The bullfinch eats insects or not. Brief information about the bullfinch. Why is the bullfinch called so

Red-breasted birds sit on tree branches and seem to be bright lanterns, bullfinches look especially beautiful against the background of white snow among rowan berries and viburnum, in the greenery of Christmas trees. Sometimes you want to compare them with magical winter roses or tangerines.

A flock of bullfinches sits motionless on an ash tree. It is frosty, so they fluffed their feathers a lot, a black head on a short neck was drawn into the body, merged with it and the bullfinches now seem fat, they have become like balls. Among the red-breasted there are birds with gray breasts, these are females, they are slightly larger than male bullfinches, but not so beautiful. You can say this about bullfinches as a joke: they have a matriarchy, women are in command.
Bullfinches are monogamous, their couples are for life.

We have common bullfinches. During the coldest months of winter, these secretive and cautious birds fly to people's homes in search of food. To see these more often beautiful birds, it is necessary to put feeders with sunflower seeds, pumpkins, melons, zucchini, watermelon. Bullfinches get used to people easily.
The wide and massive beak of bullfinches is not suitable for catching bugs, so these birds feed on various seeds of maple, spruce, ash, peck berries of mountain ash, bird cherry, viburnum, but completely discard the pulp. They also feed on tree buds and small nuts.

Bullfinches live in small flocks of 7-10 individuals in a strip of coniferous and mixed forests. They are calm and friendly birds, fights between them are rare, more often females quarrel, the whole flock flies to the squeak of a bird in trouble.
In spring, bullfinches fly not to distant lands, but to deciduous forests. Pairs build nests, carefully masking them, more often on high spruces (from 2 to 5 m); people are not shown.
In nests similar to a half-cup, the female lays 4 - 6 green-bluish eggs with reddish speckles. During the period of incubation, the male feeds the female, sometimes replaces her. After 2 weeks, chicks appear, after another 2 weeks they begin an independent life. Over the summer, bullfinches reproduce 2 offspring.

Bullfinches have a body temperature of +42, so they do not like heat.
And how the bullfinches sing! They can repeat any tune, they are called mockingbirds and parrots. AT pre-revolutionary Russia very young bullfinches (not yet with reddened breasts, dark brown color) were taken from the nests and taught music. Such MUSICAL BURNINGS were very expensive, they were bought by the rich of Europe. Now the secrets of learning to sing bullfinches are lost.

SNEGIRI - birds of the forest and not migratory, they are sedentary, in a temperate climate they winter where they grew up. But with a shortage of food, bullfinches migrate for 100 - 300 km. From the cold northern regions, they migrate closer to the south, to Transbaikalia, to Central Asia, to the Crimea, to the Amur basin.
The closest relatives of bullfinches are goldfinches, crossbills, finches, grosbeaks, and more distant ones are canaries. Bullfinches live in captivity for 10-12 years, less in nature. They are hunted by predators: owls, hawks - sparrowhawks, martens, wild cats.

In total, there are 9 TYPES of bullfinches in the WORLD, the family of finches, the order of passeriformes.
Various types of bullfinches inhabit not only the temperate zone of the planet, but also subtropical and even tropical. The bullfinch has the most extensive range: from west to east it stretches from Ireland and Britain to Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, from north to south - from Scandinavia to the Caucasus, Western Asia and the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula.

The orange bullfinch lives in the Himalayas - a very small species and needs to be protected. Red-headed and yellow-headed bullfinches live here.
The Azores bullfinch is endangered. Several hundred pairs of this species remain. Destruction threatens them due to the destruction of habitats, this is in the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean at the latitude of Gibraltar.

There are types of bullfinches with nondescript coloring of feathers, these are brown, white-cheeked, gray,
Ussuri - only the throat is red. The greatest diversity of these birds is in the Himalayas and Southeast Asia, the southernmost bullfinches in the Philippine Islands and Taiwan.

In Western Europe, bullfinches are often kept in homes as exotic birds and even other color forms of bullfinches are bred. Interspecific hybrids of bullfinches with linnets, with canaries, with goldfinches, with spruce crossbills and tits are known ...

* INTERESTING, what of migratory birds CUCKOOs are the first to fly away from us. They do not fly in packs, but alone.

Then the SWALLOWS fly away, and later the SWIFTS. Scientists - ornithologists track by the rings on their paws where the birds fly. Swallows fly to the Mediterranean coast, to Indonesia, to South America.

