Kidrovka: a bird from the taiga

In the taiga are a lot of interesting animals and birds, many of which are known to most people only by the name of the species. One of them is nutcracker. This bird lives in the remote forests, and therefore even about its appearance is known to a few. Our article will correct this misunderstanding.

In appearance kedrovka strongly resembles a daw, but its beak is longer and thinner, and the physique is denser. The wings are very short and fairly wide, and therefore the flight of this bird is not distinguished by grace.

You can often see how it sits motionless on the tops of trees and on long branches. In short, the nutcracker is a bird-a "homebody", is not adapted to long flights.

In the external appearance of the bird, dark brown color predominates, alternating with white spots that are absent on the upper part of the head. The tip of the tail is decorated with a wide white border. In appearance, it is difficult to distinguish a female from a male: a female of almost the same size, only its color is slightly paler, and white patches are less pronounced.

Its name - "nutcracker" - the bird justifies in full: in the taiga it feeds almost exclusively on some cedar nuts, which the well-adjusted beak helps it to extract from the cones. Note that it does not wait for their ripening, but prefers to peck cones at the stage of milk ripeness. But when the nuts are ripe, the birds begin to work. They till the last grain peck out selected food, stuff nuts with goiter, and then hide them in remote corners of the forest.

A valuable product is not only interested in nutcrackers. Birds compete with squirrels, other birds, as well as with hedgehogs and even sables, who also like to taste fresh nuts!

It is necessary to know that these birds have excellent memory. Sometimes they find their supplies in the winter, digging to them almost through a meter layer of dense snow! Nevertheless, they forget about part of the "stash", and they subsequently give rise to new cedar thickets.

In general, the nutcracker is a bird (the photo is confirmed) is rather fragile, "armed" only with thin paws, and therefore it is necessary to dig up nuts only with the help of its long beak. She makes it interesting: moving it in a lateral direction, the bird rakes the snow, gradually getting to the treat.

This activity is potentially dangerous for the bird, as it can be caught at any moment by a predator. That's why she spends all her time in her snow hole, often jumping out to the surface and surveying the approach ways.

However, it is not always helpful to her. Domestic scientists have told us that it is not difficult to fool an unwary ptahu: one should only approach cautiously on skis, from time to time freezing in one place. After approaching close to the cedar, you can catch only one cap.

The population of cedar depends largely on the number of this bird. Have you ever picked out nuts from his cones? If so, then remember for sure what they have solid and dense plates. Growth of young cedar to break through them is almost impossible. In addition, the cone is heavy, and therefore falls only under the crown of the parent tree. Thus, if these birds do not become, cedars may eventually disappear from the forests.

So you learned about what feeds nutcrackers and how it does, and how useful the activity of this little bird!