Distribution of crickets in nature
Crickets live in a wide range throughout Europe and Asia. For the winter they migrate to the tropical zone of Africa. Secretive and cautious crickets choose dense thickets along fresh water bodies, in reeds or tall grass to live. Birds fly poorly and reluctantly, run well on the ground like mice, and deftly climb branches and stems of bushes and trees.
Nutrition
Although the bird chirps like a cricket , the insects for which it takes its name are its food. Cricket birds are completely insectivorous birds. They absorb flies, mosquitoes, beetles and their larvae, small dragonflies, crawling and jumping insects.
Only in the fall do they allow themselves to add some berries and seeds to the menu, since insects become more difficult. Birds hunt mainly on the ground, briskly catching up and pecking at their prey. It is appropriate to add here that birds have fairly acute vision.
It is very difficult to see insects of the same color on the dark ground, but the hunter copes with this task. If the bird lives in your cage, mixtures for insectivorous birds are suitable as food. In addition, the baby's diet must include live insects, such as mealworms.
Now in pet stores you can buy cockroaches, locusts and the same crickets. Some people buy waxed moth from beekeepers; it is also useful for the birds. All types of “naked caterpillars” can be fed. In addition, birds happily eat cabbage butterflies.
You don’t need to give ant eggs often; they can be allergenic for some birds. The most optimal and affordable option is grasshoppers. Insects can be frozen only in small portions, at a time.
Is this a migratory bird?
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Crickets are migratory birds. From their breeding grounds in Europe, they migrate to the African continent during the cold winter months. The flight can take a long time. For example, for a river cricket it takes 4-5 months. Around mid-April, the birds return to their native lands.
Singing insects
Cicadas are one of the loudest insects. The glory of grasshoppers and crickets fades before their songs.
In the vast majority of cicada species, only the males produce chirping. The source of such a loud sound is located on the back of the abdomen. The sound is a membrane driven by special muscles. There is a resonator located next to the membrane, which amplifies the chirping many times over.
Cicadas live a very long time
The meaning of the male's singing is very simple. The entire appearance of these insects is aimed at good mimicry. Finding a singing insect in thickets of trees, bushes and grasses is not easy. Transparent wings create visual interference in detecting the brown body on plant trunks and shoots. And males and females really need to find each other. So the male sings so that the female knows where to fly.
Such a song insect can cover a large area with its sound reference. When singing, the cicada's membrane vibrates up to 600 times per second. In the tropics, the singing of cicadas can be absolutely deafening; some compare this chirping to the work of a circular saw or to the sound of a steam locomotive whistle.
Types of cricket
Common cricket
The bird's body length is in the range of 12-14 cm, its weight is 15-20 g. The plumage on the back is olive-brown with characteristic stripes, the belly is whitish-yellow. The tail is wedge-shaped, the legs are thin, red in color. The male and female are colored the same.
The habitat of the species is Europe. In winter, the common cricket flies to the tropical regions of the African continent. Birds nest near the banks of rivers, swamps, on damp plains and meadows.
song cricket
A small bird with a body length of 12 to 16 cm. The species is olive or brown in color with streaks on the chest and back.
The species lives in northern Asia and Russia. Goes to South Asia for the winter. The song cricket inhabits bushes on forest edges and tall grass near the shores of fresh water bodies.
spotted cricket
The body length of the species is 11-12 cm, weight reaches 15 g. The tail and neck are short. The plumage is brown with black spots on the back and black streaks on the belly. The species does not exhibit sexual dimorphism.
The spotted cricket is distributed in northeastern Europe and northern Asia up to the island of Hokkaido (Japan). The bird is a migratory bird. For the winter it migrates to southeast Asia to the island of Java. Flies away around mid-August. It returns to its usual habitats in May-June.
During its life, the bird chooses shores along fresh water bodies with dense thickets of bushes. In winter habitats it is found in rice fields.
river cricket
The species is large, from 14 to 16 cm in length. The bird is characterized by a wide tail, rounded at the end. The plumage on the back is brown with a greenish tint. The chest and throat are decorated with black longitudinal streaks. The belly is whitish with brown sides. A light ring around the eyes and a white-gray eyebrow are clearly visible. The undertail is greenish-brown with white. The beak is dark. The legs are pink.
