Garden bunting is not very beautiful plumage, and her singing is not perfect. However, it is highly regarded by songbird lovers.
Next, we will give a brief description of it. Garden oatmeal belongs to the oatmeal family of the true oatmeal genus. The class is not numerous, contains only 37 varieties. The number of garden bunting in Europe is approximately 15 million pairs of individuals. The population of this species is declining all the time. In Belarus and Lithuania, it is listed in the Red Book.
Distribution
The bird lives in many countries of Europe (except the British Isles) and Western Asia, and is also found beyond the Arctic Circle. In autumn, it flies to Africa, its tropical part, for wintering. In late April and early May, he returns to his native areas. Birds arrive in small flocks of 5 to 50 individuals. The habitats of the garden bunting differ in different areas of the range. In France, they live where vineyards grow, in other countries they have never been found on vineyards.
Garden oatmeal: description
The bird haslength is 16 cm, and weight is from 20 to 25 g, the wingspan reaches 29 cm. Its appearance and behavior are similar to ordinary bunting, but the color is less colorful and the size is slightly smaller.
The chest and head of the male are gray-green in color, the throat is yellow, the tail with white stripes on the sides, light yellow rings around the eyes and a reddish cone-shaped beak. The outfit of young males is brownish; They become like females when the molt ends.
Females are brown with a white underside and yellow throat, a greyish head and a mottled chest. They have a brown rump, a light, pinkish short beak, white, slightly noticeable rings around the eyes. Young females and males have dark variegated flanks and throats.
It should be noted that the garden bunting, like the common bunting, is a bird, the photo of which is higher, has a special beak structure. Both parts of it are not completely adjacent to each other and a small gap is formed between them, which is absent in all other small birds.
Lifestyle
Garden bunting settles in open areas, with a small number of shrubs and trees, on the edges of the forest, in the steppes, on the banks of lakes and rivers, in small parks and orchards.
Nests are on or near the ground. Females make small holes in the ground and cover them with dry stems.cereals, roots and other plant material. The bottom is laid with feathers or horse hair. The nests are oval or rounded, their diameter is from 8 to 12 cm.
Birds live in pairs, their dwelling is well camouflaged and located near hillocks and ravines. The nests are far from each other. Sometimes for some time they settle more densely, at a distance of two hundred meters between the nests. In the wild, garden bunting lives for a maximum of 8 years.
Reproduction
Garden bunting lays up to 6 eggs up to 2 cm long, with a shiny shell with a faint blue tint, along which rare spots in the form of strokes and curls are scattered. The offspring are bred once a year, the second laying is done very rarely. Incubation lasts 12 days.
The duties of the male include guarding the nest. He sits nearby on a branch and sings songs loudly, notifying everyone that the area is occupied. Chicks are born covered with long down. It has a brown tint, on which dark longitudinal stripes are clearly visible along the entire body. The babies stay in the nest for about two weeks. In the second half of June, they learn to fly, get their own food and disperse to different places. When a person appears, the birds become very worried.
Food
Garden oatmeal feeds on seeds and sprouts of various plants. When feeding chicks, birds eat live food: beetles and other insects. Parents, both male and female, from early morning until late evening carry live food to the nest to saturate the offspring.
Arriving at the nest, they sit next to it and, making sure that there is no danger on the ground, they approach the dwelling. Young chicks circle around the nest for a long time before flying into it. After the end of the harvest, garden buntings move closer to the fields and feed on seeds.
Singing
The garden bunting sings (photo below) intermittently and loudly. Her singing is reminiscent of the ringing of an alarm bell. The songs are short, monotonous and compact, averaging one and a half seconds in length. Each of them is separated by intervals lasting about 10 seconds. Any song consists of two parts:
- first - cheerful and cheerful;
- the second is sad, sounding lower.
Sometimes, songs consist of only the beginning part without the final part. The chant ends with one or two syllables, and sometimes there is no ending at all.
At the nesting site, their singing continues all daylight hours, most actively they sing from morning to 11 o'clock and after 15 o'clock in the afternoon.
Males most often flood during breeding, flying up to the top of a coniferous tree, shrubs, rock ledges or other elevated places. They send their song high into the sky, keeping their bodies upright in a wary manner.
Chanting is a striking feature of this type of bunting. Their songs consist of only a small number of syllables, with the last one always lower than the previous one.
Garden oatmeal: keeping at home
Birds of thisspecies on nesting sites appear much later than others, therefore, in home cages among feathered lovers they are less common than common bunting. It is difficult to get used to captivity, sometimes there are very curious and calm specimens.
Having a timid nature, they behave restlessly in the cage both in the first days and then for several more months. When they rush around the cage, they often damage their wings and tails, cut their foreheads and beaks to the blood, and sometimes, hitting hard, they break to death. At first, the cages with oatmeal should be covered, and the wings should be tied up. It is advisable to place the cage above the height of a person and handle the bird very carefully.
Watching the behavior of garden buntings in a cage, one cannot but note their shyness. She cannot eat calmly from the feeder, like other birds. Always looking around, he quickly jumps up to food, grabs a grain and immediately runs away. Garden bunting - a bird (photo above), in captivity feeding on a grain mixture, can peck at soft and live food.
It takes patience and a lot of trouble to tame a caught chick. Despite this, true songbird hunters greatly appreciate the song of the garden bunting. And they sing a lot and beautifully, all day long from dawn to dusk. Connoisseurs especially revere night singers.
The aviary can also be organized outdoors by placing different types of buntings in it. You should always remember the fearfulness of birds. Suddenly disturbed, they can crash to death on the net. You have to get close to the birdsbe careful not to make sudden movements so as not to inadvertently frighten them.
Garden oatmeal, with careful attention to it, can become a domestic and tamed bird. Experienced bird lovers do not recommend that beginners keep cages with garden oatmeal at home, as they require quality care and special living conditions. Adding vitamins and minerals to food will help keep pets he althy and happy. They will thank you for your care with booming, sonorous singing.
French food
A delicacy dish prepared by French chefs from garden oatmeal is called ortolan. Captured birds are placed in small dark cages, where a lot of food is poured. Darkness promotes increased appetite, which leads to weight gain. After some time, the birds are drowned alive in brandy, plucked, and the whole carcass is fried for several minutes over high heat. Before eating, cover the dish and your head with a napkin to enjoy the aroma in full. A carcass with bones is eaten whole with a head and washed down with a delicacy of red wine.
This dish is being banned in France, but some chefs want permission to cook it once a year. In other European countries, it is forbidden to use garden oatmeal for human consumption.
The oatmeal is called garden oatmeal, although this does not quite correspond to where it nests. Most often, she can be found in wide fields with single trees, on the branches of which she sings her sonorous songs.
