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For a long time, these birds belonged to the genus of tits, but recently they were isolated as a separate genus - the tit. There are several representatives of this genus, but the most common two of them are brown-headed and black-headed tit.

Both types have striking features and signs by which they are easy to recognize, however, at first glance, it will be difficult for an uninitiated person to distinguish them.

Description of species: black-headed and brown-headed tit

Brown-headed and black-headed chicks are very similar: they have fluffy gray-brown plumage, reach 14 centimeters in length, maximum wingspan reaches 22 centimeters, weight does not exceed 14 grams, very short neck and large head, cheeks and neck on the sides are light, almost white. The bottom is off-white, the beak is brown-black, and the legs are gray.

The black-headed tit was first described in 1758, the brown-headed - in 1827, it was from this year that their full-fledged study began, as well as the search for the main differences and features inherent in each of the species.

Brown-headed chicks are one of the most common species, their second name - they received a powder bad weather fluff feathers strongly. They have a matte black cap on the head and back of the head, and there is a speck of the same color on the front of the throat. Brown-headed chicks are more curious than other members of this species.

In black-headed chicks, the cap is not matte, but shiny, and the speck on the neck is much smaller in size. Notable features of the black-headed tit include a longer tail and smaller head, as well as greater mobility, they fly and sing even faster.

Vocal abilities of chicks

At a distance, these two species of birds can be distinguished by their vocalization; brown-headed chickens have only three types of songs in their repertoire: territorial, demonstrative, and for courting a female. The first and the last is most often used by the male, and the demonstrative can be heard from both the male and the female during the search for a partner.

The vocal repertoire of the black-headed tit is very diverse. They emit both ordinary sounds for screaming, and those intended for specific purposes: courtship, protection of the nest by the female, protection of the territory by the male, flirting, and so on. Each type of song usually has about 20 variations.

Bird habitat

These birds live in northern regions North America, Europe and Asia and are sedentary - these are some of the few representatives of birds that store food for the winter and wander only as a last resort - to search for food in early spring or cold winter.

Throughout their lives, chicks live on an area of ​​about 5 kilometers - this small area is chosen during the first nesting of the bird and is fixed in its memory for the rest of its life. This small area is ideally explored for building nests, looking for food and shelter.

The habitats of brown-headed and black-headed gaits are somewhat different. Brown-headed loves coniferous, deep forests, it can be easily found in the taiga or on the banks of rivers overgrown with bushes, where it is almost impossible to meet a person.

Blackheads are often found near villages, cities, towns, but deciduous or, in extreme cases, mixed forests are most acceptable for them. Preference is given to low-lying and flat areas with swampy stands, where there are many dead trees.

In the area of ​​their common habitat, black-headed chickens always dominate brown-headed ones and do not tolerate brown-headed fellows on their territory, although sometimes they make exceptions for their lonely representatives in winter.

What do these bird species eat?

All species of chickweed eat about the same: the main food includes seeds of all kinds of plants (for example, juniper and sunflower), fruits of trees, small nuts, insects (beetles, larvae, etc.). Due to the fact that harmful bugs are included in their diet, chickweed are considered natural healers that help forestry.

In summer, they eat plant and animal food, and in winter and spring, mainly plant food. In early spring, black-headed chicks drink the sap of birch, aspen and maple, and in winter they visit the feeders located near farmland (although they are rarely visited) and, most interestingly, hide the grains found in the feeders in the forest.

In the first days of life, the chicks of both species feed exclusively on animal food, and only over time, plant food begins to be included in the diet. The tendency to thriftiness in chicks appears very early - already at the age of one month. Throughout spring, summer and autumn, birds make continuous reserves for the winter.

In the spring, pine and spruce seeds are stored, in the fall, chickens hide various insects and plant seeds. From spring to winter, one bird makes up to 5 kg of reserves in its habitat (in the bark of trees, cones and other secluded places), although only a third of them are eaten in one winter (quite a lot of reserves are simply lost).

Socket device

The brown-headed tit nests from April to May, and the black-headed tit from the end of March, during these periods the titmouse is very excited, they sing a lot, fly, fight for females, and look for a place to nest. Couples hold on until one of the partners dies.

During the first year of life, young birds are looking for a pair in the nearby territory from their home. If a partner was not found, they leave these places and seek luck in the distant regions of the forest.