Our STARLINGS and THRUSHS like to live in France, Portugal, Italy, Spain. Starlings love the Mediterranean coast.
CRANES and DUCKS fly to Egypt, to the banks of the Nile. STORKS and NIGHTINGALES also winter in Africa.
lapwings, sparrows, woodcocks are seen in England.
There are many of our ducks in the Balkans.

SWANS have chosen Greece and Great Britain.
Accumulations of FINCHES, GESE are observed in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan.
SEAGULLS fly to Sea of ​​Azov and south of the Caspian Sea.
River gulls - to the Black and Mediterranean seas.

ROOKS fly first to the Black Sea, then to Georgia, towards Afghanistan, then to India, to the Nile Valley, and in Central Africa fly across the Sahara.
POLAR TERNs fly to Antarctica for wintering.

Bullfinches are a genus in which there are 9 species. The most famous and widespread of them is bullfinch. It lives throughout Europe, Siberia, is found in Kamchatka and is common in Japan. The bird gravitates towards coniferous forests, ignoring deciduous ones. Forests must be with dense undergrowth. But sometimes representatives of the species can also be found in forest-steppe zones, if there are coniferous plantations there. There are no bullfinches in the forest-tundra. But mountainous areas are not an obstacle for them, unless of course they are covered with forest.

The size of an ordinary bullfinch is small. The body length from the tip of the beak to the tip of the tail rarely reaches 16 cm. The pichuga weighs 32-35 grams. The wingspan is 25-30 cm. The body is dense, the beak is short and massive. The base has swelling. The legs have 3 toes, the claws are sharp.

The plumage has a different color in different parts of the body. The top of the head is black. Wings and tail are the same color. A black ring is observed at the base of the beak, while the beak itself is also black. Uppertail and undertail feathers are white. The back of the bird is grayish-blue. The abdomen of males is reddish-pink. In females, it is grayish-brown in color.

Reproduction and lifespan

The nesting area is the northern regions of Eurasia up to the forest-tundra, overgrown with coniferous forests. Of all the trees, the common bullfinch loves spruce the most. On the branches of this tree, a nest is usually built, rarely on pines or birches. The mating season begins in early April. During the summer, the female lays 2 clutches. The nest is made from thin dry branches and moss. The inside is lined with grass and feathers. The shape resembles a saucer with a diameter of 20 cm and a depth of 5 cm. It is usually located at a height of 3-5 meters from the ground.

In laying from 4 to 6 eggs. Their main background is bluish and diluted with brown spots. Incubation lasts 2 weeks. Only the female participates in it. The male provides her with food. Hatched chicks stay in the nest for an average of 20 days. Then they fledge, but for a couple of weeks their parents feed them. Only 2 months after birth, young people acquire complete independence. The color of plumage in young birds is somewhat different. The head, neck and breast are light brown in color. AT wild nature bullfinch can live 15 years. But this maximum term. The average life expectancy is 5-6 years.

Behavior and nutrition

This species with the onset of winter leaves the nesting areas and rushes to the south. Birds fly to the northern regions of China, travel through Central Asia. They can be seen in the Crimea and the Mediterranean. But those bullfinches that live in the middle zone of Eurasia do not migrate. They are for the whole winter period remain in their nesting sites. But travel lovers can be seen in cities and towns. countryside. They keep in flocks and only in the mating season are divided into pairs. In mid-March, birds rush to the north. This is dictated by the instinct of reproduction.

A small bird feeds on a wide variety of seeds, eats buds, and in berries it loves bones very much, but usually ignores the pulp. Also uses leaves, shoots, does not disdain flowers. Insects make up a tiny fraction of the diet. By nature, the bullfinch is a calm, even phlegmatic bird. Females are more energetic than males. It is they who are always the instigators of quarrels. In flocks, it is the weaker sex that dominates, and the stronger half often gives way to the most appetizing and delicious plant foods, so as not to provoke conflicts.