The river cricket is an inhabitant of wide areas from Western Siberia to Central Europe. Recently, the range has been expanding to the west. It goes to the tropical regions of Africa for the winter. At the same time, it begins to fly away in mid-July and only reaches its goal in December. In mid-spring, the river cricket returns to its native land.
The nesting places of the species are floodplain and swampy forests, meadows, swamps with dense bushes.
nightingale cricket
The nightingale cricket is about 14 cm long, weighs 15–20 g. The bird has a wide, rounded tail. Brown color, no patterns. A light short eyebrow is slightly noticeable.
The species is found in Western Europe and up to the Urals. Most common in Russia, Hungary and Romania. It flies to Africa for the winter, making its flight mainly at night. The nightingale cricket likes to live near swamps and lakes with dense thickets of reeds.
taiga cricket
The largest representative of the genus crickets with an elongated body, a rounded stepped tail and wide short wings. The bird has a narrow and straight beak and a flat crown. The taiga cricket looks a little like a nightingale, in size and color of plumage.
The birds live in the south of Western Siberia and up to Korea. The taiga cricket is included in the Red Book of the Tomsk Region as a rare species.
Description and features
Crickets (Locustella) are birds from the passerine order. Previously they belonged to the warbler family, with which they are very similar. They were considered a “junk” taxon, and later they, along with warblers and pied warblers, were separated into a separate family. All this suggests that in appearance they are very similar to many passerines.
The size is small, approximately 12-16 cm, weight up to 25 g. The plumage is usually gray with brown, sometimes enriched with olive or ocher tones. They have a straight, even, wide tail, sometimes rounded at the end, and sometimes stepped. The main decoration of most representatives is the scaly pattern on the head, neck, back and wing coverts.
It is composed of variegated longitudinal spots of dark or charcoal color, is more clearly visible on the upper part of the body, closer to the lower back it becomes blurry and less clear.
Interesting! Boys and girls are almost the same, except that the former have more “colored” glimpses in the midst of gray-brown tones.
The beak is wide at the base and awl-shaped towards the end. There are no bristles at the base of the beak. Of the flight feathers, the longest are the second and third.
The main quality of the bird is its rare caution. In addition, it is a very nimble and agile bird. This explains why it is very difficult to see it in dense foliage, and even more difficult to photograph. The cricket bird in the photo is usually caught during its hunt - peering intently into the grass. Perhaps at this moment she is so busy doing what she loves that she skips the photography process.
The singing of a cricket bird is the singing of a babbling stream, the sound of rustling grass, the gurgling of air bubbles in the water. It waxes, rustles, and crackles comfortably. Such sounds are recommended by doctors for deep and healthy sleep.
Voice
The corncrake leads a secretive lifestyle, it is almost impossible to see it live (it is so good at hiding in the grass). But from May until mid-summer, the corncrake can be easily heard: the two-syllable sound made by the male corncrake is similar to “kreks-kreks”, “drr-drr” or “derg-derg”.
The male screams most actively from 8 pm to 5 am, managing to produce his scream several hundred times during the night. Sometimes the corncrake can be heard during the day.
Rural residents and lovers of outdoor recreation, listening to this strange cry of the corncrake, probably more than once wondered: where is it screaming? And in fact: it seems that he is screaming somewhere very nearby, literally under his feet, then his scream fades away, weakens so that it is barely audible, then suddenly it resounds again with renewed vigor. You might sometimes think that several birds are screaming, but in fact one is screaming.
The fact is that the corncrake screams while standing in one place, but, with terrible tension, stretching its neck and twitching with its whole body (which is probably why it was nicknamed the twitcher), it turns first in one direction or the other. It is clear that when a corncrake screams, turning to face you, its cry is heard much louder than when it screams, turning in the other direction.
Having shouted this several times, he runs to another place and begins his scream again. With this cry, the male corncrake marks his territory and attracts females. In calm weather it can be heard at a distance of up to 1.5-2 km.
In addition to the cry of a mating male, these rails are capable of making other sounds: they can squeal like a magpie, purr during courtship, and in case of danger, the female can give out a deep “o-o-o”, calling the chicks to her; Corncrakes can warily, groan protractedly in the event of a threat, cough sharply and shrilly when worried, and also make sounds reminiscent of meowing, grunting, whistling, etc.