In the first year of life, out of 1000 individuals, only 300 survive, about 50 birds live up to 5 years, and up to 6-7 years - 3, although at home these birds often live up to 9 years.

Nesting of adult birds occurs in approximately one place, in a certain territory, which the male protects whole year... New nests are often made by brown-headed chicks, black-headed ones prefer to use old or other people's hollows.

To make a new hollow, the birds pluck off the wood and carry it away so as not to reveal the location of the nest. Hollows are made in dead or raked trees, since living wood is too hard for the fragile and small beak of a chick.

Before the hollow is populated, it is cleaned and deepened to renew and make it more acceptable for the nest. Usually chosen certain types trees, these include alder, larch, birch, aspen. It takes up to 12 days to make a new hollow or renew an old one. The depth should be about 20 cm.

For building a nest different types Certain materials are used. So, black-headed ones use moss, wool, cobwebs, feathers, and brown-headed ones - twigs, bark, feathers, wool, birch bark.

Caring for chicks

Brown-headed chicks begin to lay eggs from the end of May, and black-headed ones from the end of March, in one clutch there are up to 9 white eggs with a red-brown speck. The size of one egg is approximately 15x12 mm.

For the first 15 days, the female incubates eggs without leaving the nest, and the male feeds and protects her. The female can leave the nest only in rare cases, if the male is absent for a long time to find food for herself. Already in April - May, chicks of black-headed gaits appear, and in July - brown-headed ones.

The female and the male feed them together, constantly bringing them food. In cold weather, the female is in the nest with chicks, heating them, and in warm weather she can leave for food.

After 18 days, the chicks are able to fly, but still cannot get their food. Over the next 12 days, the male and female teach them how to get food, navigate the terrain, and find a nest.

Throughout their lives, they breed and nurture more than one offspring, caring anxiously about it until the chicks are able to independently survive in the wild forest. The life of chicks is complex and unpredictable, only the strongest survive from the large seasonal brood of chicks, the most adapted to the wilderness and, alas, there are not many of them.

As part of the annual campaign Bird Conservation Union of Russia bird of 2017 selected brown-headed tit, or powder... The choice of the bird is due to the fact that this year the program of winter bird counts "Parus" (from the Latin name of the genus of tits) celebrates its 30th anniversary. The Great Tit already bore the title "Bird of the Year", so it is natural that it went to the brown-headed tit.

Brown-headed gadget(Parus atricapillus) is a bird of the titmouse family, a detachment of passerines. Length reaches 12-14 cm, weight 10-12 g, wingspan 16-22 cm. Wing length - 7, tail - 6 cm.

general characteristics

The brown-headed tit or powder is a small gray nondescript bird. Dense build, with a large head, short neck. The head is black from above with a brown tinge; The dark cap extends far back, capturing the occipital region of the back, shoulders, loin and upper tail are gray with a brownish tint. The sides of the head and neck are white, with a black spot on the head. The ventral side is off-white on the sides, the undertail with a pale reddish tinge. The chubby chick is named for its manner of fluffing up its plumage strongly in cold weather.

The brown-headed tit is widespread in the plain and mountain forests of the northern hemisphere: v North America, Europe (except for its southern regions), in the northern parts of Asia, in the Caucasus, Sakhalin and the Japanese islands. This resident, partially nomadic bird flies during wanderings outside the range, both in the north and in the south.

Compared to other congeners, the powder is less inclined towards anthropogenic landscapes, less often it appears in settlements. However, he willingly visits feeders in forest parks and on the outskirts of cities.

Gadgets keep in pairs all the time, forming in autumn. In March, birds start looking for nesting sites. They nest in coniferous or mixed forests, choosing areas of spruce or pine plantations. Unlike other species of tits, the brown-headed tit can itself hollow out a hollow in trees with a soft, easy

wood decaying in natural conditions (aspen, alder, birch). The hollow hollowed out by a nut tree differs from woodpecker hollows in the irregular shape of the inlet and small internal dimensions: the diameter of the widest (lower) part of the hollow is 5.5-9 cm, the height is about 18 cm, the diameter of the taphole is 2.5-3 cm. from 4-5 to 10-12 days.

