Crake what a squad. White-winged Crake (Porzana exquisita)

A medium-sized bird, a marsh-meadow species, lives in Europe and Asia, often found in the Western Siberian region. Crake - represents the family of railing birds. It received several more names - swamp crake, swamp hen and shepherd.

Description of the crake

A small bird with variegated plumage and long legs of a yellowish and green hue, which are equipped with large toes. The neck and head of the crake are clearly gray with small light inclusions. The beak is cone-shaped, shortened and straight, with a reddish base and gray with a yellowish tip. The iris of the eyes is red with yellowish tint.

The plumage on the back and wings is brown with an olive tint, covered with dark and white spots. The bird's belly is lighter in color, mixed with ocher, and also covered with spots. The wings of the crake are somewhat rounded, they are small, with dark spots along the edges. The bird's tail always sticks out, and under it the color of the plumage has a creamy tint.

The crake is so miniature that it has a mass of no more than 130 g and a body length of 21-24 cm. Females differ little from males, except that they have a slightly lighter color. Young crakes are distinguished by a light throat color. The lifespan of a bird is 7 years.

Voice

The bird has a very melodic whistle, especially in the spring, at night, when the crake is in mating season. This whistle can be heard over a long distance. The trill is very rhythmic, the singing is abrupt. At other times, the crake is silent, sometimes making quiet and short sounds. Only a frightened bird can scream sharply in a high voice. During the spring return to nesting sites, crakes sometimes whistle while flying.

Types of Crake

- a migratory bird, inhabitant of overgrown swamps, water meadows and lake shores of the Eurasian continent. Usually moves with long strides. During the flight, it stays low above the ground, its legs droop somewhat, and the crake flies in a straight path. Breeds in Russia from the European part to Lake Baikal, in the basins of Western Siberian rivers. The bird's wintering grounds take place in Africa or the Mediterranean Sea.

It differs from its ordinary brother in smaller proportions, its weight is just over 70 g, females are even more miniature. The length of the bird is up to 20 cm. This subspecies has green paws and beak, which has a small reddish spot at the base.

The plumage is a pleasant brownish color with dark and white stripes on the back and dark ones located along the sides. The bird's belly is gray with blue. He loves reed beds and leads an active lifestyle during the day. Not as secretive as an ordinary crake.

It lives in Eastern Europe, the bird is common in the Western Siberian region. In autumn it migrates to the Mediterranean Sea, to the north and east of Africa. In March it returns to its nesting sites. Life expectancy 6 years.

has a reputation as the smallest European bird from the rail family. It is very similar in color to the small crake, but differs in the beige color of its paws, as well as its green beak without a red spot. This small bird with a weight of 40-50 g and a length of 17 cm has brown plumage with more pronounced dark stripes on the sides along the body.

The bird is common in southern Asia and Africa, lives in Madagascar, India, Australia and Japan. Rarely found in central Europe. Winters in the Mediterranean and southern African continent.

- a very rare species that has been little studied. Nests were found in Primorye, Transbaikalia and in one province of northeastern China. For the winter it flies to Japan and southern China. The number of this crake with white wings is unknown, as is its lifestyle.

Range and habitats

For nesting, the crake prefers the European part of Russia with a northern and temperate climate and Western Siberia. In the eastern direction, the bird spreads to the Angara and its left tributary, the Irkut. The northern habitat of the crake in Western Siberia reaches the Ob and its basin.

The bird nests in large numbers in Northern and Eastern Europe. It is rare in Western European countries, usually only in certain regions of Spain and also Italy.

Crake can be found in the western regions of Mongolia and China. This bird also lives in Central Asia. It happens that nesting places become the territory of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and even Iran.

The favorite habitats of the crake are swampy creeks with stagnant water, wet meadows, shallows of freshwater reservoirs, backwaters, overgrown banks of lakes and rivers. The main condition for the life of a bird is the presence of dense thickets of coastal vegetation, especially if it is cattails, reeds, reeds, sedges or willows.

The crake is prone to a secretive lifestyle in the midst of these coastal plants; it does not appear in open spaces. Leads a twilight and nocturnal lifestyle. It runs energetically in shallow water and on land, easily passing through dense thickets of grass and reeds. All the crake's movements are fast, he is not inclined to stay in one place for a long time, and is constantly moving.

Molting of a bird

When the nesting period ends and young birds are already able to fly independently, the crake begins molting. This usually occurs from the end of July to October. It all depends on the time when the brood appears.

The birds begin to change their entire plumage; for a certain period they lose the ability to fly, as the steering and flight wings are being replaced; after about three weeks, the wings grow back and the birds are ready to migrate to warmer climes.

Migration

Crake is a migratory bird. Only in the Southern Caspian Sea is there a population of sedentary cranes. This species prepares for migration from July, but migrates only with the onset of August and even September. Be sure to take breaks along the way and rest.

From the European part of Russia, birds fly to Southern Europe, to the Mediterranean Sea. Some go to the African north. A considerable number of cranes flock to the west and east of Africa, where there are many swamps, flying over the Sahara Desert.

Crake populations from eastern Russia are moving to Pakistan and India. There are cases that birds settle for the winter in Azerbaijan or in other Transcaucasian countries - Georgia, Armenia. It happens that they settle in the Ukrainian Black Sea region, in the Odessa region.

What does the crake bird eat?

This nimble bird finds food both on the water surface and on coastal land plants and is omnivorous. The crake menu consists of animal and plant components:

• algae;
• seeds and shoots of plants;
• insects;
• insect larvae;
• shellfish;
• aquatic invertebrates;
• small fish.

