Personal life of the nightingale

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Nightingale's personal lifeNightingales arrive in the Moscow region in early May, usually at night. Immediately upon arrival, males occupy nesting sites, often the same as in previous years.

I had to observe one pair of nightingales nesting in the same place for three years, and each time the nests were very close to one another. The females in this pair could be different, but that the head of the family was the same - I'm quite sure. This nightingale differed from all the others known to me by its exceptional credulity, as well as special habits. For example, he liked to sing in plain sight, sitting on a high stump or top of a bush.

The very height of nightingale singing occurs in mid-May. when the leaves unfold on the bushes. The singing bird sits motionless, in the thicket of the branches. As you know, the song of a nightingale consists of several "ruts for the nightingales near Moscow there are 5-7, and in certain combinations they make up" stanzas ". Singers differ in the order of the knees in the stanzas, and the special masters are old, experienced nightingales older than three years old, until the same age they are just learning to sing.

It is often thought that a singing nightingale has a beak constantly wide open. In fact, completely, to failure, it opens only on one knee, which consists of several lingering whistles "fiu-fiu-fiu-fiu ...". During the execution of the other knees, the beak is only slightly open, but the neck trembles sharply, especially during the rolling rumble and clicking.

But back to the family concerns of the nightingales. Nightingales are inhabitants of the lower layer of the forest, and they also arrange a nest on the ground. This is a deep basket of leaves, stems, roots, twigs, with a massive base of dry leaves - so as not to get wet from below. Building a nest is not an easy task, and it takes at least 5-6 days. This bird lays one per day, in the early morning. Usually there are five of them, dark brown in color, completely invisible against the background of dry foliage.

The male does not take part in the incubation of eggs, as well as in the construction of the nest, but jealously guards the female sitting on the nest and her possessions.

I am often asked how I distinguish between birds in pairs. Of course, at first glance, they are very similar. But if you look closely, you easily begin to recognize the birds "by sight", first of all, of course, by their habits, and by their appearance too. In one pair, for example, the male may be larger than the female, in the other, it may be inferior to her in size, or, say, have a well-visible light eyebrow above the eye. But the only reliable distinguishing feature is the pure white feather on the fold of the wing in all adult males.

A couple of weeks after the start of incubation, chicks begin to hatch. At birth, they weigh a little more than two grams - completely helpless and only slightly covered with gray fluff. The first feathers appear only on the eighth day of life. Since that time, nightingales pay a lot of attention to the toilet: they comb the feathers with their beak, and on their heads with their claws. Thus, they help the feathers develop by releasing them from the tubes.

Nightingale's personal lifeWith the advent of heirs, the head of the family is not up to songs. The working day of nightingales, filled with incessant searches for food, begins at dawn and ends with the onset of darkness, lasting 18-19 hours. For the first three days, the female very rarely leaves the nest, warming up the still weak chicks, and all the burden of worrying about food falls on the shoulders of the male. Flying up to the nest with food, he either transfers it to the female, or she moves away, and together they distribute food between the chicks.

Interestingly, in the first days after hatching of the chicks, the parents are extremely careful to approach the nest - they sink to the ground a few meters before it and then go on foot.But after a few days they boldly fly up to the nest, descend on it from the flight and just as quickly, right from the nest, soar up.

The female usually spends the night on chicks, and the male settles down somewhere nearby, in the bushes. It happens, however, that the male sits on the nest, for example, in heavy rain, when the birds try to cover the chicks with their bodies.

Nightingales leave the nest at the age of 11-12 days. This is an extremely alarming moment for the parents, they are very worried and constantly shout "and ... and ... and ...", trying to get the chicks together. If no one bothers the brood, it stays near the nest for about a week, but the chicks do not return to the nest. Parents feed them, looking for them by voice. At this time, the chicks still do not know how to fly (photo 7), but this is a completely natural period in their life, and in no case should such fledglings be picked up in the forest. You will do them a disservice: trying to feed the chicks without proper experience is completely hopeless, and it is much wiser to leave this care to legitimate parents.

On the twentieth day of their lives, the chicks begin to fly and try to find food themselves. Nevertheless, their parents take care of them for about two more weeks, and only after that do the young enter an independent life.

M. Steinbach

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