Puffs nest in hollows, which they almost always gouge themselves. Only in case of failure, they occupy ready-made shelters, most often using the hollows of crested tits, lesser spotted woodpeckers or their own old hollows. Powders rarely settle in artificial nests. There are several known nests found in very unusual places - under the roots of trees, in old nests of blackbirds, in a slot-like half-hollow, in the trunk of spruce in place

work is desirable. These examples indicate that, despite their specialization (hollowing out hollows), the puffs still retain the elements of behavior characteristic of the entire group of tits. First, the couple lays a few hollows in different places and chisels them one at a time, but then concentrates on chiseling one.

The construction of the nest is very intensive: in an hour there are 12-14 arrivals to the hollow with building material. However, every 1-2 hours the birds usually stop building for several hours. On average, it takes about 3 days to build the nest itself.

The material from which the nest is made is very different. More often the nest is a set of thin soaked bast fibers, small chips, thin dry roots and stalks, dried moss plants, wool of various animals (only thin, short and soft hairs). Less often, the nest is composed of scales from pine trunks and films of birch bark with a small admixture of dried plants and chips; sometimes eggs are laid directly on the bottom of the hollow, on which, in this case, a lot of wood dust and chips are poured.

Reproduction

Having finished the inner lining of the hollow, the chickweed waits 1-5 days and then lays 6-11 (usually 7-9) white eggs with reddish-brown specks. Only female incubates eggs for 13-15 days. All this time the male feeds her. Like most other tits, chicks do not hatch at the same time, but usually for 2 days. On the first day after hatching of the chicks, the female almost does not fly out of the hollow: she warms the chicks and the remaining eggs; the male carries food. On the second day, she is already in to a greater extent participates in feeding chicks, and on the third day begins to regularly feed chicks along with the male. In the future, the female heats the chicks during the day only when it is cold. Spends the night in a nest with chicks. Chicks stay in the nest for 19 days.

Parents bring food to the nest up to 250-300 times a day. After the chicks leave the nest, the adults feed them for 7-10 days. Then the birds are kept in a family flock, usually consisting of 2 old and 7-9 young birds.

In July, such family flocks unite with other species of tits, kinglets and some other birds into large flocks wandering through the forest. In autumn and winter, chickweed can be found in all types of forests, with the onset of cold weather they appear in city parks, gardens, in shrubs along the banks of water bodies. However, they still gravitate towards conifers. Unlike all other species of tits, chicks quite often hammer bark and thin branches, catching insects that live secretly like woodpeckers.

The food of the brown-headed chickpea is very diverse. These are mainly small Homoptera, which are consumed in huge numbers, as well as Lepidoptera, represented exclusively by caterpillars, and beetles (weevils and leaf beetles predominate among them). Spiders, hymenoptera, and in winter and spring plant seeds (mainly pine and spruce) are of no small importance in nutrition. A small amount of chickweed eats bugs, dipterans and other insects. Like some other species of tits, chicks in summer and early autumn store food (insects, spiders, etc.). The tendency to storing food in puffs is very pronounced.

Young puffs begin to hide food as early as July. Powders hide their reserves in a wide variety of places: on coniferous and deciduous trees, less often on bushes, stumps and even on the ground at the base of the trunks. On conifers, powder has stocks in almost all parts of the tree. Hidden food is sometimes covered with a piece of bark or lichen. In a day, one birdie can equip and fill up to two thousand of these storage rooms! The chicks, apparently, do not remember the location of the stocks and find the hidden food by chance, on a par with the first discovered. The use of reserves sometimes begins almost immediately after they have been stored. Part of the found stocks are eaten by birds, and some are hidden again. Thanks to this constant re-hiding, the food is distributed more or less evenly over the area of ​​the plot. The reserves are used collectively, and not only by chicks, but also by many species of tits and other wintering birds. Gadgets can serve as a model for matrimonial

loyalty, which is based on the mutual sympathy of partners and the habit of living in the same territory.

Exterminating in huge quantities a variety of insects - pests of pine and spruce, the brown-headed tit brings undoubted and great benefits. It should also be taken into account that chickpeas prey on insects that live under the bark of thin twigs and therefore are inaccessible to woodpeckers, which cannot hold on to such thin twigs, and even more so to other species of birds incapable of chiselling. Brown-headed chicks, gouging out hollows, create, along with woodpeckers, a “housing stock” for other small hollow-nesting birds (tits, flycatchers, etc.).