During nesting, the crake feeds close to the nest. Usually the bird arranges its feeding at the border of thickets and water. There, on coastal plants, it eats their seeds and stem parts, and pecks various insects, as well as their larvae, from the leaves.

But this does not exclude the extraction of small mollusks and other invertebrates in the water or the hunting of fish fry, sometimes eating carrion. Willingly eats algae. For feeding, the crake chooses not only the daylight hours, but with the same activity it finds food in the evening hours and even in the darkness of the night.

Reproduction and offspring of the bastard

The crake reaches sexual maturity at the end of the first or at the beginning of the second year of life. Mating pairs are formed once and exist until the end of the birds’ lives. The crake makes nests in coastal thickets of reeds, sedges, cattails or reeds. Each pair has its own nesting area; other nests are located ten meters away.

Birds most often make their nests on hummocks, in the thickest of greenery. Moreover, they camouflage it well from all sides, covering it even from above, leaving only one approach to it. The female and the male are involved in the construction of the nest together; they give it the shape of a tray with high walls. Birds make it from dry stems, reeds, sedge leaves, cattails, and various herbs. The bottom of the nest is covered with soft leaves.

In most cases, a crake has 8 eggs in a clutch, sometimes 10 or more. The female lays one egg per day. Birds begin to incubate the clutch when half of the eggs have been laid, and the male and female do this alternately. If the bird is disturbed by something during incubation, it leaves the nest, but remains nearby and screams loudly.

The incubation period lasts an average of 20 days. Crake chicks gradually hatch from the eggs over 5-7 days. Moreover, those chicks that hatched first and dried out in the nest are fed and led by the male, and the female sits on the remaining eggs. For 2-3 weeks, the parents take on all the worries about the defenseless chicks, taking care of their nutrition, warmth and safety.

In the first days of the chicks’ lives, the crucian feeds them, placing insects in their open beaks; after three days, the chicks themselves try to peck at the food. The chicks switch to completely independent feeding when they turn 20 days old, but the male and female continue to bring them food.

Closer to one month, small birds already know how to flutter. But the broods stay together, not far from the nest and parents. At the age of 40-50 days, young crakes begin to fly. By August they can already fly.

Dangers and Enemies

Since the crake chooses overgrown banks with water as its habitat, it is not easy for predators to get close to this bird. And it’s not difficult for a bird to quickly hide in coastal vegetation. Nests with clutches hidden in the thickets are also inaccessible to predators.

But sometimes nests containing eggs die due to a sudden rise in water; they can be washed away by waves in strong winds. Grass burning and summer floods can also destroy crake clutches.

It happens that the nests of this bird are still found and destroyed by birds of prey such as magpies, crows or marsh harrier. In the southern regions, the clutch of crakes can also become prey for predatory animals; ferrets, weasels, badgers, weasels or foxes can encroach on them.

But much more often, crakes die during migration, crashing into various obstacles in the dark; electrical lines are especially dangerous for them when flying. It is very rare that a bird becomes infected with helminths.

As for hunting crabs by hunters, this often happens along the way when hunting other swamp game. The bird's carcass is small, so there is little interest in preying on the crake, although it is a game bird species.

Still, the crane is often hunted with a dog; the best breed for this is a spaniel. The energetic dog quickly makes the crake take off. Since the bird flies low and slowly, hunters easily overtake it with a small shot from a gun.

Population and species status

On the territory of Russia, the crake does not require protective measures. But in some Western European countries, the bird received the status of an endangered species, so it was listed in the Red Book of these states. There are very few places left where crakes can nest.

But the small crake was included in the list as a species of nesting bird that is under threat of extinction. The extremely rare white-winged crake is also in danger of extinction.

Taste and dishes made from crab

Crake meat has a delicate taste; it is not without reason that it is called swamp chicken. Fans especially appreciate it when a bird is caught in the autumn, before leaving for the winter. At this time, the crake has time to gain fat, its meat becomes especially nutritious. 0

Crake - Porzanaporzana Linnaeus, 1766

Order Crane-like animals - Gruiformes

Family: Rallidae

Category, status. 3 - rare species. Listed in the Red Book of the Republic of Latvia and the IUCN Red Book. Included in Appendix II of the Berne Convention, Appendix II of the Bonn Convention, and is on the list of species protected in Europe (SPECIV). Listed under the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA).

Short description. A small bird with a characteristic shepherd appearance. The entire dorsal side is olive with large dark and small white streaks. The front part of the body is gray. Transverse white stripes are clearly visible on the sides of the body. The beak is yellow, with a bright orange spot at the base. Legs are olive green. The cry resembles the whistling of a shepherd’s whip “whit-whit” (10).

Area and distribution. Central and Southern Europe, Western and Central Asia. In Europe - from Belgium, Holland to Norway, Sweden, Finland (64° N); south to Spain, Italy and Greece. The northern border of the range reaches 64° north latitude in the Ob basin (4).

In the Pskov region it is a migratory, nesting and migratory species. Distributed within the region: meetings were noted in Bezhanitsky (11), Velikoluksky (4), Gdovsky (8), Kunyinsky (9), Nevelsky (9), Pechersky (1, 2), Pskovsky (6), Pushkinogorsky (7), Sebezhsky (9), Strugo-Krasnensky (3) and Usvyatsky districts (9).

Habitats and biological features. Prefers reed, reed, sedge and shrub thickets of standing reservoirs, quiet river backwaters, swamps and damp meadows.

Breeds in separate pairs. The nest is usually placed on a small hummock among a damp meadow overgrown with grass, less often in dry reeds, sedge or on a hummock in the shallow water of a swamp. In the nest there are from 8 to 15 eggs of a protective color.

