Northern booby - description, habitat, interesting facts

The content of the article

1 Distinctive features
2 Behavior features
3 Nutrition
4 Habitat and nesting
5 Video: booby (Morus bassanus)

Northern booby admires its appearance. I would like to consider her elegant plumage, graceful head fit, graceful flight. But, in spite of its beauty, this bird is very predatory, and of the representatives of the gannet family - the largest.

These birds belong to sea birds, preferring cool territories. You can see them off the European shores, in the North Atlantic, in the northern parts of America and Africa, away from hot places.

Distinctive features

Northern gannets - birds are quite heavy, their weight reaches 4 kg. The body is long - from 90 to 100 cm, and from 165 to 180 cm is the wingspan.

Chicks appear completely without plumage, their skin is black. The young feathers are solid, but so far their color is dark brown. A beautiful white color appears due to numerous molting, after which there are more and more white feathers. And only by the age of 5 the color takes on a snow-white appearance. Only the tips of the wings and coverts of the wings remain dark brown.

Females and males almost do not differ from each other. They are all with the same white plumage. The neck and head can be not only pure white, but also in some representatives of light yellow. The head and neck in the lateral parts shimmers with a light muted yellow color, and it changes, becoming either darker or lighter, depending on the season. The feathers of the northern gannetwhales are unusual: their structure and a special grease, which appears due to the fact that the bird lubricates them independently, makes the feathers water-repellent.

The eyes are noticeably shifted forward. The color of the eyes is blue, and the eyes themselves are underlined by a dark blue ring, without plumage. The beak, as befits a predator, is long, resembles a cone with a slightly bent tip; it is dark blue in color. On the front of it there are very sharp teeth - this was provided for by nature itself, so that it would be more convenient for a predator to capture prey.

The chin with the bridle is black. Legs are dark, with a yellowish-greenish tint.

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Behavior features

These birds are simply amazing hunters. And in this not the last role is played by the advantageous structure of the streamlined body. This gives an advantage during diving. Olusha patiently waits for a school of fish to flash at the surface of the water. She conducts observation, hovering in the air at about 10-30-meter height. As soon as he appears, the bird quickly rushes into the water, and it can plunge to a depth of several meters, sometimes even 15 meters, but this rarely happens. During the flight, the gannet manages to skillfully maneuver, observing the movement of fish. But a dive can only be done from the air, and hunting is not possible during swimming. Catching the prey, the hunter immediately emerges. Many other bird species are watching nearby the start of the hunt, and this is a signal to them that food has appeared. Then they also begin the hunt.

The gannets themselves have long understood that it is most convenient to feed themselves next to fishing vessels or not far from people's livelihoods. But a person is guided by gannets, where it is most profitable to fish. This is an unusual community.

Nutrition

Fish is the main food for boobies, and first of all it is herring or mackerel, as well as sardines, cod, smelt and other types of sea fish. All living creatures intended for food do not exceed a 30-centimeter length; they do not accept the size of a booby.

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Habitat and nesting

These birds nest in colonies along the coasts of the Canadian, Scottish, French Gulf Stream, North Atlantic, and go for wintering in the eastern hemispheres. But young and adult individuals choose different wintering places.

In the first year, they cover a long distance, which is measured from 3,000 to 5,000 km, to get to the eastern Atlantic, in the subtropics. The next year they also spend in the subtropics and are in no hurry to go back. A few years later they set off north, settling in on the periphery of the colony, wintering near the North Sea or not far from the Portuguese coast. The elders spend the winter on the Mediterranean coast.

Matured northern boobies find refuge in their native colony, and very rarely can fly away from it for hundreds of kilometers. Housing is mainly located on steep cliffs, and up to 12,000 birds can settle on one territory. Then this site turns into snow-white. Nesting begins in March and April, it was during this period that entire flocks fly to the inaccessible rocky shores. Who flew first - he got the best place.

Northern booby uses everything that is nearby for nest: algae, grass, soil, dirt. To fasten components, litter is used. The diameter of the nest is about 80 cm, and the height does not exceed 30 cm. In fact, this is a shapeless pile.

Everything in the family is strictly divided. The male is responsible for the materials. He also chooses a place, obtains food, and then carefully guards it, otherwise the neighbors will steal the building components. The female is building a nest. Only at the age of 4 - 5 years does the first bird nest appear, and in most cases it remains empty. If the nest managed to survive, the birds reuse it, but improve it a bit by adding building material.

Masonry occurs in the spring months, but less frequently in May. One egg appears, very rarely there can be several, but in this case only one chick survives. If the neighbors stole the egg, the female may lay another one. The eggs are oval, their color is bluish-green.

Both parents are waiting for the addition in the nest, hatching the chicks in turn for about 44 days. When they change places, they necessarily perform ritual movements, which consist in the fact that both pull their necks, gently rub their beaks, lifting them up.

Populations - American and European - do not interbreed.

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