The powder has two main types of song: demonstrative (whistling) and territorial (gurgling). The whistle song is published in series of 4-8 syllables. The second song is quieter, consisting of characteristic gurgling sounds and a rapidly repeating intermittent squeak. With all the variety of functions of singing in the powder, the whistling song is used mainly for attraction, gurgling, most likely, for marking the territory. In any case, it is published by individuals who already have a territory, or by birds claiming it. There is, moreover, a "courting" or "babbling" song, uttered by a male when courting a female.

Relentless statistics show that in the first year of life only a third out of 1000 chickweed survives, about 50 birds manage to survive to 5 years, and only three to 6-7 years. The maximum known life expectancy of the powder is 9 years.

How can we help the bird of the year? Of course, organize winter feeding. But in order to help the chicks survive the winter, the feeder should be hung on the outskirts of the village or village, and for the townspeople - in the park or forest park. And do not forget to replenish feed stocks in it!

It is necessary to change not the best human stereotypes of behavior during outdoor recreation. The fact is that the brown-headed tit reacts more sharply than all hollow-nesting birds to a picnic holiday with bonfires (since in this situation, first of all, small dry trees necessary for nesting are cut down). The brown-headed tit disappears from the forests in which sanitary felling was carried out, after drainage works, it does not tolerate the park improvement carried out in its habitats.

In 2017, declared in Russia as the Year of Specially Protected Natural Areas and the Year of Ecology, caring for the brown-headed tit will help all of us not only form the ecological culture of the population, but also preserve the world for people

Stories, poems and riddles about gadgets

Prishvin M. Gaichki / M. Prishvin // Forest floors: stories for children / M. Prishvin. - Moscow: Makhaon, 2000 .-- S. 73-75.

Prishvin M. Gaichki / M. Prishvin // Birch bark tube: a collection of stories. - Moscow: Malysh, 1983 .-- S. 9-10.

Prishvin M. Gaichki / M. Prishvin // Squirrel memory: stories from the life of the forest. - Moscow: Russian book, 1995 .-- S. 44-45.

Mystery

What a small bird,
Fussy singer,
Lives in mixed forests
Near rivers and swamps?
Flies in a black cap
Stores food by winter.
This little bird,
What is the name? ... (Gaichka)

Sergey Bozhenov

Small titmouse

Small powdery and he's a gadget,
But tireless in movement.
Very mischievous boy
His sliding amuses him.

Irina Kiseleva

In a shiny black hat
Small bird nimbly
Catches flies and spiders
For their own chicks.
Grabbed and carried to the hollow.
There, in the nest, the chicks are warm.
Eat beloved ones
Happy mom and dad!

Literature

Boehme R.[Brown-headed gaichka] / R. Boehme, A. Kuznetsov // Birds of the forests and mountains of Russia: a guide for the teacher / R. Boehme, A. Kuznetsov. - Moscow: Education, 2009 .-- P. 167.

Vtorov P.[Brown-headed tit] / P. Vtorov, N. Drozdov // Keys to the birds of the fauna of the USSR: a guide for the teacher / P. Vtorov, N. Drozdov. - Moscow: Education, 1980 .-- P. 182.

Panov E. If you don't remember, you won't survive / E. Panov // Svirel. - 2014. - No. 6. - P. 16-20.

[Titmouse family]// Animal life: in 7 volumes. T. 7. - Moscow: Education, 1986. - S. 437-438.

Electronic resources

Brown-headed gadget// http://sinizi.narod.ru/gayka.html.

Brown-headed gadget// http://libertempo.ru/gaichka/.

Brown-headed gadget// http://www.faunarusi.ru/redbook/birds/.

Bird of the Year - 2017// http://www.rbcu.ru/news/press/32900/.

Birds in focus// http://lacr1ma.livejournal.com/19239.html.

Brown-headed tit: memo for the leaders of children's reading / Primorskaya Krai. children b-ka; comp. A.S. Chernomorskaya. - Vladivostok, 2017 .-- 5 p. - (Bird of the Year in Russia).

The brown-headed gait is a bird from the titmouse family. In Russia, it is also known as "powder" because of its manner of strongly fluffing feathers in extremely cold weather. Inhabits areas of coniferous forests in Asia and Europe. Unlike other types of tits, it prefers to settle in remote places, but often shows curiosity towards humans.