It feeds on animal food, mainly aquatic mollusks, insects and their larvae; to a lesser extent plant foods (2).

Species abundance and limiting factors. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the crake was a common breeding species in the Pskov province (5). Currently, its numbers are unknown and are obviously decreasing. Reduction of habitats under the influence of anthropogenic factors: land reclamation, drainage of swamps.

Security measures. Identification and protection of habitats.

Information sources:

1. Bardin, 2002; 2. Borisov et al., 2007; 3. Bublichenko et al., 2005; 4. Dementyev et al., 1954; 5. Zarudny, 1910; 6. Ilyinsky, Fetisov, 1997; 7. Malchevsky, 2007; 8. Mu-satov, Fetisov, 2006; 9. Fetisov, 2009; 10. Flint, 2000; 11. Shemyakina, Yablokov, 2013.

Compiled by: V.V. Borisov.

Rallidae

The birds are medium and small in size. The body is somewhat compressed laterally. The wings are short and blunt. The fingers are long and thin, allowing them to move through marshy places. They fly reluctantly and heavily, but during the migration period they cover long distances without landing. Most rails lead a secretive lifestyle in dense thickets of coastal vegetation or in thickets of meadow grasses. Many are active at dusk and at night. They feed on small invertebrates, seeds, and algae. The fauna of the USSR includes 12 species.

Landrail

126. Crake - Crex crex.

Noticeably larger than the starling. The feathers on the back are dark brown with buffy streaks, the throat is whitish, the chest and craw are buffy-gray. Migrant. Inhabits damp meadows and fields north to 62-64° N. sh., east to Yakutia and Baikal, south to the desert regions of Southern Kazakhstan and Central Asia. The nest is built on the ground. The clutch contains 8-12 ocher eggs with red-brown spots. Active at night. Very secretive. The voice is a raspy cry of “crack-crack-crack.” Easily identified by its characteristic cry. When taking off, the dangling legs are striking.

Crake

127. Crake - Porzana porzana.

Slightly larger than a starling. The plumage is dark, with light and dark streaks above, bluish-gray below with white spots, and transverse stripes on the sides. The base of the beak is red, the end is green-yellow, and the paws are greenish. Migrant. Inhabits grassy swamps and overgrown banks of reservoirs from the western borders of the country to the middle reaches of the Podkamennaya Tunguska, to the north - to 61-64° N. w. The nest is built on the ground. The clutch contains 8-10 dirty-buff or greenish-buff eggs with brownish spots. Active at dusk and at night. It stays secretive and takes off rarely and reluctantly. The bird moves well on flooded plants and water lily leaves. The voice is a sharp, far-audible whistle “whit-whit-whit”.

Quite easily identified by its characteristic cry. It differs from other crakes in having an undertail without stripes and being larger in size.

Small Crake. Water Shepherd

128. Small Crake - Porzana parva.

129. Water Shepherd - Pallus aquaticus.

Slightly smaller than a pigeon. The dorsal side is slate-black with streaks, and there are black and white stripes on the sides. The ventral side is steel gray in color. The beak is relatively long, slightly curved downwards. Migratory, sometimes resident in the south. Inhabits the shores of various bodies of water overgrown with reeds, sedges, reeds, forbs and shrubs, from the western borders of the country to the southern Kuril Islands, penetrating north to 58-62° N. w. The nest is built on a hummock or reed crease. The clutch consists of 7-10 ocher eggs with red-brown spots. Activity is mainly at night. A very secretive bird. It takes off reluctantly, and can swim and dive. Voice - strong, shrill and repeated "whit-whit-whit" or sharp "tilk".

Easily distinguished by its distinctive call, noticeable striping on the sides and downward curved beak.

Status.

Breeding and migratory, partly wintering species.

General characteristics and field characteristics.

Total length 210-250 mm. The coloring from a distance looks uniformly dark; up close, small light streaks and transverse stripes on the sides of the body and a white undertail are clearly visible.

The beak is short. It is rare to see a crake at the edge of thickets on reservoirs and, as an exception, in the air, suddenly raised on the wing. The crake runs superbly and quickly in dense thickets of grasses and bushes, through marshy muddy shallows, and amazingly deftly makes its way through the creases of reed thickets. It avoids open spaces of water, overcomes them by air, but in case of danger it can swim and even dive. In dense thickets of hard emergent vegetation it feels safe, stays noisy, gurgles with water, screams; in open places it is silent and at the slightest hint of danger hides in the thickets.

It differs from other closely related species of crakes by its larger size, from the corncrake by its dark color, and from the water rail by its short conical beak.

Description. Coloring.

Male in breeding plumage .The front of the forehead and the stripe above the eye are slate-gray, the frenulum is dark, almost black, the ear region is buffy with light edges. The throat, front neck and crop are grey. The dorsal side is olive with large black and small white longitudinal streaks. The sides of the body and chest are olive-brown with frequent white speckles. The sides of the body are mottled with transverse white

and ocher stripes. The middle part of the abdomen is light buffy, sometimes covered with sparse spots. The upper wing coverts are olive with spots, the lower wing coverts and axillary wing coverts are brown with a white transverse pattern. The wing fold is white. The primaries are brown, the outer web of the first primaries is white. The tails are black with brown edges.

The undertail is purely reddish.

Female in breeding plumage. The coloration is very similar to the male, but the head and lower part of the body have more light or buffy spots and dots, the lower part of the body is more buffy, as well as the transverse stripes on its sides.

Male and female in winter plumage.

