Tufted Lark - description, habitat, interesting facts

Tufted Lark - a bird with a piercing voice, expertly copying the voices of other birds. It resembles an ordinary field lark, only more stocky and wider in the shoulders. He likes to equip nests where people live, so the people nicknamed him "neighbor." What do people know about this bird?

general information

Crested Lark from the order of passerines, family of larks. There are five subspecies, dividing by habitat. Suppose there is a Central Asian, Belarusian, North Iranian lark and the like. But everyone has the same appearance, regardless of habitat.

Appearance

The size of the bird is average. The height of the birds is usually 17-18 cm, weight from 40 to 55 grams. Head decoration is a small crest, which gave the name to the bird. When walking, a crest, decorated at the end with long feathers, constantly rises and falls down.

The long beak bends slightly down. Wings, about 10 cm long, look very large compared to the body. This creates the appearance that a bird flying high in the skies is quite large. Paws are strong and very strong, twined with muscles - the lark has to walk a lot and often, looking for food.

The visible plumage is dark brown, but on the chest and in the neck area is somewhat lighter. Such a color is a necessity and helps to disguise itself, hiding in the thickets of grass from various predators. Moreover, he turns out to hide so well that he becomes almost invisible.

Behavior

The Crested Lark, like other members of the family, is not picky. He is equally good both where people and in the desert. However, most of them nest either in the steppe zone, or where there are meadows, since this is the most optimal habitat.

This bird, living in the southern regions, is sedentary, since a warm dry climate suits it at any time of the year, and the inhabitants of the northern regions set off to winter in the warm southern regions with the onset of cold weather. They always return to the same places from which they flew away - larks are tied to the territory on which they live. Leaving and changing it can only be due to proliferated predators or due to lack of food.

Habitat

It prefers open spaces devoid of trees, but with thickets of undersized grass, semi-empty and steppe zones. It lives in southern and central European regions, in northern Africa, in many areas of Asia, in northern India, in the western Chinese provinces and Korea. On the territory of the former USSR, it is distributed in the southern regions of the European part, Crimea and the Caucasus.

Nutrition

The diet of the crested lark is quite diverse. It eats everything that can be found - and plant-based food, and all sorts of insects. He doesn’t look for food like most birds fly, but roams the earth. Moving from one place to another, he explores the earth's crust in attempts to find something edible.

For example, on a nice sunny day looking for ants and bugs. With the help of a long beak, it is easy to pull prey from inaccessible shelters, splitting easily any strong shell. Likes to feast on earthworms, the search for which is engaged in wet rainy weather.Catches grasshoppers, ants, dragonflies, flies. But before you eat this flying prey, it tears off its wings so that the digestion process is easier.

From plant foods uses all the seeds of plants and cereals. When winter comes, the lark becomes a vegetarian - after all, all insects sleep. The bird finds areas with a small amount of snow and starts digging out the frozen berries, picks up the roots.

Singing and voice

As a rule, the presence of a crested lark gives out his melodious, second only to the nightingale's trills, his voice is a kind of business card by which he is recognized without even seeing. In addition, the bird performs not only the motives invented by it, but is able to imitate the voices of other birds.

It is also important that the voice of the lark serves him as the main weapon. In the event of danger, he emits a piercing loud scream, disorienting the attacker. While he comes to his senses, the lark has time to run away or attack. Only this works only once, and an experienced predator can no longer buy this.

Courtship games

Also, the voice has another important purpose - with its help, males urge females to mate. As soon as spring comes and it becomes warm, the birds begin to search for the second half. Most often, old couples reunite after finding each other. Crested larks remain faithful to their partner, the union can last more than one year. And young males begin to prove to females that they are better than competitors.

The meaning of the ongoing battles is who will sing whom. Males surround the lady and dance around, spreading their wings, shaking their tail and stretching their necks. At the same time they constantly sing, without stopping for a second. The winner is the longest held, or the one to whom the female gave preference.

Nesting and breeding

Females build nests, moreover, on the ground, and not in the crowns of trees. For construction, any material that comes across is used: blades of grass, pieces of branches, cobwebs, moss and the like, which the male brings.

As a rule, the female makes two clutches in a year - the first up to 6 eggs of yellowish color, the second - 3-4 eggs. Incubation lasts from 10 days to two weeks. Both parents feed hatched chicks, feed three to five times a day, bringing animal food - beetles, insects, worms. Birds put food into the open beaks of the babies and the one who most often opens the beak receives more than the brethren in the nest. After 9-10 days, the chicks leave the nest on the ground and begin to independently seek food. Those who do this poorly are still fed by their parents. Three weeks later, young grown up chicks take to the wing and fly away from their parents, starting an independent life.

Enemies

Interesting Facts

1. The lark sings usually, being on the earth or any elevation. But often sings and during flights.
2. It seems that the lark sings endlessly, not tired. But this is not so - the song lasts about 12-14 minutes, after which the bird needs rest.
3. Larks are very fond of swimming in the sand, so the plumage often seems dirty and groomed.
4. Larks' dislike for trees is explained simply: the structure of the bird’s fingers is such that it sits on a branch difficultly — a long claw grows from the back of the paw, making it difficult to sit comfortably on a tree.

Video: Crested Lark (Galerida cristata)