Brown-headed gadget: description of appearance

The bird has a small dense body, up to 14 cm in length and weighing 9-14 g, a short neck and grayish-brown plumage. The top of the contented large head and the back of the head are matte black. Most of the back, middle and small wings, shoulders, upper tail and loin are brownish-gray in color. The cheeks are white-gray. There is an ocher tint on the sides of the neck. On the front of the throat there is a so-called shirt-front - a large black spot. The beak has a dirty-white bottom of the bird with a slight buffy tint on the sides, legs and feet are dark gray.

The brown-headed tit in the field can easily be confused with the black-headed one. The difference between them is that the powder has a matte, rather than shiny black cap and a grayish longitudinal stripe on the secondary flight wings. The most striking feature of these birds is their singing.

Habitat

The brown-headed gait is found in the forest zones of Eurasia, from the east of Great Britain and central regions of France, and ending with the Pacific coast and the Japanese islands. In the north, it lives in areas of woody vegetation, as well as the Scandinavian and Finnish forest-tundra. In the south, it is found in the steppes.

The brown-headed tit tends to live in lowland coniferous, mountainous and mixed forests, in which pine, larch, spruce grow, as well as river floodplains and wetlands. In Siberia, it settles in the dark coniferous taiga with willows and alder thickets.

In Europe, it mainly lives among the shrub vegetation of floodplain forests, on the edges and groves. In mountainous areas, it occurs at an altitude of 2000 m to 2745 m, for example, in the Tien Shan. Outside the breeding season, birds tend to climb much higher. For example, in Tibet, powder was seen at an altitude of 3960 m above sea level.

Lifestyle

Birds of this species nest in April and May. They lead mainly in hollows, which are located in stumps and dead trees at a short distance from the ground. The brown-headed gadget, like woodpeckers, prefers to hollow out its dwelling in rotten shabby wood. The depth of the hollows is about 20 cm, and the diameter is 6-8 cm.

Puffs are engaged in arranging the nest in pairs, which they find for themselves in the fall. Males in the first year of life are looking for females in the nearest territory (no more than five kilometers). If they fail to do this, they fly away to distant regions of the forest.

On average, it takes one to two weeks to equip a nest for puffs. For this, birds use branches, tree bark, birch bark, wool and feathers. Powder nests differ from the dwellings of other species of chickweed in that they do not carry moss into their home. Tit - brown-headed chick - likes to make hiding places with plant seeds, but most often forgets about the location of the treasure.

Food

The puffs feed on various small invertebrates and larvae. Thus, chickpeas provide tremendous benefits to the forest ecosystem, as they regulate the number of insects. In addition, they feed on the fruits and seeds of plants.

In summer, the diet of an adult chickpea is divided equally between food of animal and plant origin. In winter, they feed mainly on juniper, pine and spruce seeds. Chicks are fed by spiders, butterfly caterpillars with the addition of plant food. Adult puffs eat earthworms, bees, weevils, flies, mosquitoes, ants, ticks and even snails.

Plant-based foods include grains such as wheat, corn, oats and barley. From berries, gaits prefer cranberries, mountain ash, lingonberries, blueberries and cotoneaster. He rarely visits bird feeders.

Reproduction

This season coincides with the construction of the nests. Puffs find themselves a mate in the first year of life and stay together until one of them dies. The life span of brown tit is no more than nine years.

Courtship of males is accompanied by songs and flapping of wings. Before mating, they defiantly bring food to the females. Before the start of laying, the birds resume the arrangement of the nest. Thus, by the beginning of hatching, the chickens are covered with a layer of litter. Clutch usually consists of 5-9 white eggs with reddish-brown specks. Incubation continues for a half month. At this time, the male gets food for the mother and guards the nest. Sometimes the female flies out of the dwelling for a short time and feeds on her own.

Chicks hatch asynchronously over two to three days. At first, they are covered with rare brownish-gray down, the beak cavity has a brownish-yellow tint. The female and the male feed the young together. On average, they bring prey 250-300 times a day. At night and on cool days, the brown-headed gait inseparably sits in a hollow, warming up its offspring. Chicks begin to fly a little after 17-20 days after birth, but they still remain dependent on their parents, since they are not able to get food on their own. In mid-July, bird families flock into nomadic flocks, in which, in addition to tits, you can find pikas, kinglets and nuthatches.