The color resembles the breeding plumage, but is noticeably lighter, especially on the head and throat. There are no bluish-gray tones in the color of the head and neck. White spots are more distinct throughout the body, small contour feathers have light tips.

Downy chick. The overall color is solid black with a noticeable green metallic tint on the head, throat and upper body, with blue skin showing through on the head.

in the intermediate plumage the beak is brown with a yellowish or orangish base.

The legs are olive-green; in the male, the lower leg sometimes has a yellowish or orangish tint in the spring; The downy chick has black legs, grayish-green or olive-green in the intermediate plumage, and brownish-gray claws. Structure and dimensions

. There are 10 primaries. Wing length of males 108.5-119.9 (114.7), females 100.8-118.9 (111.6); beak of males 20.6-29.2 (23.5), females 19.9-26.0 (22.6); tarsus of males - 32-36 (32.6), females 30-35 (32); tail 44-51. Down jacket weight 7-7.5, adult birds: in spring 67-120 (96), in summer 70-120 (90), in autumn 60-130 (110). The wing appears short and slightly rounded. The legs are long with long toes.

Shedding.

- The sequence of changing outfits for a crake: downy nesting - intermediate - first winter (incomplete nuptial) - first nuptial (final) - winter. - The down outfit is formed by dense long soft down, which is replaced by feathers from the age of 12-15 days. - The first stumps on the wings appear at the age of 15-20 days. The nesting plumage is mainly formed by 35-40 days of age. The nesting outfit is finally formed in early Julyearly August. From this time on, young crakes experience partial juvenile molting of the plumage of the head and body, which continues until the end of September. - beginning of October, after which an intermediate outfit is put on. In February - In March, a partial molt takes place, during which the birds put on their nuptial plumage,

it ends in April-May. In this case, most of the contour winter plumage is replaced. The complete molt of adult birds occurs after the end of the nesting period and the young birds rise to the wing from mid-July to October. In some individuals, the molting dates are shifted to August

early September due to late breeding periods. During the post-nesting molt, all plumage changes. The flight feathers and tail feathers fall out at the same time, and the birds lose the ability to fly. The flight feathers grow back in 20 days. The contour feather is replaced gradually; in some individuals this is also observed during migration. The prenuptial molt of adult birds occurs in December.

Nesting area. Everywhere it is very sporadic, the certainty of nesting in many places has not been established due to the secrecy of its lifestyle. Distributed in Europe from Great Britain to the eastern limits and further east to the middle reaches of the river. Irkut. In the north it reaches 64° N. w. on the river Obi. In the south - sporadic in Spain, 1 common in many places in Italy, found in Sicily, possibly in Greece. Further through the Crimea, Ciscaucasia and Northern Kazakhstan it goes east. Breeds in places in Soviet Central Asia. Breeding in Asia Minor has not been proven, but exists in Iran;in Northern Afghanistan unclear; According to some data, it nests in Xinjiang and Western Mongolia, according to others - only on migration. They do not nest in India. In the USSR, the nesting area occupies European territory, excluding the northernmost regions, and the western part of Asian territory.The northern border of the breeding range runs from the Karelian Isthmus in the Leningrad Region. (flights are known to Kandalaksha and near the village of Kovda on the southern coast of the Kola Peninsula; Kokhanov, oral communication), through Arkhangelsk, Ukhta region (screams - - not every year, -

Assessing the pattern of historical changes in the range over the past 100 years is complicated by the sporadic distribution and fluctuations in abundance characteristic of this species from year to year, depending on the water availability of the territory. However, in the central regions of European Russia it has clearly become rare in the last 30 years. So, in the river valley Yakhroma near the city

Dmitrov in 1949-1955. was an ordinary bird, and by the end1960s has become rare here. According to data from the late 19th - early 20th centuries, it nested along the river valley.

The Urals, probably to the very lower reaches, on the middle Emba, near Lake Chelkar-Tengiz and in the lower reaches of the Irgiz, in the Zaisan depression. Now there are no nesting crakes in all these areas.

It appears that in Western Europe the crake expanded its range northward in the 19th century, but then this process ceased everywhere except in Sweden, where it has recently moved further north. Outside the USSR, flights are known to Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Azores, Canary Islands and the Lesser Antilles. Wintering.

April 11-28, in the Volga-Kama region - in mid-April - early May, near Arkhangelsk in the third ten days of May. In Kazakhstan it also appears quite late: in the south from March 29 to April 11, in the Syr Darya delta in early May, in the lower reaches of Ilek from April 20 to May 20, in the Semipalatinsk region. April 25-May 12. In Altai it is recorded from April 25 to May 12, in the south of Western Siberia in the area of ​​Lake Chany they arrive in late April - early May and appear en masse within 4-5 days; in Tomsk, arrival is observed on average from May 12. The earliest sightings of crakes in the spring are reported for the southern regions of the USSR and occur in the first days of March in the south of Ukraine, Transcaucasia, and southern Central Asia; arrival continues until June.

The beginning of autumn movements is associated with the time the young rise to the wing and the disintegration of broods and occurs at the beginning of August; flight ends in September - October; individual individuals linger in the south until December; single individuals spend the winter. The passage ends with the freezing of fresh inland water bodies. The crake flies away from Moldova

in September, until September 25, in Crimea from mid-August to the end of September, belated ones were encountered on November 9 - 15 and even December 9.In the Leningrad region. flies away at the end of August - September, in Belarus - in September - October, until November 5, in the Volga-Kama region - in August - September, until September 25, at the mouth of the river. Samur flies into the Western Caspian mainly on the 20th of October (1980 and 1981), although it occurs until mid-November (V.T. Butyev, personal communication). In Kazakhstan it flies early - from the end of August- early September and flies until November, the main flight is September 15 - October 15. Near Tomsk it stays until September 20 - 28, in the south of Western Siberia (Lake Chany and Altai) it flies away in August - September, the last young birds were caught on October 7-26, adult birds fly awayapparently earlier.

