Beach shore - description, habitat, interesting facts

The content of the article

1 The appearance of the shore
2 Life in captivity
3 Nutrition
4 Habitat
5 How is the arrangement of nests?
6 Video: shore swallow (Riparia riparia)

Shore bank is an interesting bird representative of the swallow family. It should be noted that this species has a number of behavioral features not characteristic of other members of the family, which significantly distinguishes them from a number of feathered relatives. At the same time, the shorewalkers have a fairly calm disposition, they are not aggressive and have a very eventful life.

The appearance of the shore

Beach Swallows are the smallest birds in this family. Their body length reaches a maximum of only 13 centimeters. In the wingspan, their size is 28 units. The weight of these tiny birds is only 16 grams. The color is quite modest. Their upper part is covered with gray and brown plumage. But the area of the abdomen, and indeed the lower part of the body, is covered with feathers of a dirty white hue. You can recognize these birds by the brown strip across the breast.

The tail near the shores is small, has an average length and quite narrow. These swallows have a short but very hard beak, with which they cleverly dig underground burrows. It is almost impossible to distinguish between a female and a male.

Shelter cliffs and sandy cliffs become a habitat for shores. It is here that the birds equip their nests, which are distinguished by the presence of long tunnels. Shores live mostly few colonies. Sometimes living separately living couples.

An amazing feature of these birds is their excessive accuracy. The fact is that in the front, on the paws of the shore banks, you can see the peculiar brushes of feathers, with which they clean their nest inside, sweep the floor even in the corridor.

It is worth noting that shore traps are often in danger, since they are the object of hunting for many birds of prey, as well as animals, including foxes, badgers, falcons, weasels, ermines and other individuals. Moreover, this species of birds is not protected from epidemics that destroy birds, leaving only a small number of individuals from several thousand colonies, reaching several hundred.

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Life in captivity

Shores in adulthood can quite easily live at home, and even live in an apartment. It is more difficult to raise chicks at home, however, it is still possible. This type of swallows is calm about people and is not afraid to interact with them. Living with a man, birds become attached to him. For this reason, swallows can appear even in large cities. At night, shores are mainly located near water bodies, finding shelter in the thickets of reeds or in abandoned or unfinished nests.

Nutrition

The basis of the diet of shoreworms are various spiders and other insects. Sometimes in addition they begin to use a variety of plants. Basically, the process of feeding with them occurs in flight, however, sometimes shore-hunting on the ground hunt and feed.

Habitat

Meet swallows can be in different parts of the world: in Africa, America, Europe and Asia. The fact is that shores are migratory birds that change their location depending on the season. At the time of nesting, they stay in the northern areas. After winter arrives in them, shores go to warmer areas.

Both during nesting and during their stay in the southern territories, shore banks settle near ponds. The time at which the flight takes place may be different depending on where the birds reside.For example, birds return to North America much earlier than to North Asia, and move to the south from there much later. Young individuals, as a rule, fly out earlier than the older generation, making small stops along the way for rest.

How is the arrangement of nests?

The nesting period near shore-flies usually begins in late May or early June. Finding nesting territories is fairly easy. Most often, they are a large sand wall in which a large number of holes are located. It is these openings that are the nests of shore traps. You can not compare these holes with hollows. They differ in that in front of the nest there is first a long narrow corridor, the distance of which is about 2 meters. Only after this at the end is a wide space in which the future offspring is located.

The couple is jointly arranging the nest. In just two days, two birds can dig a tunnel one meter long. However, shore banks do not know how to make the turns of the tunnel and always dig only straight corridors. Therefore, sometimes they just drop the construction halfway, as they meet the stone.

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