Wild wood dove vityuten (otherwise pigeon) is well known to hunters. It is of interest both as an object of sports and ordinary bird hunting. The mined bird is distinguished by its large size and very tasty meat. Interest in these inhabitants of the forests arose relatively recently: before the era of the Internet, only ornithologists were interested in them.
Vyakhir: description
The Latin name for the wild bird is Columba palumbus.
An inhabitant without clues will not be able to distinguish a wild pigeon from an ordinary city pigeon. But the pigeon is a fairly large (even for such a large bird) dove, its dimensions are impressive: body length up to forty-five centimeters, weight on average from seven hundred to nine hundred grams, wingspan is almost seventy centimeters. Males and females weigh almost the same, although the male looks much larger.
Like all representatives of this order (pigeon-like), the wood dove is painted in gray-blue (gray) color.
Its characteristic features are clearly visible in flight: there is a wide white chevron (stripe) on the wings, the top of the tail is dark, then there is a white edging. Unlike its urban counterpart, the wild pigeon has notransverse stripes of a dark shade on the wings.
The color of the chest is clearly visible in the photo of the wood pigeon - wine-pink, in front with a greenish tint.
There are two large white (sometimes cream) spots on the sides of the neck.
Paws pink-red, beak yellow.
The color of males is brighter, the spots on the neck are much larger. Females are more graceful than males, which look somewhat heavier and larger.
In favorable conditions, wood dove can live up to sixteen years.
Vyakhir: Distribution
Vityuten lives in the temperate latitudes of Europe and Asia, and is also common in the northern part of West Africa, where northern individuals fly for wintering, and locals live permanently. In Russia, it has never been seen north of the sixty-second parallel, both in the European part and beyond the Urals. The habitat is limited to the south by the fifty-second parallel (to the borders with Ukraine).
Settles most often in coniferous or mixed forests, preferring their outskirts. For nesting, it can choose both separate groups of coniferous trees, and protective forest belts along the roads, sometimes it even settles in quiet parks, farms and private gardens.
In the southern regions of the European part of the Russian Federation, the Vityuten pigeon can fly in for the winter, sometimes it stays there for further migrations. Does not settle in the Asian southern part of the Russian Federation.
Time and method of nesting pigeons
At the end of March, these wild pigeons fly in flocks from the south, and already at the end of September (mid-October) fly away for the winter.
Malehalf a month after arrival (in mid-April), they choose a site for themselves and begin to look for girlfriends. Talking looks like this: cooing during the flight, alternately taking off and slowly lowering-planning (“slide”). Having made several such alternating flights, the vitiuten pigeon returns to the so-called perch (lexicon of hunters).
A pair of pigeons immediately begin to build a nest, placing it in the forks of large horizontal branches of spruce or pine, slightly away from the trunk at a height of two to five (rarely eight to ten) meters.
The pigeon's nest is a loose translucent platform five to twenty centimeters high and up to thirty centimeters in diameter with a weak tray (about five to eight centimeters deep, up to fourteen in diameter). The material for the construction are thin branches of birch, alder, spruce and pine. In some cases, the structures are so fragile that the eggs simply fall through the bars, becoming the prey of all kinds of predators.
The female lays only two eggs (their size is larger than that of ordinary city pigeons), the egg weight is nineteen grams, the diameter is up to three centimeters, the length is about four., the color of the shell is pure white with yellowness in the light.
The first laying is almost always at the end of April (in early warm spring), more often - in the middle of May, the second - in July.
The female sits on the nest, the males can replace her for feeding. The incubation period for eggs is from seventeen to nineteen days.
Males during incubation by females of clutches can unite in flocks forcollective feeders. They fly out to the grain fields, then one by one they return to their nesting sites.
In August, females, chicks of the first (fledglings) and second broods unite in flocks (sometimes up to four hundred individuals) for feeding and then migration.
Offspring
Comparatively large pigeon chicks spend up to thirty-five to forty days in the nest.
Both parents are busy feeding the children, first bringing softened grains (“bird's milk”) in the goiter, and then other various foods.