During migration, crakes stay solitary and rarely form loose aggregations (“rashes”) in favorable places. Flight occurs exclusively at night; some birds fly low from the ground, as evidenced by the finds of dead individuals under telegraph wires. With the onset of darkness, the crakes run out of the thickets onto the mudflats, behave animatedly, and in complete darkness they rise on the wing and fly away.

For the day they stop before dawn in dense thickets of grasses and shrubs, often on land.

Habitat.During nesting time, crakes inhabit shallow water bodies overgrown with reeds, cattails, sedges, reed grass and shrubs in desert, semi-desert, steppe, forest-steppe and forest zones and in the mountains up to an altitude of 860-1120 m above sea level. m. in Altai and up to 1800-2420 m in the Caucasus. It penetrates far to the north along the valleys of large rivers. Basic nesting condition

Number.

2 Taking into account the sporadic distribution of the species in general, in its habitats it is a common bird, rare at the northern and eastern borders of its range, in the mountains and deserts. Numerous in the steppe and forest-steppe zones. In the Kalinin region. 2 There were 11 nests in a 4-hectare meadow. At the end of the 1970s. in the Kharovsky district of the Vologda region. in meadows per 1 hectare, an average of 0.1-1.5 individuals were found, in some places - up to 3 individuals, in the Taldomsky district of the Moscow region. - 0.5-0.8 individuals (V. T. Butyev, personal communication). Lots of data on Western Siberia. In the lake area Chans in a reed field near the river. Chulym at 1 km 2 60 pairs nested, and on the neighboring reed field the density was noticeably higher - 3 pairs per 1 ha. In the southern taiga of Western Siberia, crakes are numerous in the lowland floodplain swamps of the Irtysh region (33 individuals/km 2 ) and in floodplain meadows in July (13 individuals/km 2 ), common in the floodplain meadows of the Ob (4-8 individuals/km 2 ).In the forest zone of the Ob region in the southern taiga zone, it is not found at all in the interfluves and is common in open habitats of the Ob floodplain; in subtaiga forests at the latitude of Novosibirsk - Tomsk, the number in interfluves in reed-sedge lowland swamps is 0.6 individuals/km 2 , and in the Ob floodplain in lowland swamps - 3 - 8 individuals/km 2 . 2 In the Narym region on the Ob in the open

Reproduction.

The timing of reaching sexual maturity is unknown, but judging by the time of appearance of the final breeding plumage, it occurs at the end of the first year, perhaps in some birds by the end of the second year of life. Monogamous.

The formation of pairs occurs after arriving at nesting sites or at wintering sites, as paired flights into the air with elements of aggressive behavior are described there. At nesting sites, the male emits a sharp cry that attracts the female; perhaps unpaired males may search for females in flight. Duet singing is known in the resulting pairs. In mating ceremonies preceding mating, the female pursues the male on water, land or in flight. At this time they are quite silent. Only a faint chirping sound is known:

2 “brrrrr-brrrr-.They emit a special cry of excitement, “krekk, krikk,” jump at each other with ruffled plumage, and chase their opponents by running across the surface of the water, flapping their wings, swimming or flying. The defeated bird takes refuge in the thickets. During the nesting period, crakes are also aggressive towards other species of rails, which is expressed in frequent screams and attacks on foreign birds approaching the nest. We have observed this behavior in relation to the moorhen, water rail, little crake and tiny crake.

The connection between partners is maintained by appropriate shouts.

Rice. Elements of mating and territorial behavior of the crake

A - threat addressed to the enemy on land; B - alert, B - attacking bird; G - intimidation of the enemy

Egg laying in Moldova takes place in early May, chicks hatch in early June, but some pairs nest later, in the second half of May. In Crimea, at the end of May, a clutch of 6 weakly incubated eggs was discovered, and at the beginning of June, a nest left by chicks was discovered. In Belarus, nest construction begins from the end of April, egg laying occurs in the second half of May, and incubated clutches occur from the beginning of June to the end of July. All nests are in the Leningrad region. found in July, indicating late breeding periods. In May - June it nests in the central regions of Russia. In Western Siberia, egg laying begins in the middle - end of May, in Kazakhstan - in June - July.

The earliest date of egg laying is April 24 (in Podolia), the last is in mid-July. Mass egg laying takes place at the end of May - the first half of June. The interval between egg laying is 24 hours; one egg is laid every day early in the morning. A full clutch consists of 8-21 eggs, but according to many researchers, clutches with more than 13 eggs are laid by two females. However, in a clutch of 21 eggs that we examined in Western Siberia, the eggs did not differ in size, shape and color and rather belonged to the same female. Most clutches consist of 8 eggs, less often - 10-12, very rarely - 15-21 eggs. Average clutch size in the USSR (n= 50) is 9.5 eggs; in Western European countries 9.1-10.35 eggs. Normally - one clutch per season; if it dies, the crakes lay a second clutch, but they can even lay a third. The extended period of nesting and the early independence of crake chicks give reason to assume the presence of two successful clutches per season. The eggs are regularly ovoid, less often oval, the shell is finely granular, and the color is complex. The main background is ocher-clayey, less often pale greenish. The pattern is in the form of rare clear brown superficial and gray deep spots, denser at the blunt end. Individual variability in egg color is pronounced, but In general, the eggs laid by one female are different from the eggs of another female. Abnormally colored eggs (light gray, almost spotless) are extremely rare.