Singing

The vocal repertoire of the brown-headed tit does not have such a variety as, for example, that of the black-headed one. Two types of song are classified: demonstrative (used to attract a pair) and territorial (marks the nesting site). The first type consists of a series of measured, soft-sounding whistles "ty ... ty ..." or "ty ... ty ...". The brown-headed chick (see photo below) sings this song at the same pitch or raises the tone from time to time. Puffs sing all year round, but most often it happens in spring and in the second half of summer.

The territorial whistle, in comparison with the demonstrative one, is much quieter and resembles a gurgling trill with an intermittent squeak. It is performed more often by males than by females. Also, many bird watchers highlight the "babbling" song. A frequent call includes the high-pitched sounds "qi-qi" typical of the titmouse family, behind which one can almost always hear the rattling and rougher "jee ... jee ...".

The brown-headed tit (Parus montanus), or in another way the powder, is a small tit, mainly inhabiting the forests of Asia and Europe. This species was first described by the Swiss naturalist Thomas Kornad von Baldenstein. Previously, most authors considered the titmouse as a subgenus Poecile, belonging to the larger genus of tits (Parus). The Latin name Parus montanus is widely used all over the world. However, more recently, scientists, based on genetic analyzes, found out that the bird has only distant relationship with the rest of the titmouse. Therefore, American ornithologists demand the return of the previous name of the bird, which on Latin sounds like Poecile montanus.

Features

A distinctive feature of the black-headed gadget is preference this bird species live in coniferous forests... In this regard, the titmouse is most often found in northern latitudes. For their habitat, brown-headed chicks choose dense forests, overgrown river banks and other places far from people. Despite this, the puffs are of great interest in humans and prefer to feast on the remnants of human food. This species of tits is sedentary.

The diet of the brown-headed tit includes both plant food in the form of plant seeds and animal food in the form of larvae and invertebrate insects. This bird nests not high above the ground. Prefers trunks of lifeless trees as a nesting place. The season for hatching eggs of this species is April-May. The hollow of a chickweed plucks out itself with the help of its beak, but it is also not averse to use and ready dwelling of other birds... From 5 to 9 eggs can be found in this bird's nest. white in a red speck.

This species is one of the most common among the entire genus, slightly inferior to the great tit. The bird got its name due to the fact that in the cold season it fluffs up and becomes more voluminous in size.

What does a brown-headed tit look like?

This type of bird has a nondescript plumage of a grayish-brown color. The large head is located on a short neck. The bird has small size but a solid build. The upper part of the head, as well as the back of the head, has black plumage. This color extends far from the back of the head to the front of the back. The rest of the back, wings, as well as the shoulders, lumbar region and upper tail are brownish-gray. The cheeks are whitish in color.

The sides in the neck area are also light, but with a touch of ocher. There is a large black spot on the front of the throat. The lower part of the bird has white-gray plumage, with a touch of ocher color on the sides and in the region of the undertail. The beak, characteristic of these birds, is brown. The legs of this bird are dark gray in color.

The brown-headed gadget can often be confused with the black-headed one. A distinctive feature of the brown-headed tit is the black cap, which extends over the back of a matte rather than shiny color. Due to its large black spot and a gray stripe in the area of ​​the flight feathers, it can also be distinguished from the black-headed gadget.

Singing brown-headed gadget

The bird's vocalization is also an important distinguishing feature. Unlike the black-headed tit, the brown-headed one has a more meager repertoire. In reserve the bird has only 3 types of songs:

Reproduction

The breeding season for brown-headed tit is considered to be the period from April to May. In July, birds appear, already ready to fly. These birds find their pair already in the first year of life, mainly in winter period, and live in this composition until one of the partners dies.

During the courtship period, you can see how the male runs after the female, while both sexes make shaking movements with their wings, and also arch the body. Before mating, the male presents food to the female representative and at this time sings his babbling song.

Nest hardware

These birds nest mainly in one area, which is protected throughout the year. The nest, as already described above, is created at a low height of up to 3 meters and is equipped in the trunks of a dead tree or stump of trees such as birch, aspen or larch. Pulls out the hole for the hollow of the powder himself or uses the finished one after other birds. Sometimes the brown-headed tit uses the nests of squirrels as a hollow.

