Squad of diurnal birds of prey message. Bird class - birds of prey

Order Diurnal Predators

Most predators feed on vertebrates. Their claws are long, sharp, hook-shaped - they grab and kill their prey with them. The beak is short, strong, its tip is hooked down - with it predators tear their prey to pieces. The flight of some is very fast, so that they can catch birds or fast-running animals on the fly. Others have a gliding flight - these birds fly in circles at a height, looking for prey below. They live in pairs, which in large diurnal predators persist for life. They nest in trees or rocks. This nesting birds.

Drawing: Birds of prey - black kite, kestrel, golden eagle, bearded eagle, steppe eagle, splyushka owl, common owl, fish owl

Various falcons are predators of small and medium size, characterized by fast flight. The most common among them, the kestrel preys on animals that are on the surface of the soil - mouse-like rodents, large insects. For humans, this is of great practical importance.

The black kite, which appears in fairy tales as the personification of evil, actually feeds only on sedentary animals - frogs, lizards basking in the sun, and sleeping fish. He looks out for his prey, flying at a height in large circles. Various eagles are large predators capable of grabbing fairly large animals: ducks, black grouse, hares, small ungulates.

The largest of the predators that live in our country are vultures. They feed on carrion, which they look out for from a great height. Their claws are weak (after all, the prey is already dead). But the beak is very powerful - they can break the skin even of large ungulates.

Vultures are characterized by a heavy body, clumsy movements on the ground, walk awkwardly, but still can take quick steps, driving away a competitor from the fall. The wings are wide, adapted for long soaring flight. The wingspan reaches 2.5 m. Vultures hover for hours over treeless mountainous and flat terrain and look out for prey from a great height. Seeing a motionless carcass, the predator descends to it with great speed. Vultures are easily recognizable by the slightly feathered front of the head and neck.

Many diurnal predators are useful to humans in agriculture, as they exterminate mouse-like rodents and harmful insects. Others, destroying first of all sick and old animals, thereby contribute to the improvement of their composition. Many of them are very rare and listed in the Red Book.

Owl Squad

Huge eyes with wide-opening pupils are able to see small objects in the weakest night lighting, sensitive hearing picks up minor rustles. Unlike diurnal birds of prey, all owls have soft and loose plumage, which allows them to fly silently. In the quiet of the night, silent flight helps owls to listen well and suddenly appear above the victim. During the day, owls are rarely seen: they hide in secluded places.

Small owls often feed on mouse-like rodents or large nocturnal insects. Large owls have become rare. Fish owl is listed in the Red Book.

Most often in human settlements there is an ordinary barn owl, common on all continents of the world. Its body is 34 cm long. An owl is characterized by a heart-shaped facial disc. Her nocturnal hoarse cry resembles grunting and hissing. It feeds on rodents, but also preys on bats, sparrows, amphibians and large insects.

The common eagle owl is the largest owl, distributed in our country everywhere, except for the tundra. He arranges nests on the ground and on the rocks. It usually feeds on mouse-like rodents, but also preys on hares and hedgehogs.

http://monax.ru/order/ - abstracts to order (more than 2300 authors in 450 cities of the CIS).5

Diurnal Predators

About 270 species belong to this order. These are birds of medium and large size. In one of the largest species - the American condor, the wing is about 115 cm long, the wingspan is up to 275 cm. The smallest birds of prey - the so-called pygmy falcons - have a 9-10 cm long wing.

Predators are characterized by a strong hook-shaped beak at the end, the base of which is dressed in bare brightly colored skin - cere, into which the external openings of the nostrils open. The legs of birds of prey are of moderate length, with curved and usually sharp claws (only secretaries have long legs). The claws and beak serve to kill, and the latter to dismember the prey. The toes are relatively long, with pads on the plantar side that serve to hold food. The physique is dense, the plumage is rigid and close to the body. The color is usually not bright, mostly gray, brown, red or black, often with an admixture of white. In some carrion-feeding species, the head and part of the neck are bare, unfeathered.

In most species, females and males are similarly colored, but young birds in the first year, sometimes later, differ from adults in color. Usually, males are smaller than females, but in Old World vultures both sexes are the same size, and in American condors, males are larger than females.

Birds of prey are diurnal, only a few of them are crepuscular.