Dimensions: 29.1

- the third egg, both members of the pair incubate, the share of their participation is individually variable, on average the female incubates up to 59% of the time, the male - 41%. Having laid 2-3 eggs, the female begins to incubate, the male joins incubation after 4-5 days. When danger approaches, the incubating bird leaves the nest in advance and stays nearby at a distance of 2-5 m, betraying its anxiety with soft cries. Towards the end of incubation, both partners behave boldly when a person approaches the nest, running up 1-2 m screaming.Sometimes they sit so tightly that without leaving the nest they allow themselves to be touched. Cradles in Western Siberia

readily nest in sedge-humock swamps in colonies of black-headed and little gulls, river gulls, black and white-winged terns.

- The partner free from incubation usually stays close to the nest, feeds and patrols the boundaries of the site.

The chicks begin to flutter at the age of 25 days and become fully flightable at 35-42 days of age, according to other sources - at the age of 47-56 days. At the end of July-August they already fly well. Until this time, the broods stay within the nesting areas, maintaining communication with each other using calls. In rainy weather and at night, the grown chicks gather with their parents on a nest or hummock.

- The magnitude of nesting mortality (death of clutches and downy chicks) for the territory of the USSR is unknown. In Western Europe in southern Sweden, 45 chicks hatched from 53 eggs, 5 eggs were unfertilized, and 3 were “suffocated.”

In Hungary, in Chakvar, out of 48 control clutches, 25 chicks hatched, 4 were unfertilized and 19 died, of which 13 were destroyed by water voles, 1 fox;

in total, 150 (83%) chicks hatched from 180 eggs in 25 nests. When frequently disturbed by humans, crakes leave the last eggs in the nest, taking away the hatched chicks. It is unknown whether all chicks begin breeding at one year of age and where single individuals spend the summer. The mortality rate of adult crakes is unknown. The maximum life expectancy in nature was, according to ringing data, 7 years 2 months.

Daily activity, behavior

Nutrition . Food is obtained during nesting time within the nesting areas; at other times, they apparently also stick to individual areas. They feed especially willingly along the edge of the thickets, moving away on mud flats 5-10 m from the thickets. They obtain food from the surface of the ground, stems and leaves of plants, or by pecking it from the surface of the water. They are omnivorous, feeding on a variety of invertebrates and aquatic plants. Among invertebrates, they mainly eat insects and their larvae, small mollusks; from plants - seeds and vegetative parts of plants, algae.

Enemies, unfavorable factors. Living in dense, hard-to-reach thickets with marshy soil, the crake rarely becomes prey to four-legged and feathered predators, from which it instantly takes refuge in the thickets.

Sometimes unwary adult birds are caught by marsh harriers both in the nesting area and on migration. A significant number of them die during migration, crashing at night against the wires of electric and telegraph lines. During the nesting period, nests and clutches of crakes are sometimes accidentally destroyed by feathered predators (marsh harrier, hoodie and magpie), and in the south of Ukraine - raccoon dog, badger, fox, small mustelids (light polecat, ermine, weasel, weasel). However

the hidden location of nests, camouflage coloring of eggs and brooding birds contribute to the high safety of crake nests. In a number of places, a significant number of masonry perishes during sharp rises in water levels as a result of summer floods or surge winds, as well as fires during spring fires. Helminth infestation is low; In Ukraine, 13 species of helminths were found in crakes, including 9 trematodes, 3 cestodes, and 1 nematode species. Economic importance, protection

. Formally, the crake belongs to the category of game bird species. However, there is no proper hunting for it; it is obtained by chance, incidentally when hunting waterfowl and swamp game, and in negligible quantities. As a hunting trophy it is not of particular value (low weight of the carcass, simplicity and “unsportsmanlike” prey, etc.). Does not require special security measures. But in a number of Western European countries it is included in the national red books and is endangered, the main reason for which is the reduction of suitable nesting sites.

Voice whit...wheet...whit", reminiscent of dripping water. Birds whistle rhythmically, at a speed of approximately 60-110 times per minute. The rest of the time, they tend to be quiet, making only quiet " knock Knock" In case of danger, the birds scream loudly, making sharp, high-pitched sounds that are difficult to produce.

early September due to late breeding periods. During the post-nesting molt, all plumage changes. The flight feathers and tail feathers fall out at the same time, and the birds lose the ability to fly. The flight feathers grow back in 20 days. The contour feather is replaced gradually; in some individuals this is also observed during migration. The prenuptial molt of adult birds occurs in December

Breeds in northern and temperate climates in Europe and Western Siberia, however, the range is very sporadic and in many ways insufficiently studied. Occurs locally in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Iran, possibly in western Mongolia and northwestern China. To the east it reaches the Angara basin, where it nests in the middle reaches of the Irkut River. In Western Europe it is generally rare and completely absent in many regions, but is common in some areas of Italy and Spain. Populations from Northern and Eastern Europe, as well as Siberia, are more numerous. The northern border of the range reaches 64° north latitude in the Ob basin.

During the breeding season, it occupies shallow freshwater reservoirs, wet meadows or swamps, densely overgrown with emergent plants - reeds, reeds, willows, sedges, cattails, reeds. Always remains secretive; sometimes only the mating cry of the male reveals the presence of a bird nearby. Avoids open spaces and hides in the grass. It moves very quickly on land and in shallow water, deftly maneuvering among vegetation. Swims reluctantly, but in case of danger it can swim or even dive under water. Always flies alone; during flight, the neck is retracted and the legs dangle awkwardly behind. Active mainly at dusk and at night. In winter stopover areas it occupies similar biotopes.