Equips and equips the nest of a female tit. This long process and takes from 4 days to 2 weeks. If this is preceded by unfavorable conditions, the process of building a nest is delayed up to 24-25 days. The size of the nest in these birds is 10-20 cm deep, and the diameter reaches 2.5-3.5 cm. Other tits most often line the inside with moss. For these purposes, brown-headed chickens usually use birch bark, small pieces of bark, bast in the form of stripes, as well as wool and feathers of small size, and only sometimes moss is used in construction.

Eggs and chicks

After the construction has been completed, the chicks rest for up to 5 days, and then from the moment the first egg is laid, they continue to line the nest with soft materials. As a result, when the female begins to hatch eggs, the nest is completely lined with litter. The brown-headed tit lays eggs of white color in the amount of 5 to 9 pieces. Distinctive feature eggs are red specks and dots, intensifying towards the blunt end. Hatching eggs lasts about 2 weeks. While the female prepares the eggs for hatching, the male protects her and the territory adjacent to the nest, and also takes care of nutrition. In rare cases, the female, without waiting for the male, goes in search of food herself.

Chicks do not appear all at the same time, but separately. This process can take 2-3 days. Newborn chicks are characterized by a rare brownish-gray down, which covers small areas of the head and back. The chicks also differ in the yellow or yellow-brown shade of the beak cavity.

The chicks are fed by both partners and bring food up to 300 times a day... At night, as well as in cold weather, the female heats the chicks with her body and does not leave for a minute. Already in 17-20 days after hatching, the chicks are able to fly, but they still do not know how to get food for themselves, therefore their life is still completely dependent on their parents.

In the period from mid-July, mature chicks join their parents and other birds, forming flocks. Sometimes other bird species are present in flocks, such as yellow-headed beetles and nuthatches. In this composition, they wander from place to place, right up to deep winter.

In the winter season there is hierarchical authority in packs, in which males put themselves above females, and older pairs of birds dominate young chicks. This bird species most often lives in the same territory, in rare cases changing its location within a radius of no more than 5 km.

Bird feeding

• In the winter season, the diet of the bird consists of plant foods in the form of seeds of juniper, pine, and also spruce. One fourth of the entire diet is food of animal origin in the form of sleeping insects, which the chickweed actively extracts from the secluded places of trees and needles.
• In the summer season, the diet consists of half of plant foods in the form of fruits and berries and animal origin in the form of larvae and insects.

Young birds mainly feed on spiders, sawfly larvae, as well as small caterpillars of future butterflies. Then, young chickpeas add food of plant origin to their diet.

In adults, the diet is more varied, and food of animal origin includes:

• butterflies at all stages of development;
• small spiders;
• small beetles, mostly weevils;
• hymenoptera insects such as wasps and bees;
• Diptera insects: flies, midges, and mosquitoes;
• retina-winged insects;
• grasshoppers;
• earthworms;
• snail;
• ticks.

Plant foods include:

• cereals such as oats, corn and others;
• seeds, as well as the fruits of plants such as burdock, horse sorrel, cornflower and others;
• seeds and fruits of trees such as birch and alder;
• berries of shrubs and trees such as blueberries, mountain ash, cranberries, lingonberries.

Powders feed in the middle and lower tier of the forest, and on rare occasions they sink to the ground. These birds love to hang upside down, on thin twigs, in this state they can often be found in the forest or other habitat.

Stocks of brown-headed tit

Puffs are very thrifty birds. Birds begin to store food for the winter in summer and autumn. Sometimes the brown-headed chickens hide the found food in winter. Juveniles begin collecting stocks in July.

The places where the stocks of chickweed are stored can be very diverse. Most often, birds hide food in tree trunks, as well as on bushes and stumps. To prevent anyone from discovering the reserves, the powders cover them with pieces of bark. In just one day, this small bird can build up to 2 thousand of such food caches.

These birds often forget where food was hidden and find some food quite by accident. Some reserves are sold immediately after their construction, and some are hidden again. Thanks to these actions, food is distributed evenly throughout the territory. In addition to brown-headed nuts, other birds also use these reserves.

Life span

V wildlife such a bird lives from 2 to 3 years. According to bird watchers, on rare occasions this bird species can live up to 9 years.

