Black-whacked Gagara: description, features of care, habitat and interesting facts

Gagars are waterfowl, which are slightly smaller than the goose of the ordinary. The peculiarity is that their paws are not at all adapted to travel on the ground. Going ashore, the bird is forced to almost crawl along the surface of the belly, but there are almost no traces of this mode of movement. Therefore, the whole life of the hoods takes place on the water - marriage games, food, sleep and rest. There are several types of hoods - red-throated, white-fronted, white-legged, but the most common of these is the black-breasted.

Black-robed Gagar

The appearance of males and females is almost the same - the abdomen is covered with white feathers, and on top - grayish-brown or black with white glimpses of plumage. You can distinguish between individuals according to our drawing - each one is individual.

The figure is not visible only during the wintering period, when the entire color of the bird turns into a more monotonous one. From geese and ducks, divers differ in the style of flight - slightly slouching and flexing their necks down. Wings in birds are relatively small, against the scope of the same ducks, legs are protruding back - they are often confused with the tail. Three front fingers of a bird are connected by a membrane. Gagar the Black-haired has a sonorous voice - in her overflows one can hear both screaming and groaning. In the case of a black-skinned individual, the cry is more like a raven's croaking. Unfortunately, the diver is at the stage of extinction, so the only chance to save sight is the Red Book. The sounds of the black-throated loon in the mating season sound like "ha-ha-ha-rra", which gave her that name.

Habitat

It should be noted at once that it is inappropriate to confuse gagar with gaga. Despite the fact that the names of birds are very similar, they refer to different orders. Yes, and birds were extracted for completely different needs - eiders were valued for their down, and loons were valuable "gagarimi neck" for ladies' hats.

The bird weighs about three kilograms, it also affects the length of the paws - at least 10.5 centimeters. The European black-throated diver settles on large lakes, and is attached to the habitat for many years. The nest of a bird most often looks like this - a trampled playground at the very edge of the water. Sometimes the loon lays eggs in a pile of dead vegetation, which she pre-places on a square somewhere half a meter wide. But provided that the nest is in close proximity to the water - so you do not have to get to it on the ground.

Offspring of the loon

In the laying, the bird does not have too many eggs - usually one or two. The coloring of eggs well disguises them from predators - olive-brown eggs practically merge with coastal vegetation. In length reach almost ten centimeters, and on weight each of them extends approximately on 105 gramme.

It is through the clutch that you can determine whose nest is the Red-throated or black-throated loon. The first egg is much smaller. Clutch hatch both partners - they succeed each other, letting their half rest on the water, sleep and eat. The incubation period lasts about a month - the chick can be proklyutsya as in 25 days, and after 30. The kids remain in the nest for a record time - no more than two days. Then adults begin to teach the chicks to the water. The first output looks like this - the chicks climb on the back of an adult bird and descend so on the water. Very soon it is possible to observe how babies float independently between two parents. Carefully concealing them from possible misfortunes.

Lifestyle

Gagars are excellent swimmers. The bird does not need to dive to a depth of 21 meters, while remaining under water for about two minutes. Wings at the same time the bird folds on the back, and from the blotting they are protected by covering feathers. Black-throated loon long dispersed against the wind, before tearing off the surface of the water. Life expectancy of a bird is about 20 years. Here the principle of swan fidelity operates - having converged once in a life, couples do not break up to the death. Wintering birds go to the warm seas. There are also individuals of the first year of life. In the spring, the loons arrive back, but very late, when the water is already clear.

Interesting changes occur with birds in the winter. In the midst of the frosty days, hoods begin to fall out of the fly feather, which deprives them of the ability to fly for at least 1.5 months.

Hunting for a diver

Black-throated loon is of special value to man. The peoples of the Far North use poultry for food, besides, it is not difficult to catch a diver. Often birds themselves are confused in fishing nets, where to get them is not difficult. Once, from the dagger skins (white abdomen and breast), local tailors were wearing exclusive ladies' hats, but today this fishery is no longer relevant. Gagar the Black-throated does not like the close arrangement of people - the bird dies from the dirt left after people, often hunting begins for the sake of entertainment. Therefore, in some countries, even there is a festival of loons. When birds come from warm seas, they are met by people, provide them with snacks and organize normal rest conditions. We found out what the black-throated loon looks like. A brief description will show how to distinguish it afloat, for example, from a conventional duck.

Gagara on the water

When the bird floats, only a low-browed head is visible on the surface, a small part of the back and a slightly curved neck - the landing of this bird is quite low. If the bird begins to worry, it plunges into the water even deeper, eventually leaving over the water surface only the head and a small portion of the neck.

With a strong fright, she just dives under the water, waiting there for a long time until the danger passes. Gagara the Black-breasted moves easily under the water - like a cork in a single minute, it can cover a distance of 500 meters. This saves her from the numerous hunters who confuse the bird with the duck and wait for it to come up in the same place.

A little more about dagger chernozoboy

Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer specimens of this species. The lakes dry up, nature gets clogged by the hands of a man - all this contributes to the fact that birds have to look for new habitats, and this is the constant risk to which the black-throated loon is exposed. The Red Book prohibits hunting for these [birds, but people stop it a little. According to the latest data, the number of birds has decreased many times, in some areas they have disappeared forever. Today Black-throated loons can be met quite rarely - the bird tries to settle in remote places, away from the human sight, mainly on large forest lakes. For example, in the Krasnodar Territory, this bird is on a special account - there are about 500 individuals here, which is a record-breaking small number for the most widespread kind of hoods.