Predators are distributed all over the world: they are absent only in Antarctica and on some oceanic islands.

In the northern and temperate latitudes, some species are migratory, while others are sedentary and roam outside the breeding season.

The life expectancy of birds of prey is quite significant. There are cases when the buffoon eagle lived in captivity for 55 years, the golden eagle - 46 years, the condor lived in the Moscow Zoo for 69 years, the goshawk - 25 years. Banding data also show that medium-sized birds of prey live for at least about 15 years. Hardly all of these are deadlines.

Birds of prey breed once (rarely twice) a year. Nests of a simple device, usually in trees, sometimes in hollows, on rocks, on the ground. Often they occupy ready-made nests built by another species of birds. Usually the same pair nests in the same nesting area year after year. The number of eggs is different - from 1-2 (in large species) to 6-7 and even 9 (in small ones).

Incubation begins after the laying of the first egg, and therefore the chicks in the brood are of different ages. The female incubates mainly, the male replaces her only for a short time. Large species incubate for almost 2 months (for example, condor, bearded vulture). Species of medium size incubate for about a month.

The chicks emerge from the eggs well pubescent and sighted, but need feeding and heating during their stay in the nest, as well as protection from enemies. There are two downy peoples, the second is replaced by a feather. Departure from the nest in small and medium-sized species of predators occurs at about a month of age, in large vultures - only at three - and even four months.

The main food of birds of prey is various animals, primarily mammals, birds and insects. Birds of prey often feed on carrion. Few of them feed on plant foods (for example, the African vulture eagle feeds on the fruits of the Guinean and wine palms, the Guinean caracara on the fruits of Loranthus and Clusia). Some species feed on a wide range of foods, others are highly specialized.

Under natural conditions, birds of prey eat prey with bones, wool, feathers, the undigested remains of which are periodically thrown out through the mouth in the form of so-called grebes.

Most birds of prey search for prey by flying. In this regard, they have excellent vision and the ability to fly.

Birds of prey molt once a year, after the end of the breeding season. The line is complete. It lasts for a long time, which is connected with the need to preserve the bird's flying qualities.

The practical importance of birds of prey for human economic activity, in general, should be assessed positively. Most of them provide direct benefits by eating rodents and insects that are harmful to land ownership. Others, destroying first of all sick and weak individuals, is an essential selection factor. Even those birds of prey that feed mainly on hunting or otherwise useful animals cannot cause significant damage, since the total number of these species is low and they are relatively numerous only in sparsely inhabited places. Therefore, at present, in most countries, birds of prey - in one form or another - are protected. At the same time, the undoubted significance of birds of prey as natural monuments is also taken into account.

The use of birds of prey by humans for hunting purposes - the so-called falconry, or hunting with birds of prey - dates back to ancient times, although much in the history of this hunt remains unclear. Archaeological finds show that the British Isles with birds of prey already in the Bronze Age. Falconry was known in Mesopotamia at least as far back as the 8th century BC. e. The heyday of falconry in Europe dates back approximately to the 12th-17th centuries, and its beginning is to some extent connected with the crusades, when the crusaders could get acquainted with the practice of falconry among the Arabs. Profound social changes that occurred at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 19th century, technological innovations, primarily the spread of hunting weapons, caused the decline of hunting with birds of prey. However, it has survived, but on a smaller scale.

In our country, the use of birds of prey for hunting “by feather after the beast” has a long history: in Kievan Rus it dates back at least to the 10th century. The tribal emblem of the ancient Rurikovich depicted a flying falcon in the Asian part of the former Soviet Union - in Central Asia - it probably has an even more ancient history, but there is little definite information about this. This, of course, is connected with the complex history of the peoples of Central and Central Asia.

In the European part of the former Soviet Union sport hunting with birds of prey ceased at the beginning of this century. Only on the Black Sea coast of Georgia, they still hunt migratory quails with a sparrow hawk. As a sport and craft, hunting with birds of prey takes place in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and on a small scale in Turkmenistan.

For hunting, various types of birds of prey were used, mainly various falcons and hawks, in Asia - the golden eagle and some others. In our country, large falcons (saker falcon, peregrine falcon, gyrfalcon), hawks (sparrowhawk and goshawk) and golden eagle served as birds of prey.

