Fieldfare thrush is a bird belonging to the Sparrow order, the Thrush family, the Thrush genus. Biological group - harmful birds.
Females and males have the same coloration, in which there are white, black, gray-bluish and reddish shades. The body is 25-28 cm long, the wing length is 15 cm, and the weight is about 100 g. Here it is, fieldfare thrush. The photo shows it well.
Prefers to live on the edges of deciduous and coniferous forests, near floodplain thickets, in city parks, gardens and home gardens. Distributed almost everywhere. The most fearless of all thrushes.
The bird is omnivorous. In spring and summer it feeds mainly on insects, worms, snails, in winter and autumn - berries, fruits, seeds. It can feed both on trees and on the ground.
These thrushes give special preference in winter to mountain ash. No wonder they were called that. With a plentiful harvest, birds can linger in one place for a long time until they have eaten all the berries. Fieldfare thrush is the main seed distributor of these plants. After being in the gastrointestinal tract of a bird, the seeds do not lose their germination.
A flock, flying into a rowan tree, disperses over it. Picking and swallowing berries, birds clean the tree of fruits relatively evenly. Some of the berries fall to the ground, and they are not too lazy to go down to pick up the dropped ones. Then on the snow (if it lies) their traces are clearly visible. By the way, fieldfare has the largest footprints of all thrushes.
Fieldfare thrush is a migratory, nomadic, flocking bird. Breeds in colonies of up to 30 pairs. Nests - deep strong bowls, twisted from thin twigs, grass and fixed with clay soil. They are built in the forks of thick branches of trees and shrubs, at different heights.
Sometimes the colonies are ruined by crows, jays, magpies. But the fieldfare is not idle, they protect their nests, "shelling" the enemies with droppings. This is a serious weapon, since the pollution is so strong that birds with glued feathers cannot fly. People who ended up in the colony can also get it.
During the summer, the female lays her eggs twice. In the clutch there are from 4 to 7 eggs of an interesting color - greenish with brown patches. The male guards the nest and the female. The chicks are fed together. The chicks spend the first 12-14 days in the nest, then fly out of it, but they are completely unprepared for independent life. Parents continue to take care of them, feed them, teach them to fly.
Young growth flocks and roams, looking for places to feed. Later, second broods join their ranks. By autumn, large flocks are formed, which include both young and adult birds.
Thrush fieldfare can be harmfulberry plantations, including garden strawberries. They eat some of the berries, but peck a much larger amount. Damage currants, blueberries, gooseberries, raspberries, sea buckthorn, juniper, viburnum, cranberries, red elderberry, cherries, pears, apples. These birds cause great harm to nurseries engaged in breeding especially valuable and new varieties of fruit and berry crops. In some states, even the shooting of thrushes is allowed during a certain period of the year.
The singing of a thrush is unpleasant, crackling, chirping. Because of these sounds, the bird is not suitable for keeping in the home.