V. Tretyakov, biologist

For fans of the cage keeping of birds, the bullfinch has been considered one of the best pets since time immemorial. This unpretentious, calm and trusting handsome man belongs to those species of birds that perceive life in a cage as a continuation of their free existence, and not as a captivity full of oppression and stress. The indoor bullfinch sees his well-wishers in people. And if our lovers preferred to breed bullfinches on their own, and not buy them from birders, then the bullfinch would eventually take its rightful place among such domesticated birds as parrots and canaries.

common bullfinch ( Pyrrhula pyrrhula) is familiar to many people since childhood. These elegant birds, flying during the autumn-winter migrations to cities and towns, attract the attention of any observant person. Usually they feed on the branches of fruit-bearing mountain ash, ash and maple trees, whistling in low, as if half-awake, voices, enlivening and decorating with their presence winter city squares and parks. In summer, during the nesting period, on the contrary, they behave secretly. They nest on a vast territory of taiga, mixed and broad-leaved forests of Eurasia, as well as in the Carpathians, the Caucasus, in the steppe forests of Kazakhstan, Asia Minor, northwestern Iran, China and the Korean Peninsula. Eight or nine subspecies of the common bullfinch are distributed from the Azores and British Isles in the west to Kamchatka, Sakhalin, the Kuril and Japanese Islands in the east. Moreover, the island subspecies are almost a third smaller in size than the Eastern European bullfinch familiar to us. Some ornithologists classify them as a separate species.

The Eastern European bullfinch weighs 32-34 grams. The plumage is soft, long and dense. The body length is 15-19 centimeters, of which 6.8-7.2 centimeters fall on the tail. The beak is short and thick, black. The top of the head and plumage around the beak, the wings and tail are black with a metallic sheen, the transverse stripe on the wing, the rump and undertail are white. The male has a bluish-gray back, and the lower part of the body is bright red, with a slight brick tint, the female has a brownish-gray back, the lower part of the body is brownish-gray with a slight pinkish tint. The red and gray colors of the Kamchatka bullfinch are noticeably paler than those of the Eastern European, while in the Caucasian they, on the contrary, are deeper. The Kamchatka subspecies is larger than the Eastern European one, and the Caucasian subspecies is a little smaller, with a more swollen and massive beak. Bullfinches from the Caucasus eat a large amount of sea buckthorn and mistletoe seeds in winter: this is what a strong beak is needed for.

The Ussuri and Kuril subspecies are the smallest. These birds weigh 25-28 grams.

Closely related to the common bullfinch, the gray bullfinch (Pyrrhula cineracea) breeds in the south and east of Siberia and the Far East, and migrates to the Urals in winter. In males, the lower part of the body, like the back, is gray. The female is similar in color to the female of the common bullfinch, but the latter has one red feather among the secondary flight feathers of each wing. The white stripe on the wing of the gray bullfinch is grayish. During winter migrations, these birds occasionally fly into the Moscow region.

Once, on the third Sunday of August, at the Moscow Bird Market, I noticed a couple of some strange birds in a row of canaries. And only coming closer, I realized that these were young bullfinch males! Even more dull and inconspicuous than females, with a distinct brownish-brown plumage, without a black "cap" on the head. Separate red feathers were visible on the chest. Feather needles of the future "hat" made their way on the forehead. Bullfinches of the "adult" appearance familiar to us will appear on the market in September.

Every year in the last days of September, focusing on sonorous melancholic whistles, I meet in the park of the city of Mytishchi and in the national park Losiny Ostrov the very first, so far small, flocks of our lovely winter guests. In summer, they are difficult to see among the foliage in the crowns of trees. The birds will become clearly visible after the leaf fall, in the October bad weather, and in winter they will catch your eye every now and then until they leave the thawed suburban groves and go to their native coniferous forests. I met the last bullfinches in the park until mid-May.

The Russian folk name "bullfinch" (and the Belarusian "snyagur") suggests that this bird becomes noticeable after the snow falls. Other names - "gil", "gil" (Polish) and "khil" (Czech) - imitate the call sign of the bullfinch's whistle, the beautiful "fu! fu! khii ..." But the singing of these birds is unattractive, unharmonious and incoherent, consists of short whistles alternating with squeaks, hisses and low shouts. However, it can not be called unpleasant. Females also sing, but their singing is shorter and poorer. Some bullfinches include the whistling sounds of songs of other birds, such as thrushes, in their repertoire. The tendency to onomatopoeia is especially pronounced in a young bullfinch living in a cage, with which its owner deals a lot, often and purposefully.