Taming and training hunting birds of prey is not difficult, but requires patience from the hunter. It should always be remembered that hunting birds never become such “servants” of a person as dogs. It is not possible to tame a bird of prey to bring the captured prey to the owner.

The service life of hunting birds depends on the experience of hunters and on the care of the bird, as well as on various accidents. Falcon and goshawk serve 3-4 years, but in good hands up to 20 and even 25 years. Golden eagles live the same number of years.

There are five families in the order of birds of prey. To the family american vultures 6 species are distributed in North and South America. To the family secretaries- only 1 species inhabiting the savannas of Africa. To the family skopins- 1 species with an almost cosmopolitan distribution, except for the extreme north and south. To the family jastrebean- 205 species found throughout the world, except for Antarctica and some oceanic islands. Family falconry includes 58 species distributed almost everywhere except Antarctica and some oceanic islands.

Features of existence

These amazing creatures have a fairly long lifespan. Many of them live for more than fifty years, in the history of ornithology there were cases when eagles, hawks and other species were kept in captivity from 45 to 69 years. In nature, the life of birds is much shorter, on average it is from fifteen to twenty-five years. Birds of prey breed only once a year, in very rare cases - twice. Before laying eggs, the couple builds a nest for future chicks; they can also settle in a strange and already prepared place. Basically, such birds choose tall trees, rocks for nests, but sometimes they also nest on the ground. The female usually incubates the eggs, this happens within two months, each species is different. Sometimes the male replaces her in this work, but not for a long time. Chicks are born quite strong and strong, most of them are already sighted.

Small birds of prey chicks mature very quickly and fly out of the nest, but for such as vultures, it takes several months for them to grow up and be able to fly. These types of predators feed mainly on animals and include various mammals, insects and small birds. Also, predatory individuals often feed on carrion, and very little on vegetation.

Birds of Prey of Russia

The country is home to many species of various birds of prey. These are mainly eagles and sea eagles, hawks, kites, and the list of birds of prey in Russia is replenished with various specimens of owls, owls, golden eagles.

Each band has its own characteristics. In the forests and fields - these are one specimens, and in the highlands - already others. Each individual bird adapts to a specific habitat and climatic conditions. Osprey, honey beetles, harriers, buzzards are also all birds of prey in Russia. A photo of such powerful and strong birds shows all the splendor of nature that created them.

On the pages of our site, we have already written hundreds of times about dog breeds, caring for them, and made selections according to certain characteristics. But today we will take a break from earthly affairs and, for the sake of variety, we will tell about the lords of the sky - birds of prey. Of course, it will not work to list all of them, because there are thousands of species, so we will talk about the most famous birds in Russia, Ukraine, and also on the American continent.

Birds of Prey of Russia - photo with names

Among the representatives of birds of prey in Russia there are both day and night hunters. The former include, for example, families of hawks and falcons, and the latter include barn owls and owls. They all have similar characteristics (sharp claws, good eyesight), but they are very different in size, feather color, hunting method, etc.

Black kite (shulika)

Birds of Prey of Russia - Black Kite (photo by Tim Ebbs).

This bird was probably seen by everyone who got out of the city, though from afar - the kite flies quite high. Shulika (as the kite is often called) has a relatively small size, only 50-60 cm in length and 800-1100 g of weight. But the one and a half meter wingspan gives this predator more showiness.

The genus of kites includes several subspecies and their habitats are extensive - this bird of prey is very common in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and is also distributed throughout Africa (except the Sahara), in southern Asia, in Northern Australia. It is worth noting that the kite is sometimes found even in large cities (Novosibirsk, Barnaul, etc.).

The diet includes fish, rodents, birds, frogs, insects, crustaceans, molluscs and even worms. Accordingly, the black kite most often nests in forests near lakes and rivers.

white-tailed eagle

Birds of Prey of Russia - White-tailed Eagle (photo by Donald Ogg).

The white-tailed eagle is another bird of prey of the hawk family, which lives almost throughout Russia. These heavenly hunters are very large - body length is from 70 to 90 cm, weighs from 4 to 7 kg, and the wingspan reaches 230 centimeters. Interestingly, males are much smaller than females.

Looking at the photo above, it is not difficult to guess that this species of eagles got its name because of the white color of the tail. By the way, in the list of the largest birds in Europe, the white-tailed eagle is placed in fourth place.

black vulture

The black vulture is the largest bird of prey in Russia (photo by Josh More).