The vast majority are migratory birds; Only along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea does the settled population persist. Autumn migration begins in July, and the main departure occurs in August-September. Along the way, the birds make stops to rest. They fly alone, at night. European populations migrate in the south or southwest in the fall. Some of them stop in the Mediterranean in southern Europe and northern Africa. The other part crosses the Sahara and winters in Western, Eastern and South-Eastern Africa, where it occupies inaccessible wetlands. A small number of cases of wintering in the Transcaucasus in Azerbaijan have been recorded. Birds from unidentified populations have been recorded in the Middle East. Crakes from more eastern regions move to northern India and Pakistan.

Reproduction

Monogamous - there is only one female per male. The time of arrival to nesting sites depends on latitude; In Russia, birds appear in mid-April - mid-May. A wetland or shallow reservoir with fresh water and dense vegetation is selected for the nest - a damp meadow, a mossy or hummocky swamp, a peat bog, a small lake, a quiet river backwater. A prerequisite is an abundance of bushes or thickets of reeds, reeds or other aquatic grasses. When calling the female, the male screams loudly, emitting a characteristic whistle - often only by this voice can one recognize that crakes are nesting in the neighborhood. Once the pair is finally formed, the birds sometimes begin to call together.

The nest is built on a small hummock in the middle of a swamp or damp meadow, under a crease in the shallows, in thickets of willow. Birds try to avoid areas of dry grass. Available vegetation is used as building material - if the nest is located in a damp meadow, then dry stems and leaves of cereals are used, if in thickets of reeds, then the inside of the nest is lined with cereal plants, and the outside with reeds. The nest, which is a cup-shaped formation with a deep tray and high walls, is always well hidden and invisible both from the sides and from above. If there is open space above the nest, the crakes additionally camouflage it with leaves. The dimensions of the nest are diameter 15-17 cm, height 5-15 cm, depth of the tray 4.5-7 cm. Both the male and the female are involved in construction.

As a rule, crakes hatch chicks once per season; If the first clutch dies, the female is capable of laying eggs again. The clutch usually consists of 8-12 eggs of a dirty buffy or greenish buffy color with reddish or brown spots. Egg dimensions (29-37) X (22-26) mm. The incubation period is 18 to 24 days, with both parents participating in incubation. Chicks are of the semi-brood type - they leave the nest within a few hours after hatching and follow the male for a walk, but return back to the nest at night. However, at first they are not able to maintain their body temperature and obtain food for themselves, and during this period they are completely dependent on their parents. When hatching, the chicks are partially covered with black down, which has a greenish metallic tint on the head, throat and back. After about 20 days, the chicks begin to look for food on their own, but for some time they are fed by their parents. After 35-42 days they begin to fly, and by the end of July-August they become completely independent.

Nutrition

Omnivores - feed on both plant and animal foods. They feed on seeds and vegetative parts of plants, small invertebrates (aquatic insects and their larvae, mollusks), less often small fish and carrion. In search of food, they walk in shallow water along coastal thickets or in the grass.

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Excerpt characterizing Pogonysh