In the 19th century, Russian and European bird lovers paid great attention to the art of teaching bullfinches to sing. The masters of this business took fledgling chicks from the nests and, feeding them to full independence, immediately began to work with them. young
bullfinches were taught to imitate the singing of canaries, the sounds of special pipes and pipes, and even the melodic human whistle. Trained birds were valued very dearly. Unfortunately, these traditions have been lost, and today bullfinches are kept only as decorative birds with a accommodating character and a quiet funny song.

In good conditions, bullfinches live in cages for ten years, which is much longer than their lifespan in nature. A newly caught bullfinch is afraid of a person and beats strongly in a cage. Therefore, it has to be covered with a light, light-colored cloth so that the bird can feed calmly. After seven days, the newcomer gets used to the situation and the fabric can be removed. As a rule, it is these bullfinches that go on sale. If the owner, caring for his pet and communicating with him, takes the bullfinch in his hands in exceptional cases and does not make sudden movements, the bird can be tamed, and eventually taught to sit on the finger and palm, fly around the room and return to the cage. It is necessary to deal with the bird at a time when she is a little hungry and is waiting to be fed.

With a cellular content, calm, phlegmatic bullfinches are prone to obesity, so they need a spacious room. I kept my pair of bullfinches in a cage 60 cm long, 30 cm wide and 50 cm high. The female is very "grumpy". At first, she often with a creaking hiss, widely opening her beak, attacks the male, driving him away from the feeder. The male cannot fight back and always flies away. This continues until the birds get used to each other. It is best to keep the acquired bullfinches at first (in autumn and winter) in separate cages, standing nearby, and in March release the female to the "territory" of the male.

The male bullfinch, which I bought in the market, after 17 days began to take seeds from my palm. He lived in his cage, standing near the desk. In the summer I settled it on the balcony. After 6 days, the bird was so wild that it seemed like it had just been caught...

Market traders feed bullfinches only with sunflower seeds, but this food cannot be considered the main one. Indoor bullfinches with an appetite eat grain mixture for canaries, which is sold in pet stores and consists of rapeseed, millet, hemp, linseed and white canary seed. In food, the bullfinch is unpretentious, unlike its relatives - goldfinch, siskin, linnet and tap dance, which are able to eat only pre-crushed sunflower and hemp seeds, and from a portion of the canary grain mixture they can peck out only a small part of the grains, "rejecting" the rest at first sight. The bullfinch "husks" lionfish of ash and Tatar maple, oatmeal and oats. It can also be fed with seeds of quinoa and horse sorrel, grated carrots and slices of fresh ripe apples, green lice and tradescantia, linden, willow and cherry buds (twigs are woven into the cage lattice), finely chopped boiled egg. In a separate bowl, there should always be clean sand and crushed eggshells, and clean water in a drinking bowl and bathing bowl. And, of course, do not forget about the ripe berries of mountain ash (bullfinches eat out only seeds from them, and discard the peel and pulp).

Russian bird lovers received offspring from bullfinches both in aviaries (indoor and outdoor) and in cages, optimal dimensions which are 60-70 x 50-60 x 50-60 centimeters. In order for birds to breed successfully, they must be healthy. In addition, they need to be properly maintained and fed, and also not to violate the natural length of daylight hours. All birds are very sensitive to changes in daylight hours throughout the year. It is the reduction of daylight hours by winter and its increase in spring that encourage birds to nest again. Therefore, it is best to breed bullfinches in a glassed-in loggia or in a room without curtains, in a cage located near the wall near the window (bullfinches do not like straight lines). sun rays and heat). Ideally, the owner should appear in the room only for brief observations and pet care. Even before the start of breeding, birds should be taught to feed at the same time, in the morning and afternoon. A cage with nesting bullfinches should be cleaned with the utmost care. Critical periods when cleaning should be done as infrequently as possible are laying and incubation of eggs and the first week of life of chicks. At dusk during the nesting period, any disturbance of birds (especially at the beginning of incubation), even a simple approach to the nest, is undesirable.

If it is not possible to breed birds in non-residential premises, a cage with bullfinches is placed on the windowsill (well, if it is wide enough), half covering it with plywood or cardboard from above and from the side of the window. A curtain separates the birds from the room. During autumn, winter and spring, bullfinches will perfectly get used to the owner and to the care regimen. If birds are purchased in January-March, then at first they will not breed, they will nest only in the next season.

