Lentil bird is a beautiful songbird, which belongs to the family of finch. Lentils are small in size and body weight: its weight is from 19 to 25 grams. The bird has a fairly bright plumage. The male has a red breast, a back, a head, and a nadir. In females and young birds the plumage is greenish-gray, the abdomen is white, the wings are dark. In males, colorful plumage appears after they arrive for wintering a second time, and until this time young males have a very dull greenish color. The lentil bird is endowed with a strong beak, which has a conical shape.
The main places for settling lentils are damp forests, banks of rivers and streams. It also lives in urban parks, gardens, found in lilac bushes. The main habitat of the bird is an open space, where bushes grow and there are forest edges. To meet lentils in natural habitats can be quite rare, because she behaves very carefully and prefers to hide in dense foliage, but according to the sonorous voice of the bird you can find out about her presence.
Lentil bird (photo in the article) is a migratory bird, therefore the area of its spread is quite wide: almost the entire European part of Russia, the Caucasus, the Asian part of Russia and Siberia. For the construction of nests, lentils use rootlets and stems of grasses, diligently lining the nest tray with down and grass to give accuracy. The main site of the nest is the branches of the bush and low trees. Full masonry contains about 5-6 eggs, having a greenish color with purple specks and speckles. Nasizhivaniem which lasts about 14 days, is engaged in a female lentils, and the male at this time is engaged in her feeding. The nestlings leave the nest quite early, without even knowing how to fly well.
Lentil bird got its name due to melodic trills, which are formed as a result of sonorous and quite clear sound combination "che-che-vitsa", which is a kind of visiting card of colorful birds. The basis for feeding lentils is various overripe seeds and fruits, less often they consume small insects (during feeding nestlings), mainly caterpillars, small beetles and aphids. In the spring time, the bird cherry blooms, and for lentils the basis of nutrition at this time are its flowers.
The lentil bird hibernates in Asia and India. Males having a red color are the first to go to wintering sites. After them, fly off old males that do not have nests, and the last - young birds. Many bird lovers decide to keep lentils at home and face some problems, the main of which is the molting process. Molting lentils in captivity arises from improper feeding, which leads to obesity and metabolic disorders. Therefore, the lentil bird is very demanding on the quality of the feed.
Lentils are a colorful feather, which takes place in a children's literary work, authored by Nikolai Sladkov. "Lentil Bird" is a book that includes interesting poetic stories about various forest birds.