Chicks appear almost naked, delicate fluff - the base of the plumage does not grow quickly, first pegs of feathers appear on the wings, then fly feathers grow, and only after that - the rest of the plumage. The color of the chicks becomes soft bluish.
The ability to see appears on the eighth day.
By the fortieth day, the chicks are already on the wing and can provide themselves with food.
Almost half of all females after the first clutch are ready by this moment for the second.
Feeding pigeons
The goiter of a wild pigeon is large enough, hunters sometimes took out almost a whole dish of cereal seeds when gutting.
The basis of the diet upon arrival (in early spring) is young buds, coniferous seeds.
In mid-May, the pigeon feasts on sprouted grains of spring crops, sometimes (with a large number) it can cause damage.
By early-mid-summer ripening berries, seeds of wild herbs, fruits of stone fruits become food for wood pigeons.
By autumn wild pigeonsthey begin to peck young nuts, mountain ash, currants, rose hips, bird cherry from the bushes, do not disdain carrion. They very rarely feed on worms and caterpillars.
They love to peck grain. They fly in whole flocks to the place of sorting and transshipment of grain, peck as much as possible - how much can be accommodated in the goiter. Then one by one they fly away to perch.
Features of behavior
Vityuten dove is an extremely cautious bird.
Like all wild representatives of birds, having excellent hearing, does not let a person closer than fifty, more often - a hundred meters.
When a person approaches the nest, the cooing bird immediately falls silent.
Can fly close to a person if he is wearing a camouflage suit, but the face must be completely covered.
You can take a photo of a pigeon and a video if you disguise yourself near the nesting site in advance in his absence or, following him, find a perch and settle down nearby.
Activity
The behavioral addictions of pigeons are determined by the ways and mode of nutrition.
In spring, the bird loses weight, so its diet is poor - germinating cereal seeds, buds, last year's carrion. Weight loss - almost three to four percent (up to thirty-five grams).
By mid-to-late summer, the wild pigeon begins to gain weight again, eating fruits, seeds of wild and field grasses (it loves clover very much), and then, flying in flocks, both cereals and legumes.
Feeding at wood pigeons takes place in the morning and evening (some of them fall ontwilight).
Wild pigeon lives almost according to the schedule: sleep, morning feeding, watering, return to nesting site, evening meals.
Females behave more actively, their life processes proceed faster than males. They spend less time on feeding, watering, cleaning plumage. But in a nest with chicks, they spend almost four times more time.
Ornithologists could not explain the constant morning and evening low cooing of males. To date, the reason for this behavior is associated by scientists with the tactics of communication in this way with relatives who arrived together with a flock from wintering. Birds settle at distances of up to fifty meters, although in conditions of high crowding they can make nests at a distance of only twenty meters.
The period of sexual activity in birds ends at the end of summer, this contributes to the maximum weight gain.
Human intervention in the life of birds
Dove is a creature that loves order and silence. It would seem that urbanization leads to a reduction in the village population, which could bring silence to the forests. But the development of hiking and long-distance car tourism is forcing pigeons to leave their usual habitats. Suburban forests, visited by mushroom pickers almost all summer (from early spring to late autumn), have almost ceased to be the habitual habitats of wild pigeons.
The number of wood pigeons has been declining since the late forties of the last century, the reason was the huge use of pesticides in agriculture.
Currentlylimiting the increase in livestock is affected by the gambling shooting of wild birds by hunters. Pigeon pigeon easily flies away even after hitting it, the hunter cannot always find the killed bird, which makes him hunt further, killing more and more.
Natural adverse factors
The natural enemies of the wild pigeon are birds of prey - peregrine falcon and hawk. They prey on both adults and babies.
Smaller birds - magpies, jays, gray crows - destroy the nests of pigeons during laying and incubation. Proteins are also processed in the same way. According to ornithologists, up to forty percent of eggs laid can be destroyed in this way.
The number of annual clutches is affected by unfavorable temperature and humidity conditions: a late cold spring forces birds to postpone the start of the first clutch to May, which leaves no time for the next reproduction this year.