In April, germinated wheat and millet, egg feed with the addition of calcium glycerophosphate, willow and linden branches with buds are introduced into the diet of birds. An ordinary canary nest is firmly fixed on a perch (a branch with a fork) in the quietest corner of the cage. Indoor bullfinches do not line this nesting base with anything, ignoring the blades of grass offered to them, and, as a rule, do not dare to lay eggs in a canary "basket" for a long time. At first they are worried, but still they are engaged in mating games. Finally, nature takes its toll, and in June the first egg appears. In aviaries, such difficulties usually do not arise.

The mating ritual of bullfinches is interesting. The male makes funny bows to the female, feeds her and emits characteristic moaning whistles. The female with fluttering wings stands in front of the male like a chick begging for food.

In clutch there are usually from 3 to 7 eggs, greenish, with brown speckles. The chicks are reddish-crimson, with a thick dark downy cover. The incubation of the clutch lasts 14 days, and on the 15-16th day after hatching, the chicks begin to leave the nest. After two weeks they will become independent and should be transplanted. At this time, the male continues to lek, and eggs of the second clutch may appear in the nest.

In broods of bullfinches, there are noticeably more males than females. During the period of feeding chicks, bullfinches are given egg food made from grated boiled chicken eggs and carrots and sprinkled with crumbs of white cracker. On the 9th day, flour worms (10-15 each), greens, a little thick milk millet porridge are added to the diet. During the molting period, the chicks need rowan, apples and greens.

The only serious (and most unpleasant) problem for an amateur can be the purchase of sick birds that have contracted some infectious disease in the wild and are doomed to death. You should buy only the most active and mobile bullfinches with plumage tightly pressed to the body and wingtips gathered at the waist. Such a bird is constantly looking around, its head is raised. An unhealthy bullfinch is inactive, looks too fluffy and rounded, his head is drawn into his shoulders, the tips of the wings diverge to the sides, sometimes he falls into a nap. If possible, you need to catch the bird yourself and hold it in your hand. They choose a bullfinch with a dense, tight to the touch body, which flutters strongly in the palm of its hand, emits an alarming cry. Light, bony (with a sharp pectoral keel), as if drowned in dense plumage, the body is a sign of exhaustion and possible illness. Such a bird has little resistance to capture and is most likely doomed. In general, the bullfinch is one of the most unpretentious and accommodating indoor birds.

In winter, most of us notice in the city the appearance of beautiful red-chested birds - bullfinches. Basically, they are clearly visible on leafless tree branches and snowy ground. Appearance a large number bullfinches is due to the lack of enough food in forest areas to survive, which leads them to urban areas, where people, hearing their sonorous singing, feed them seeds.

Bullfinch in May

By their nature, bullfinches are trusting and not whimsical, so they feel comfortable among people. If you wish, you can acquire such a bird to keep it on a balcony or in a personal plot, having previously tamed or caught it on the street. Keeping, at first glance, freedom-loving birds, will not at all affect their condition as a whole. But you should not go against nature and specifically catch bullfinches for yourself, it is better to feed them sometimes in a hungry winter.

Appearance

The size of the bullfinch is slightly larger than the sparrow. The feather color of birds is quite bright and memorable:

• the head, except for the cheeks, has a black color;
• the tail and wings are also covered with black feathers;
• the undertail with the loin is white;
• cheeks, lower neck, abdomen and sides are painted in bright red. Males have a distinctive gray color on the back, neck and nape.

Depending on the species and region of habitat, bullfinches have slight differences in color. The shoulders on the back of the neck, in the female, may have gray plumage, while the back is painted brown. Sometimes in females, a change in red plumage to gray-brown is observed.

Bullfinch on a branch

Chicks, regardless of gender, are painted in an ocher-brownish color, without highlighting individual parts of the body, as in adult birds.

habitats

Bullfinches are distributed throughout Europe, except for the southern and upper parts of Asia. According to the altitude level of settlement, they are not picky and calmly make nests in low-lying areas and mountainous areas, allocating for themselves places with a sufficient number of trees and forests. These birds do not settle in places with no or few trees. The northern part of the forest is rarely inhabited by bullfinches due to cold winters.

Bullfinches are chosen to populate places with a clean environment, so in winter they can be admired by residents of cities with a minimum or complete absence of industry. Birds feel quite comfortable next to people, so they calmly settle in the city near residential buildings.

The summer forest does not allow you to see the birds, even despite their distinctive color. In winter, the trees empty of foliage and the white background of snow reveals the beauty of their plumage.

