Birds of the hawks

The Sparrowhawk is a bird of prey from the hawk family, distributed almost throughout the Eurasian continent.

Sparrowhawk

Geographical distribution

A few decades ago, the population of quail hawks was declining due to the active introduction of agricultural pesticides into human activities and hunting for these birds. However, today, with the widespread prohibition of the use of pesticides and the exclusion of mackerel from birds harmful to humans and farming with the cessation of hunting for galloping hawks, their numbers are gradually increasing today.

The habitat of the hawk-hawk is a forest of temperate and subtropical zones, and not deep places, but open zones. They prefer coniferous and deciduous forests, can settle in the mountains at an altitude of up to 2.5 km above sea level.

During migration from the cold European climate, sparrow hawks move in the southeast direction of Asia or to northern Africa. In Russia, gadgets can be seen in the Ural Valley.

The total family of gutters consists of 6 subspecies, each of which lives in different regions.

1. Partially, birds of the first species (nisus) are distributed in European territories from the Asian West to the Siberian territories and in the Iranian region.These northern representatives migrate for the winter to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, in the northeastern direction towards Africa, as well as towards Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
2. The second subspecies (nisosimilis) is observed, starting from the Siberian central and eastern regions up to to Kamchatka and covering Japanese territory. It spreads from the south to the north along the Chinese square. These migratory hawks migrate eastward to Asia, Korea, and Japan. Some individuals fly to African countries.
3. The third subspecies (melaschistos) is recorded in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan and the Himalayas, in southern Tibet and western China.
4. The fourth subspecies (wolterstorffi) is distributed in Corsica and found in areas of Sardinia.
5. Representatives of the fifth subspecies (granti) are observed in the Canary Islands and on the side of the island of Madeira.
6. The sixth species (punicus) chose African North- west and north of the Sahara.

Typical attributes

The small hawk is a half-reduced copy of the ary large hawk representative, and his description is similar to them in color plumage and behavior. Small predators, both males and females, are painted in a dark gray color, but in some individuals the plumage color often acquires a blue tint.Below the body of the birds is decorated with pale gray stripes and shaded in red, which creates a misleading external impression of a red color of plumage.

Description of the hawks-hawks indicates their small size. Adult male birds reach a length ranging from 30 to 35 cm with a wingspan of 60-65 cm.

Female sparrow hawks are twice as large as males, often exceeding the length by 25%.

Female sparrows grow in the range from 35 to 41 cm, and in the wingspan length is up to 80 cm. The average weight of these birds is 185-345 g.

Short and wide wings along with a long tail help birds make maneuvers between forest trees.

Both the young generation and the adult bird are often surrounded by The nape of the neck can be seen with a white speck of various shapes.

Not to be confused by the photo of the quail hawk with the goshawk, to which it looks very similar, the appearance of the tail allows the tail to be longer, narrow at the base and straight at the end trimmed, without rounding.

Behavioral features

As such, voices from the hawk hawk cannot be heard. He is able to make only fast sounds like three-time repeating “kicks”, which makes it extremely rare, often the voice is heard only when there is a danger to the bird itself or its chicks.

Among the main prey for hunting, the sparrow hawks are small and medium-sized birds, among which there are insectivores. Quite a lot of forage food for them has bluebirds, blackbirds, and larks. Among the largest prey for them are pigeons. In addition to birds, hawks are capable of hunting and eating small animals when hunting.

The prey of sparrows living within the city limits are usually ordinary sparrows, because they are often called sparrows.

Among ornithologists, the hawk is distinguished by its ability to desperately protect its nests and chicks from many predators larger than themselves. At the same time, when a person appears near a tray with a chick, the female is able to throw herself at the troublemaker, flying around and attacking behind, pecking right at the back of the head. At the same time, her attacks will be continuous until the alien dangerous for her leaves the nest location.

In fast and maneuverable flight, sparrow hawks alternate swings and glides, and they rarely resort to hovering in flight in the air

Principles of nesting and breeding

Relating hawks Xia to migratory bird of the family members. The process of breeding these birds start quite late, around May, sometimes a little later.

Build them a nest in the branches of coniferous or deciduous trees at a height of about 2-10 meters from the ground. At the same time, it turns out to be loose and randomly folded, thin and translucent, but deep enough, with a diameter of about 38-40 cm and a similar height. in the same place or no further than 100-200 m from it. However, it will be completely new.

The material for the nest is coniferous branches, sometimes tree bark and dried grasses are used without using fresh branches, which distinguishes these birds from other hawk species.

The hawk’s nest is Sparrowhawk is easily detected by the particles of prey left by them – the remains of birds that they ate themselves and fed the chick.

The brood of the female counts 3-4 chicks in number, sometimes up to 6. Eggs with a matte white shell color coated with different sizes and shapes with ocher spots or brown. The size of each egg varies between 3.7-4.3 / 3.0-3.3 cm.

The incubation period for sparrow hawks lasts for about 30-32 days, and by the end of June or beginning July, chicks appear that take to the wing by the second half of August.