Although this bird of prey is considered the largest in Russia, it lives only in the southeast of Altai, and then in small numbers. Body length - from 75 cm to 1 meter, weight from 7 to 12 kg, and the wingspan can reach three meters!

It is interesting that black vultures can fly a huge distance every day (up to 400 km) in search of food (they feed on carrion). They succeed in this thanks to the skillful ability to use the ascending currents of warm air for soaring flight.

Golden eagle

Diurnal birds of prey - Berkut (photo by Pionites melanocephalus).

Among the most famous birds of prey in Russia, of course, there is a golden eagle. Moreover, he lives throughout the Northern Hemisphere (including America), mainly in the mountains. Large dimensions (body length from 76 to 93 cm, weight from 2.8 to 6.7 kg and a wingspan of up to 2.4 meters) allow this bird to hunt not only rodents and birds, but also hares.

Very often, golden eagles are tamed and used for commercial hunting for the same hares, as well as foxes and even wolves. In the hawk family, the golden eagle is the largest of the genus of eagles.

White Owl

Birds of Prey of Russia - Snowy Owl (photo by Colby Stopa).

This bird of prey is the largest of the order of owls living in the tundra. Body length - from 55 to 70 cm, weight from 2 to 3 kg, wingspan - up to 166 cm. From the name it follows that the main color of the feathers is white, on which there are transverse dark streaks. This color allows the bird to camouflage against the background of snow.

Unlike many owls, the snowy owl hunts not only at night, but also during the day. The main diet is mice, especially lemmings (one owl can eat up to 1600 of them per year). Although this hunter also does not refuse small hares, partridges and fish.

Birds of Prey of America - photos and names

Of course, many different birds of prey live in North and South America, and one page is definitely not enough to tell about them all. Therefore, we will only touch on this topic, showing only a few of their interesting representatives.

andean condor

Andean condor (photo by Paul Balfe).

It is the largest flying bird of prey in the Western Hemisphere with a wingspan of up to 3.1 meters and a weight of 15 kg. In addition, the Andean condor is a real long-liver - a life expectancy of up to 50 years. Like the rest of the griffon, this predator is not a hunter, but a scavenger.

barn owl

Birds of Prey of America - Barn owl (photo by Dave Curtis).

We mentioned this bird of prey not only because of its prevalence (it lives on both American continents, except Canada and the northern regions of the USA), but also because of its unusual appearance. In Russia, barn owl is found only in the Kaliningrad region.

These are nocturnal hunters, although their daytime vision deteriorates little relative to the dark time of the day. The basis of the diet of these birds are small rodents - rats, voles, hamsters, gerbils, etc.

Birds of prey of Ukraine - photos and names

Among the most common birds of prey in Ukraine is the shulika (aka the black kite, which we talked about above). Also, many of the birds described above partially live in this country.

Kobchik

Birds of Prey of Ukraine - Photo by Kobchik (by Michele Lamberti).

This bird of prey from the genus of falcons has a rather small size - a wingspan of up to 77 cm, and a maximum weight of 200 grams. It is not difficult to guess that the falcon will not catch a hare - the basis of its diet are beetles, dragonflies, grasshoppers. Sometimes it also catches lizards, small mice, sparrows.

Tawny Owl

Birds of Prey Photo - Tawny Owl (photo by Sue Cro).

Another bird from the owl family, is widespread throughout almost all of Europe. Its dimensions are medium - body length up to 38 cm and weight from 400 to 640 g. In nature, these are night hunters.

Video: hunting hawk

This is where our small selection of birds of prey ends. Recall that there are still very, very many of them in the world, but our moment of diversity is ending and in the next article we will return to our pets - dogs.

Birds, which prey on animals primarily through flight and attack from the air, use their senses, especially sight. They are defined as predator birds, primarily prey on vertebrates, including other birds. Their claws and beak tend to be relatively large, powerful, and adapted for tearing flesh. In most cases, females are significantly larger than males. The term "raptor" is derived from the Latin word rapere (meaning to capture or take by force), and may refer informally to all such hunters, or specifically to diurnal groups. Because their predatory lifestyle is often at the top of the food chain they encounter. many kinds birds of prey may be semi-predatory or fully predatory. However, in ornithology, the term "bird of prey" applies only to the feathered families listed below.