Birds live in nests that build on trees (spruces), at a height of no more than 5 meters. They build nests themselves from improvised natural material: twigs, leaves, dry grass and live in them, leaving only for feeding.

To create nests and lay eggs, bullfinches choose spruces located near water bodies. The general behavior of birds is calm and poorly oriented in a new area, which allows both a person and a domestic cat to catch even an adult.

It is worth noting that in a region with severe winters, bullfinches can be overlooked. Although they are frost-hardy, the difficulty of wintering in open nests and the reduction in food lead to migration to warmer regions. Unlike migratory birds, bullfinches do not fly south and are well suited to the change of seasons, subject to mild winters.

What does a bullfinch eat in summer

In summer, bullfinches spend most of their time in fields and meadows. A sufficient amount of meadow grass seeds - provides a full summer. In winter, the fallen seeds are hidden under a layer of snow and it is difficult for the birds to feed themselves, forcing them to fly to places populated by people for the winter.

In addition to a sufficient number of seeds donated by nature, bullfinches love orchards and bushes with berries. Juicy berries in summer or drying up in autumn, birds peck regardless of their place of growth.

Fields sown with sunflowers attract, perhaps, all birds with juicy and satisfying seeds. Unlike other birds, bullfinches very rarely catch midges and other seasonal insects as food, but they do not refuse completely.

What does a bullfinch eat in winter

In winter, most often bullfinches can be seen on the branches of mountain ash and viburnum. Red bright berries not only successfully emphasize the red chest of birds, mountain ash is also their favorite delicacy.

Remaining seeds on maple, ash, alder trees support birds until suitable seeds appear on meadow grasses or buds on trees. In the parks, bullfinches do not refuse to visit the feeders built by people, they only linger in them in the presence of sunflower and pumpkin seeds, oats and millet.

All these delicacies keep bullfinches until the onset of spring, which gives a lot of leafy buds. But often the winter is hungry and because of the small amount of food, which has a strong impact on the reduction of the bird population.

Bullfinch with tree seed.

What feeds the bullfinch chicks

In the first half of May, bullfinch females lay eggs, from which chicks appear after a few weeks. The first few weeks, the chicks are next to the female on full feeding by her. The next 10-15 days, the chicks learn to fly and get their own food. For young individuals, midges, small spiders and bugs must be present in the diet, in addition, females begin to accustom them to collecting seeds from grasses.

These cute birds with bright plumage have always been of interest to ornithologists and all bird lovers. True, you can admire their bright color only in winter, and in summer it is difficult to distinguish them from other small songbirds, because they become less bright and immerse themselves in caring for their offspring.

Bullfinch: description, size, color

Although these birds are considered forest birds, many citizens have seen them in the metropolis. The bullfinch is a bird belonging to a special genus of songbirds from the finches family. The bird is small, slightly larger than a sparrow. Its weight does not exceed thirty grams. The physique of the bullfinch is strong and rather dense. The body length is on average eighteen centimeters.

The bullfinch is a widespread and very attractive bird. Photos of these elegant birds are often decorated with calendars, various New Year's cards, magazines, as well as pages of publications for ornithologists. The bullfinch genus is distinguished by sexual dimorphism in the color of birds. Their brightest part is the breast: in females it is painted in pink-gray color, and in males it is carmine-red. This is a characteristic feature of small birds.

The rest of the plumage is identical in color. The head of the bullfinch is adorned with a black cap, which smoothly turns into a small black spot on the chin. The back of the bird is painted bluish-gray. The wings are quite bright: a classic combination of black and white, alternating with stripes along the entire surface of the wing. Uppertail and undertail are white. The bullfinch's beak is thick and wide, painted black.

The legs of the bird are strong and strong, three-toed with small, but very tenacious and sharp black claws. Feathers on the neck, sides, belly and cheeks are painted in gray-brown tones. The color of the plumage of young bullfinches and chicks differs: it is much more modest, much closer to the color of the female than the male.

Spreading

It is believed that bullfinches are forest birds. The predominant habitat of the bullfinch is the mixed and coniferous forests of Asia and Europe from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Nevertheless, bullfinches are often found in city parks and in the courtyards of residential buildings, they are guests in small feeders outside the windows of multi-storey buildings, at playgrounds. But this does not mean at all that bullfinches can be attributed to city dwellers. It's just that these red-breasted birds fly to the city to eat and eat.