Pairs of these tits show an amazing affection for certain areas of the forest of 10-20 hectares. Their whole life is spent in this limited area, which they can cross in a matter of minutes. But here every tree is perfectly remembered, they know where you can find food, a place to sleep, silt and nests. Every day, flying from tree to tree, they leisurely move around their site in search of food, passing a winding path of 3-5 kilometers.

Brown-headed chicks have two songs, completely different from one another. The so-called whistle song is a series of loud beautiful whistles: "tiu-tiu-tiu-tiu". Each bird uses several of its options, differing in height and tempo of performance. This song can be heard already in the first sunny days winters, late December. But most of all, it attracts attention in March, when there are still few other singing birds. Together with bullfinches, pikas, kinglets and great titmice, the puffs create the sound background of the forest that has just been awakened in spring.

The second song of the powder - gurgling - is quite quiet and consists of alternating trills: "si-sisi-sisis-tyur-r-lyu-lyu-lyu ..." Not only the males, but also the females, sing. The whistle song is most often used to attract the female and maintain communication between partners. The bubbling one serves as a sign that the individual has territory and is going to nest here. A special quiet version of the gurgling song is sung by males, caring for females.

When the forest is filled with the sound of spring streams, and on their banks they bloom yellow flowers mother-and-stepmothers, the puffs begin to look for a place for a nest. Like all tits, they nest in hollows. However, unlike other European tits, powdery and crested tits prefer to hollow out themselves. Living trunks are too strong for their small beaks. Therefore, they choose stumps and dead trees with soft rotten wood for hollows. Male and female take turns flying up to the tree and quickly nibble on the rotten wood. Having typed as many pieces into the beak as possible, one bird flies to the side, and another bird takes its place without hesitation. Making a hollow, the puffs do not throw chips directly under it - after all, those, whitening brightly on the forest floor, can give out the location of the nest. With pieces of wood, they fly away and often do not just throw, but hide between the needles, behind the peeling bark, in the holes in the place of the fallen knots.

The shape of the finished hollow is variable and depends on the location of the soft and hard areas of the wood. And when strong knots make the puffs make a very intricate move into the hollow. Most often, the depth of the hollow is 14-16, and the bottom diameter is 7-8 centimeters. The nests of the brown-headed tit are very different from the nests of other tits - they have no moss. This is a rather sloppy lining of strips of bast of juniper, aspen, hazel, pine bark scales, wool and feathers. Like all titmice, one female builds the nest, and the male accompanies her on flights for building material.

Along with woodpeckers, puffs are suppliers of hollows for other small birds - hollow nests, since every year they make a new hollow. Especially often they are occupied by pied flycatchers. Sometimes they unceremoniously drive out puffs even from new hollows, forcing them to abandon eggs or small chicks.

The chicks begin to lay their eggs later than other tits, in early May. The female spends the night in the nest, where the male accompanies her every evening. In the morning, he again flies up to the hollow and calls his girlfriend with a quiet song. Every morning before leaving the nest, the female lays one white egg with brown specks. The birds spend the whole day together. The female often begs for food from the male, reminding at this moment of a fledgling chick asking for food. And she screams like a chick: "si-ti-chje". From time to time, the male gives her the found food, which is very important for the female during the period of intensive development of her eggs, each of which weighs about 1.2 grams and makes up about a tenth of the body weight of an adult bird. In the first half of the day, the female returns to the nest several times, bringing tufts of wool, dry blades of grass to cover the unfinished clutch.

The first two days after the appearance of the offspring, the female spends most of the day in the hollow, warming up almost naked babies, with a rare fluff on the head, shoulders and back. There are usually seven or eight chicks. Mainly the male provides food for the whole family. Then the female increasingly leaves the nest and participates in feeding the chicks along with the male.

Brown-headed chicks often feed their chicks - 300-500 times a day. The food is mainly spiders, caterpillars and sawfly larvae. They bring them eggshells, lumps of earth, shells of ground mollusks. For the entire period of nesting life (about 19 days), about 20-30 thousand (800 grams) of various invertebrates disappear in the yellow mouths of chicks.

Chicks leave the nest, already being able to fly well. This usually happens early in the morning. For a long time, the chicks peep through the hole into a new world for them, until the first one suddenly dares to fly. The others fly out after him and never return to the nest again. Anxious parents often scream and sing a whistling song. They accompany each chick on the first flight to the place where it will sit, and immediately feed it.