Definition.

Strictly speaking, the term predatory bird" has a broad meaning that includes many birds that hunt and feed on animals, as well as birds that feed on very small insects. In ornithology, there is a definition that is used here, this term has a narrower meaning for hunting birds, which have very good eyesight for finding food, strong legs with sharp claws for catching food, and a strong strong curved beak for tearing flesh. Majority carnivorous birds, also have strong curved claws for catching or killing prey. Predator birds tend to prey on vertebrates, which tend to be quite tall relative to the large size of the birds themselves. Most also feed on carrion, at least occasionally. Vultures and condors feed on carrion, which is their main food source. As an example, the narrower definition also excludes gulls and their birds of prey, which catch and eat fairly large fish, partly because these birds of prey catch and kill prey entirely with their beaks, and like skuas, feed on fish and vertebrates. With this cluster of morphological and behavioral characteristics, the species listed below tend to be carnivorous birds in ornithology. They can be divided into species that hunt during the day and those that hunt at night, for example. birds of prey and owls distantly related and classified into separate families, however, their evolution was convergent, both groups of birds adapted to a predatory lifestyle.

History of classification.

The taxonomy of Carl Linnaeus grouped birds (class Aves) into orders, families and species, with no formal rows between genera and orders. He placed everyone birds of prey into one order, subdivided into four genera: Vultur (vultures), Falco (eagles, hawks, falcons, etc.), Strix (owls), and Lanius (shrikes). This approach was followed by later authors such as Gmelin, Albany, and Turnton.

Classification, division into day and night predators.

Diurnal Birds of Prey, formally divided into five families (the traditional classification of the family, at present):
Accipitridae: hawks, eagles, buzzards, vultures;
Pandionidae: osprey (sometimes classified as a subfamily of the Pandioninae of the previous family);
Sagittariidae: secretary bird;
Falconidae: falcons, caracaras;
Cathartidae: vultures including condors.
nocturnal birds of prey, include such representatives as - owls - are classified separately, as members of two families that have come down to us, families:
Strigidae: typical owls;
Tytonidae: barn owls.
Observations indicate that otherwise unrelated groups of birds may serve similar ecological functions and contain many morphological similarities to each other, explained by the concept of convergent evolution.

common names.
Common names for various birds of prey are determined based on structure, but many traditional names do not reflect the evolutionary relationship between groups.

Falco rusticolus (gyrfalcon). The largest representative of the falcons in the world, the so-called "ghostly" Gyrfalcon, which received its nickname for its specific "smoky" color, is one of the most ferocious birds of prey in the upper latitudes of the Arctic.

Accipiter striatus. The smallest hawk in North America. At the same time, he is the most daring and dexterous acrobat in the air. They have distinctive proportions: long legs, short wings, and very long tails, which they use to maneuver when hunting in dense groves, chasing birds and mice at breakneck speed.

- variable size, usually nocturnal birds of prey - specialized hunters. They fly almost silently thanks to special feather structures that reduce turbulence. They have a particularly acute hearing.

- is one of the largest, fastest and agile birds among both eagles in particular and birds of prey in general. Glittering golden feathers adorn the back of the head and neck; with a powerful beak and claws demonstrates his hunting prowess.

- as a rule, large birds of prey with long, wide wings, a powerful beak and massive legs, also have plumage on their legs. They build very large nests.

- a bird of prey of one species, found all over the world, specializes in catching fish and has paws adapted for this with curved claws. They build large nests, the diameter of which can reach 2 meters.

- have long wings and relatively weak legs. They spend a significant portion of their time in flight. They take live vertebrate prey but mainly feed on snakes.

are medium to large birds of prey with robust sense organs and broad wings, including members of the hawk genus (also known as "Buteo" in North America).

- big as hawks predator birds, with long tails and long thin legs. Most use a combination of keen sight and hearing to prey on small vertebrates, gliding on their long, wide wings and circling low over grasslands and swamps.

— predatory bird, scavengers, are divided into two distinct biological families: Accipitridae, which is found only in the Eastern Hemisphere, and American Vultures, which is found only in the Western Hemisphere. Members of both groups have heads partially or completely devoid of feathers.

— predatory bird, is a small slender falcon that preys on large insects and birds. Very powerful and fast bird.