Birds of the Shchura: habits and peculiarities of captivity

At the very beginning of winter, from the distant northern forests, beautiful birds come into our lands - shchury. These are the largest representatives of the family of finches.

Description

Schur is the closest relative of the bullfinch, up to 22 cm in size and has a very beautiful color. The feathering of males is bright red-crimson, on the wings there are two transverse white strips. Female and young šрыry grayish-orange color.

The description of the birds, their appearance, is very similar to a cob. It differs mainly mainly in the shape of its beak, which looks like a short hooked cone, which makes it easy to pick berries of mountain ash and pick out nuts from cedar cones. The tail is dark gray or black, long enough, with a small notch on the end.

Habitat

Homeland of schury - coniferous forests in Scandinavia, Chukotka, Sakhalin, as well as Alaska and Labrador. In these parts the greatest concentration of birds is observed. In the middle zone of Russia they can be found in the autumn-winter period. Mass arrivals occur irregularly and depend on the amount of food at home.

In the severe winter, birds that fly in the air can populate parks, city squares, feed on seeds, kidneys and berries of various species of trees and shrubs, less often - insects.

Lifestyle and habits

Character these birds are very similar to the claw and the bullfinch. They are just so sociable, good-natured and so trusting that they allow a person to come very close, at arm's length. Villages live in our lands, where there are apple trees and mountain ash, as well as coniferous trees. A special treat for them is the fruit of juniper. But the main food is the fruits of rowan, which allows you to maintain such a beautiful raspberry color. Often, the ankles gnaw out the flesh of these berries, leaving traces on the ground that are very reminiscent of the tracks of the bullfinch fed. In the north-east of the country, birds inhabit cedar thickets, preferring pine nuts to all other types of food. The water is very positive for the water, loves to swim, managing to do it even in winter.

These songbirds have a surprisingly beautiful, clean voice, reminiscent of the sounds of a flute. Only the male sings, and in the off-season the song sounds much louder.

Nesting

Approximately in March the birds return to the nesting sites. First they form pairs and only in June they begin to build a nest. It is arranged at the trunk of a coniferous tree, less often - on lateral branches, at a height of 2-4 meters. Outwardly it looks rude, the bottom is lined with the fur of forest animals, lichen and fine grass. In the masonry there are from 3 to 5 eggs, 24-26 mm in size, bluish-green in color with soft brown spots of varying intensity.

Parents' responsibilities are distributed equally by the bird: the female hatches eggs, and the male takes care of feeding her. They feed on this period with buds of spruce, birch, wintered berries of cranberries and seeds of cones. Birds very trustingly treat the appearance of a person next to the nest, allowing even to sometimes photograph the chicks. Both parents are taking care of the newly born chicks. The children are covered with a gray-brown fluff and differ in crimson color with a mouthful with a pink tongue. In the diet of chicks the most part is occupied by various insects. Approximately at the age of two weeks the chicks leave their nest. When the troubles associated with the young grow up, the birds of the peninsula gather in flocks, spending the winter to the south of the nesting places.

Content in captivity

The trustful and sociable nature of squint allows keeping them in captivity, where they adapt very quickly to the conditions of life in a cage or aviary, get used to a person and become practically tame. If you provide them with good care, when the living conditions are as close as possible to the natural, these songbirds can live a long life, delighting the hosts with their singing, and even giving offspring.

Taking into account that the native land of these birds is in the northern regions, it is necessary to keep the fowl in the coolest place, changing the water as often as possible, giving the opportunity to swim, they always do it with pleasure.

Feed birds are recommended berries of mountain ash, seeds and grains, leaving in a cage cones of coniferous trees. Unfortunately, males, living in captivity, lose their unusual coloring over time. Their plumage becomes yellowish-orange at first, and then turns paler.

Like any other bird of the finch family, schur does not always stand up to bondage, and it happens that, after being in a cage, he dies in a few days for unknown reasons.