In Bald Mountains, the estate of Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky, the arrival of the young Prince Andrei and the princess was expected every day; but the wait did not disrupt the orderly order in which life went on in the old prince’s house. General-in-Chief Prince Nikolai Andreevich, nicknamed in society le roi de Prusse, [the King of Prussia,] from the time he was exiled to the village under Paul, lived continuously in his Bald Mountains with his daughter, Princess Marya, and with her companion, m lle Bourienne. [Mademoiselle Bourien.] And during the new reign, although he was allowed entry into the capitals, he also continued to live in the countryside, saying that if anyone needed him, then he would travel one and a half hundred miles from Moscow to Bald Mountains, but what would he no one or anything is needed. He said that there are only two sources of human vices: idleness and superstition, and that there are only two virtues: activity and intelligence. He himself was involved in raising his daughter and, in order to develop both main virtues in her, until she was twenty, he gave her lessons in algebra and geometry and distributed her whole life in continuous studies. He himself was constantly busy either writing his memoirs, or calculating higher mathematics, or turning snuff boxes on a machine, or working in the garden and observing the buildings that did not stop on his estate. Since the main condition for activity is order, order in his way of life was brought to the utmost degree of precision. His trips to the table took place under the same unchanging conditions, and not only at the same hour, but also at the same minute. With the people around him, from his daughter to his servants, the prince was harsh and invariably demanding, and therefore, without being cruel, he aroused fear and respect for himself, which the most cruel person could not easily achieve. Despite the fact that he was retired and now had no importance in state affairs, every head of the province where the prince’s estate was, considered it his duty to come to him and, just like an architect, gardener or Princess Marya, waited for the appointed hour of the prince's appearance in the high waiter's room. And everyone in this waitress experienced the same feeling of respect and even fear, while the enormously high door of the office opened and the short figure of an old man in a powdered wig appeared, with small dry hands and gray drooping eyebrows, which sometimes, as he frowned, obscured the shine of smart people. and definitely young, sparkling eyes.
On the day of the newlyweds’ arrival, in the morning, as usual, Princess Marya entered the waitress’s room at the appointed hour for morning greetings and fearfully crossed herself and read an internal prayer. Every day she went in and every day she prayed that this daily appointment would go well.
A powdery old servant sitting in the waiter's room stood up with a quiet movement and announced in a whisper: “Please.”
The uniform sounds of the machine could be heard from behind the door. The princess timidly pulled the door that opened easily and smoothly and stopped at the entrance. The prince was working at the machine and, looking back, continued his work.
The huge office was filled with things that were obviously in constant use. A large table on which lay books and plans, tall glass library cabinets with keys in the doors, a high standing writing table on which lay an open notebook, a lathe with tools laid out and shavings scattered around - everything showed a constant, varied and orderly activities. From the movements of his small foot, shod in a Tatar boot embroidered with silver, and from the firm fit of his sinewy, lean hand, one could see in the prince the stubborn and enduring strength of fresh old age. Having made several circles, he took his foot off the pedal of the machine, wiped off the chisel, threw it into a leather pocket attached to the machine, and, going up to the table, called his daughter. He never blessed his children and only, presenting his stubbled, now unshaven cheek to her, said, looking at her sternly and at the same time carefully:
- Are you healthy?... well, sit down!
He took the geometry notebook he had written in his own hand and pushed his chair forward with his foot.
- For tomorrow! - he said, quickly finding the page and marking from paragraph to paragraph with a hard nail.
The princess bent over the table over her notebook.
“Wait, the letter is for you,” the old man suddenly said, taking out an envelope written in a woman’s hand from a pocket attached above the table and throwing it on the table.
The princess's face became covered with red spots at the sight of the letter. She hurriedly took it and bent down towards him.
- From Eloise? - asked the prince, showing his still strong and yellowish teeth with a cold smile.
“Yes, from Julie,” said the princess, looking timidly and smiling timidly.
“I’ll miss two more letters, and I’ll read the third,” the prince said sternly, “I’m afraid you’re writing a lot of nonsense.” I'll read the third one.
“At least read this, mon pere, [father,],” answered the princess, blushing even more and handing him the letter.
“Third, I said, third,” the prince shouted briefly, pushing away the letter, and, leaning his elbows on the table, pulled up a notebook with geometry drawings.
“Well, madam,” the old man began, bending close to his daughter over the notebook and placing one hand on the back of the chair on which the princess was sitting, so that the princess felt surrounded on all sides by that tobacco and senile pungent smell of her father, which she had known for so long. . - Well, madam, these triangles are similar; would you like to see, angle abc...
The princess looked fearfully at her father’s sparkling eyes close to her; red spots shimmered across her face, and it was clear that she did not understand anything and was so afraid that fear would prevent her from understanding all her father’s further interpretations, no matter how clear they were. Whether the teacher was to blame or the student was to blame, the same thing was repeated every day: the princess’s eyes grew dim, she saw nothing, heard nothing, she only felt the dry face of her stern father close to her, felt his breath and smell and only thought about how she could quickly leave the office and understand the problem in her own open space.
The old man lost his temper: he pushed the chair he was sitting on with a loud noise, made an effort to not get excited, and almost every time he got excited, cursed, and sometimes threw his notebook.
The princess made a mistake in her answer.
- Well, why not be a fool! - the prince shouted, pushing away the notebook and quickly turning away, but immediately stood up, walked around, touched the princess’s hair with his hands and sat down again.
He moved closer and continued his interpretation.
“It’s impossible, princess, it’s impossible,” he said when the princess, having taken and closed the notebook with the assigned lessons, was already preparing to leave, “mathematics is a great thing, my madam.” And I don’t want you to be like our stupid ladies. Will endure and fall in love. “He patted her cheek with his hand. - The nonsense will jump out of your head.
She wanted to go out, he stopped her with a gesture and took out a new uncut book from the high table.
- Here’s another Key of the Sacrament your Eloise sends you. Religious. And I don’t interfere with anyone’s faith... I looked through it. Take it. Well, go, go!
He patted her on the shoulder and locked the door behind her.
Princess Marya returned to her room with a sad, frightened expression that rarely left her and made her ugly, sickly face even more ugly, and sat down at her desk, lined with miniature portraits and littered with notebooks and books. The princess was as disorderly as her father was decent. She put down her geometry notebook and impatiently opened the letter. The letter was from the princess’s closest friend since childhood; this friend was the same Julie Karagina who was at the Rostovs’ name day:
Julie wrote:
"Chere et excellente amie, quelle chose terrible et effrayante que l"absence! J"ai beau me dire que la moitie de mon existence et de mon bonheur est en vous, que malgre la distance qui nous separe, nos coeurs sont unis par des liens indissolubles; le mien se revolte contre la destinee, et je ne puis, malgre les plaisirs et les distractions qui m"entourent, vaincre une certaine tristesse cachee que je ressens au fond du coeur depuis notre separation. Pourquoi ne sommes nous pas reunies, comme cet ete dans votre grand cabinet sur le canape bleu, le canape a confidences? Pourquoi ne puis je, comme il y a trois mois, puiser de nouvelles forces morales dans votre regard si doux, si calme et si penetrant, regard que j"aimais tant et que “je crois voir devant moi, quand je vous ecris.”
[Dear and priceless friend, what a terrible and terrible thing is separation! No matter how much I tell myself that half of my existence and my happiness lies in you, that, despite the distance that separates us, our hearts are united by inextricable bonds, my heart rebels against fate, and, despite the pleasures and distractions that surround me, I I cannot suppress some hidden sadness that I have been experiencing in the depths of my heart since our separation. Why aren’t we together, like last summer, in your big office, on the blue sofa, on the sofa of “confessions”? Why can’t I, like three months ago, draw new moral strength from your gaze, meek, calm and penetrating, which I loved so much and which I see before me at the moment I write to you?]