The common pika is a bird from the order of passeriformes. Of the representatives of her family, she is the most common. The bird is very hardworking, most of the day is in motion. Thanks to the coloring, it is perfectly camouflaged. It constantly searches the trees for food. And thanks to its sharp, sickle-like beak, it can check even the narrowest crack in the trunk for insects. In addition to trees, the bird, being in the city (or close to villages), looks for food in wooden houses, log cabins, in places where insects gather.
Common pika
The common pika bird, which is described in this article, is quite small in size, smaller than a sparrow. She has a stiff, pointed, stepped tail. The beak is long, sickle-shaped, thin. The paws are short with strong claws. The body length in males is from 110 to 155 mm, in females - from 121 to 145 mm. Pika weight ranges from 7 to 9.5 grams.
She's beautifulcrawls through trees, using its stiff tail for support. It climbs the trunk, always starting from below, in a spiral, bypassing the trunk in a circle. When it flies to another branch, it always sits lower than it was before. And again begins to rise from the bottom up.
Moves in short leaps and sticks its beak into every crack. This bird is one of the best nurses in the forest. Thanks to the thin beak, the pika even gets out the larvae deposited by tree pests. But it does not pursue fast-running and flying insects.
Habitat and habitat
A pika is a bird leading a sedentary, less often nomadic lifestyle. It is common in Europe. And also in North Asia, Canada and America (USA). In Russia, the pika can be found in the European part, starting from Arkhangelsk and ending with the Crimea and the Caucasus. There is no this bird only in the steppe and places where trees do not grow. During migrations, it can fly far beyond the border of the nesting range. Often found in small towns. In Asia, the pika is found in the forest belt of Siberia, east of Sakhalin and the Sea of Okhotsk, south of the Tien Shan, Mongolia, Northern Iran and Kazakhstan.
Prefers deciduous, coniferous and mixed forests. Pika prefer old trees. During the nesting period, it chooses old deciduous and mixed forests. Less often it can be seen in conifers. During migration it is found in gardens, parks, groves - wherever trees grow.
What a pika bird looks like: color
The back of the pika is grayish or brown-red, with palewhite spots. The loin and rump are greyish-brown. Abdomen white, silky. Flight wings are light brown with small light spots. The helmsmen are the same color, but they have light edges and tops.
Beak brownish above and lighter below. Brown rainbow. The legs are the same color, but with a grayish tint. In young pikas, the spots on the back are round, in adults they are elongated. The color of the young is duller, and the abdomen is yellowish.
Food
The main food of pikas is insects and spiders. Birds mainly eat dipterous insects, spiders and beetles. Most of all love weevils. Also in the pika's diet are aphids, caterpillars, weevils, bugs, moths, weevils and other forest pests. Birds also feed on seeds, but mainly from coniferous trees and in winter. In search of food, these birds search the trunk of a tree, not losing sight of a single crack. If the tree has a lot of food, then the pika may return to it several times.
In winter, this bird can be temporarily accustomed to one feeding place by smearing soft food and beef fat on the bark. In the summer, a nest box is hung in which food is constantly placed.
Pika bird: breeding description
The mating season for pikas starts in March. At this time, you can see the fights of males and how they sing. Pikas start building nests later. First, carefully select a place. Pikas prefer narrow hollows or loose bark. But the nest is always low from the ground.
Pikas build nests from eight to twelvedays. But only females prepare it for themselves, males do not care about offspring. The bottom of the nest usually has a loose platform and consists of pieces of bark and thin branches. They rest against the walls of the hollow. It turns out that the nest does not lie in it, but is strengthened in the middle. From above, the dwelling is built from bast fibers mixed with small pieces of bark, lichen, wood and tufts of moss. Inside it is lined with many small feathers mixed with wool, cobwebs, insect cocoons.
Common pika lays five to seven eggs. Eight or nine is extremely rare. The eggs are reddish-brown, with dots and spots. Most of them are at the blunt end. Sometimes the clutch contains white eggs with a barely noticeable pinkish spotting.
The female incubates the clutch from 13 to 15 days. After birth, the chicks remain in the nest for the same amount of time. The female feeds them with spiders and small insects. The chicks of the first clutch begin to fly out in May-June. From the second - in June-July. Having become stronger, the chicks begin to roam, but do not fly far from the nest.
Moulting
A pika is a bird that molts in the first year of life. She begins to change plumage in July. The molt ends in September. In older birds, this period lasts from June to August. And the contour large wings are the first to change. Small ones - later, at the end of the molt. After changing plumage, it becomes brighter. And the color of the feathers turns red.
Subspecies and changing traits
The pika is a bird with geographical variability. This is manifested in the size of the body and the change in color of the feathers in the upper half of the body. But shemay be seasonal or individual. And this greatly complicates the definition of geographic species. Now there are twelve of them. The differences between them are very small, and it can be very difficult to distinguish between them.
In England and Ireland, the color of pikas is darker than that of Western Europeans. In Japan - with a pronounced red tint. The singing of different subspecies also differs. Basically, their trill is loud and lingering, with short pauses. It is for its squeak that the bird got its name.
Pika lifestyle
Common pika flies little and poorly. Basically, these are only flights from one tree to the foot of another. Thanks to long and curved claws, this bird holds on to the bark very tightly. Pikas live mostly scattered. They are loners. But when autumn comes, they unite in flocks. And with other types of birds. For example, with tits.
In the cold they can sit in a dense ring of 10-15 birds, warming up. In autumn, pikas seek out places with a large number of trees - parks, squares, forests. But in other seasons, the birds have their own feeding and sleeping areas, which they militantly defend.
The pika is a fearless bird. When she is in search of food, even when she sees a person, she will not fly away.
She can even sing. True, its trill is double, similar to a shrill squeak. The second is always lower than the first.
Since the pika's tail serves as a support when looking for food, over time it wears off, feathers becomedisheveled. Therefore, the tail of this bird sheds more often than the rest of the plumage.
Finding a pika is not easy. She always keeps inconspicuously, and the color of her plumage camouflages well. But sometimes, noticing something suitable in the snow, it can still jump on it. Grabbing the prey, she again hurries to the trunk.
With the end of winter, the pika becomes more energetic, lively. She begins to crawl along the trunks much faster, and even fights when she meets her relatives.
