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In nature, you can meet many birds of all kinds, sizes and colors. But to enjoy the views and habits of the graceful colorful avdotka bird in the daytime is very difficult - this bright inhabitant of the steppes lives and acts at night. What is this bird, how does it live and where does it live?
Appearance
Avdotka outwardly resembles a sandpiper. It is known that there are 9 species of this bird from the family Avdotkovy charadriiformes. Ornithologists have not come to a consensus about this species. Some believe that the closest relatives of Avdotka are the bustard, while others believe that it is a sandpiper. The size is a bit bigger than a city pigeon, body length is from 38 to 47 cm. A very long tail is up to 25 cm. Weight varies from 500 gr. up to 1 kg. The wings are pointed at the end, have a wingspan of up to 85 cm.
The plumage is quite peculiar - each white-gray feather is decorated with a light stripe and a dark brown speck. This color serves as an excellent disguise, allowing you to hide in the dry grass of last year. Thin and long legs are yellow, most of the beak has the same yellow color, only the tip is black. The plumage of the breast and abdomen is white, with several black stripes on the chest. Externally, males and females are difficult to distinguish - neither in color nor in size.
Habitat
For nesting, he selects bare treeless plains - places that are not overgrown with grass and with no shrubs. It is desirable that the territory was sandy and rocky. The steppes and hills abound in this area. There are avdotki and prefer to settle. They also choose rivers, small lakes and other reservoirs for settlement, nest near swamps, because in these places there are a lot of suitable food.
Lifestyle
Avdotka prefers a nocturnal lifestyle. Sleeps in the grass during the day, invisible to anyone, and towards evening she begins to have activity. With good hearing and excellent eyesight, he easily searches for food.
Having a calm and peaceful disposition, conflicts with someone infrequently. She is not afraid of people, therefore she often settles not far from villages, villages and farms.
Flies silently, low above the ground, quickly flapping large wings. But, basically, prefers to move on the earth's surface on muscular legs. Even when a danger is in danger, he runs away from it. And runs pretty fast. Say, escaping from the hunter, he can run away while he is aiming, so far away that the shot will not reach.
Food
This bird is mostly carnivorous, feeds on animal food. Basically, it catches large insects, digs worms from the earth. But it is able to catch food and larger. Often prey are mice, small lizards, frogs, small animals such as gophers, columns, hamsters.
Nesting and breeding
Avdotki begin to form amorous couples in the fourth year of life, before this period they do not need partners. In early April, the male, in order to attract the attention of the female, screams loudly and melodically, when the female switches her attention to him, she begins to dance. The dance consists of flapping wings, walking and beautifying in front of a partner.
These birds do not belong to lovers of construction - they arrange a nest in any suitable shallow hole. Two or three brownish-gray eggs, similar to ducks, are laid there, and the female sits down to hatch them.Sometimes a male takes her place, giving some respite to her spouse. The hatching process lasts 26-27 days. After this period, wet tousled chicks appear. As soon as they dry out, the family immediately leaves this place.
The first 40 days of the life of small birds are nurtured and fed by their parents, producing ready-made food, but at the same time they are actively learning to find food on their own. Moreover, they teach from an early age to the ability to disguise themselves. It's funny to watch how very small fluffy little bodies, with any hint of danger, cling to the ground, freezing in stillness.
Interesting
In danger, the avdotka quickly flees from the enemy, or hides in the grass and freezes. A bird hidden by thickets of grass of the same color as its color is practically invisible.
At the beginning of the hunt, the bird screams loudly - in the night it is heard perfectly. But the meaning of the sound signal is not to warn the careless victim: the scream frightens various medium-sized rodents that break from secluded places and take to the run. And running prey is much easier to detect and catch.
When an unfortunate animal falls into the clutches of an avdotka, it hits it with a strong beak, killing it, and then repeatedly strikes it caught on stones, grinding and grinding bones. It does this so that it is easier to swallow prey - an avdotka, unlike other birds, swallows the whole food without pecking it.
Avdotka of insects first kills, only then eats.
Teaching small children to get food, shows great perseverance and great patience. The learning process is as follows: a bird grabs its prey from the ground with its beak, drops it again and expects the baby to repeat after it and do the same. From the first time the child fails to do this, and the mother repeats again and again until the chick understands and learns.
When the chick hatches from the egg, the mother does not get up from the masonry, but picks up from under herself and eats the breakaway shells. After hatching, it grabs an empty shell and drags it away.
Avdotka is not able to take off from a place like other feathered ones. To rise in the air, she must first scatter.
In the event that the nest is destroyed and the clutch is destroyed, the avdotka will again lay eggs in two and a half weeks.
Although avdotki and nocturnal birds, but during mating games and hatching eggs, they even go hunting in the daytime to feed a partner who carefully lays eggs.
Over the past half century, the habitat of the avdotok has significantly decreased due to increased human economic activity.
Video: avdotka (Burhinus oedicnemus)
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