Watching the world around you is very exciting, because you can learn a lot of interesting things. For example, everyone heard the monotonous chirping of a cricket, and some even saw what a night musician looks like. But many people think that the river cricket is an insect, and they are wrong. If a loud chirring is pouring from above in broken syllables “tserr-tserr-tserr”, you can confidently say that this is a small bird giving a voice.
Classification
The river cricket is a bird from the order of passeriformes. It belongs to the family Locustellidae and belongs to the genus Crickets. The obsolete name is the river warbler, and the current scientific name is Locustella fluviatilis.
This group of birds has been isolated relatively recently into a separate family. Before that, crickets were in the Slavkov family. But they did not fit the species description, because they did not have a complete list of characters, because of this they were distinguished as a "garbage taxon".
Description of river cricket
These are insectivorous birds with a characteristic appearance, having a wide rounded (blunted) tail. The undertail is decorated with a sweeping whitish top. The beak is wide, but tapering towards the end, above which bristles are barely visible or completely absent, dark in color. The length of the river cricket is 14-16 cm. In scopethe wings of the bird are slightly more than 23 cm, the length of the tail is about 7 cm. The back and upper part have a brown-olive color. On the throat and chest, dark blurry spots are visible, creating oblong streaks. The body is greyish-white below, and the sides, like the back, are brown-olive. The photo of the river cricket clearly shows that its legs are not long, thin, reddish-pink.
A thin white stripe, similar to an eyebrow, is above the eye of a small bird. The eye itself is framed by a light eye ring.
River cricket, like all representatives of this genus, is mobile and very cautious. Thanks to its inconspicuous coloring, it can quickly hide, blending into branches, reeds or grass.
Features of river cricket singing
The river cricket starts its song in the evening or early morning. Melodiousness and beautiful overflows from the bird are not to be expected. The male flies up a tree and starts chirping like a locust or a large grasshopper. Sounds vibrate slightly and do not merge, but are perceived separately. Sometimes a separate, coarser cry is heard. At the slightest danger, the "singer" falls down and hides in the thickets of grass. At the nesting stage, especially at the very beginning, the river cricket can be heard even at night. The solo part of the feathered artist can sound up to 30 minutes.
In the morning and evening, the song is more varied and louder. Rustling and gurgling sounds are added to it. In cloudy weather, the river cricket can sing even at noon, but more quietly and monotonously.
During singing, the bird adjusts the volume of the sound by turning its head. The male can quickly move along the branch and raise his head up. The beak opens wide, the throat feathers are sometimes fluffy. The female responds to singing with a jerky call "chik-chik". If she is frightened or alarmed, she makes a crackling "cr-cr" sound.
What is included in the diet?
In the diet of Locustella fluviatilis only animal food. These can be insects in the adult or larval stage, spiders of different sizes and other trifles. Toward the end of summer, when insects become less, river crickets fly off to their wintering grounds in Africa.
Spread the view
The area of distribution of river cricket includes vast territories from Western Siberia to the center of Europe. Gradually it expands to the west.
The bird is widespread along the course of the Urals, Ilek, Sarysa, Danube. River crickets can often be found even in the suburbs.
African wintering takes place in Zambia, Botswana and Malawi. The flight is made through the Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula and Kenya. Departure takes place in August-September, the birds reach the place of wintering until December. On winter apartments are until the end of March.
Nest sites
River cricket prefers to settle in floodplains or inhabits dense undergrowth. Places nests on the ground, preferring wet areas in dense thickets. It can be tall grass or undergrowth. Birds often nest in nettle thickets or bushes.riverside ravines. In the steppe zone, Locustella fluviatilis settles in damp beams. Finding a river cricket's nest is difficult because it is hidden in swampy, wet, overgrown areas.
There are tall trees or shrubs near the nesting site. Trees are needed for rapid rushes down after the "concerts", and in the bushes it is easy to hide from enemies.
Nest shape
The river cricket's nest is not very neat. It is built from dry stems, but not intertwined, but crumpled and bent. The nest bowl is slightly elongated, its diameter is about 140 cm, and its height is 6 cm.
The inside of the river crickets is lined with dry moss and flexible roots. Birds pay much more attention to the interior decoration than the neatness of the walls. Often, a large pile of material that was used for construction is applied around the bird's nest.
Reproduction of river crickets
The river cricket is a monogamous bird. Upon returning to the nesting area, the male begins to lek and forms a pair. The nest is mainly built by the female. In the laying of river crickets, there are up to 6 eggs, which the pair incubate in turn for 13-15 days. The eggs are not large, white, densely covered with numerous gray-red-brown dots. At the thick end, the spots merge into an indistinct corolla. The length of the egg is about two cm.
The couple is also engaged in rearing the brood together, the duration of this period is almost 14 days. Since nesting starts late, not earlier than June, the couple manages to make only one clutch.
Young growth
What does a young river cricket look like? The bird in the photo will, of course, be different from adults. The nesting outfit of the young is yellowish. At the end of summer, the coloring approaches the adult, but remains more brown, and the streaks on the chest are blurry.
Fledglings, not yet on the wing, quickly run across the grassy thickets. While feeding, they make chirping or hissing sounds. Young animals move and scream a lot and stupidly. Their cries also resemble the trills of crickets. The chicks do not stop even after the parents give a signal of danger.