Song

In addition to the bright color, the bullfinch has one more hallmark- with your voice, or rather with a song. It is difficult to confuse it with the singing of another bird. It is quite difficult to describe the sounds made by this bird in words. The most appropriate comparison is a whistle or a metallic creak. It’s even hard to understand right away that these sounds are made by a bird, the bullfinch’s voice is so unique and his song is unusual.

Usually such trills are heard during the mating season. Surprisingly, both males and females perform them.

Lifestyle

In winter, bullfinches quite often fly to cities when there is not enough food in the forest. It is difficult to see bullfinches in summer, but on frosty winter days they fluff their feathers, turning into bright balls fluttering from branch to branch. Against the background of white snow on the branches of trees, bullfinches look especially elegant and spectacular. This bird is a symbol of frost, snow, Have a good mood and winter holidays.

Ornithologists note the special relationship of birds to mountain ash. They fly up to her in a small flock. Bullfinches on mountain ash sit on branches, and males, like true gentlemen, provide their ladies with the opportunity to choose the most delicious and juicy bunches. Bullfinches stay on mountain ash for only a few minutes, until they are satisfied with the seeds in the berries, since they do not consume juicy pulp. After that, the flock takes off, lightly shaking off the snow from the tree.

Behavior

Ornithologists observe the behavior of these beautiful birds during migrations, when they fly south - to Transbaikalia, the Amur basin, the Crimea, Central Asia and North Africa. The description of bullfinches in different publications characterizes them as calm, unhurried and balanced birds. But at the same time they are quite circumspect and accurate. In the presence of a person, bullfinches are not very active and most often behave very wary, especially for females.

In a flock of bullfinches, there are almost never open confrontations and disagreements. Red-breasted birds live quite amicably and peacefully. Females rarely show aggression. At the same time, they make characteristic sounds with their beak and quickly rotate their heads. But this happens extremely rarely and only when there is an objective reason.

If a person decides to feed the birds and leaves them a treat, then they will not refuse the treat and refresh themselves with pleasure.

Bullfinch at home

The description of a bullfinch living at home is not very common. If you decide to have such pet, you need to know that this bird should be kept in a cool place so that it feels comfortable, since the bullfinch does not tolerate high temperatures.

In response to care and good conditions content, the bullfinch quickly gets used to the owner and becomes almost tame. He can even learn simple melodies and copy some sounds.

reproduction

An interesting description of the bullfinch in the mating season. The voice of bullfinch males becomes more melodic, it sounds much more pleasant than usual. They dedicate their trills to their lovely chosen ones, and they answer with a quiet, muffled whistle.

Pairs in flocks are formed in March. In any family of these bright birds, matriarchy reigns, the main role here lies with the females.

Nest building

For the construction of nests, bullfinches choose spruce forests. In the specialized literature one can often find their description. The bullfinch builds a nest quite high - at least two meters from the ground and as far as possible from the trunk. This is a special ritual in the life of birds. Great attention is paid to nest weaving, bullfinches collect dry grass and thin twigs with their beaks and paws, skillfully weaving them together. The bottom of the nest is lined with dry leaves, animal hair, and lichen.

Offspring

In early May, the female lays four to six blue eggs. Their entire surface is covered with brown specks. The offspring are incubated by the female for fifteen days. Two weeks later, small and very hungry chicks appear in the nest. To stifle their constant appetite, parents work constantly. They bring seeds, berries and other food to the nest. After another half a month, the chicks learn to fly and soon get out of the nest. However, parents do not stop feeding their babies. Only having reached the age of one month, young bullfinches are ready for independent life.

Nutrition

It is probably not difficult to guess what the bullfinch eats. The basis of its diet throughout the year is vegetable food, although sometimes the bird eats small insects. Much more often bullfinches eat seeds of deciduous and coniferous trees. To do this, they use their small but very strong beak, which has a special shape.

What does the bullfinch eat in the spring and summer? Kidneys, young shoots of plants and the first greens are added to the diet. In summer, bullfinches enjoy flowers. Do not mind pampering yourself with berries, especially mountain ash and bird cherry.

Lifespan

Under natural conditions, bullfinches can live up to fifteen years, although quite often birds do not live to this age. They are too vulnerable to temperature, so they die in snowy and frosty winters with a lack of food. At home, with proper care, such a period is quite real.