-76 cm.
Weight: 150-220 g.
Colour: yellow with black spots.
Life span of golden plover: up to 12 years.