During molting (July-August) and wintering they behave very quietly, almost silently.
Tawny Owl (Strix uralensis) - photo
The calls of the great owl in mp3
Screams that can scare and surprise. Audio file duration - 56 sec
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Habitats of the Ural owl
This nocturnal bird is called the Ural bird. Even the Latin of her name reflects this. This happened because this species was first discovered and described in the Urals. The wingspan of this handsome creature is 114-134 cm. It feeds variedly: birds the size of black grouse, squirrels, mice, insects, frogs. In winter they can fly into cities and hunt crows and pigeons.
Video
Reproduction
During the breeding season, twitchers are territorial, but settle nearby in small groups of 2-5 families, although there may be many unoccupied territories around. Males shout to each other, demonstrating their ability to defend their “native land” and family. At the border of two adjacent areas, clashes between males often occur. When another male invades, the male - the owner of the territory - takes a threatening pose, spreads his wings, stretches his neck, spreads his feathers and makes sharp meowing sounds. Most often, the male intruder immediately retreats, but there are cases when both males take militant poses and enter into a fight, rushing at each other, pecking and trying to knock down their opponent.
However, these territorial divisions are conditional, since corncrakes are consistently polygamous - not only males, but also females. This means that after mating, they look for another partner. At the same time, male twitchers court females on their territory, while female representatives roam freely in other people’s territories, since they are not considered a threat. After the mating season, these boundaries are erased, and male corncrakes have the opportunity to calmly move in search of food and shelter.
Males are the first to arrive at the nesting sites, but for some time after arrival they behave quietly and do not show themselves in any way. One to two weeks after arrival, the males begin to actively scream, emitting special creaking nasal sounds that are unique to them. With his cry, the male not only indicates to other males that the given territory is occupied, but also calls the female for mating. The male is able to sing his mating serenades for more than 30 days in a row, all night long, and in rain and cloudy weather - even during the day. Only a weather disaster in the form of a significant drop in temperature or strong gusts of wind can prevent this madness (here it is - the power of love!).
When the female approaches the displaying “groom,” he stops screaming and begins to perform a mating dance: spreading his wings to the sides so that their edges touch the ground, showing reddish spots on his wings, extending his neck and lowering it to the ground, spreading his tail feathers like a fan and, Making muffled sounds, it walks in circles around the female. He may even present a ritual “wedding” gift in the form of a snail or an earthworm, or even something exotic, for example, blades of grass or pebbles. If the female has accepted the offering, then the mating process occurs.
The female corncrake should have a monument erected while she is still alive, because all parental cares and troubles - building a nest, incubating eggs, feeding, raising chicks and protecting them from enemies - go to her alone! The responsibilities of a loving gentleman do not include either building nests or caring for future offspring. “Daddy” may stay nearby, but not for long: as soon as the female sits on the nest, her boyfriend immediately runs off in search of a new chosen one (Casanova, damn it!).
The female carefully makes a nest out of dry grass, places it in a hole dug by her in the ground and carefully hidden in the bushes, lines it with dry leaves, horsehair and delicate fibers (the corncrake nest is quite small, its diameter is 120-150 mm, height 70- 80 mm, tray depth 35-40 mm). She lays one egg per day in the nest, the total number of eggs in the clutch can be from 8 to 12. The eggs are quite large, whitish-ochre or greenish in color, with reddish-brown or purple spots.
The expectant mother sits on the nest so diligently that she does not dare to leave it even in a moment of extreme danger, and sometimes she can be removed from the nest directly with her bare hands. If it’s time for haymaking while the females are still sitting on the nests, the mowers sometimes cut off the bird’s head with a scythe before they notice it on the nest!
Hatching lasts about three weeks. After the expiration of the period, funny chicks hatch from the eggs, covered with black or dark brown woolly fluff, beaks and paws of the same shade. In appearance, they resemble mice rather than young birds. The babies immediately run out of the nest, but the mother does not allow them to run away in different directions and calls them under her wings with a special cry.
The baby crakes leave the nest already on the second day and, together with their mother, go in search of food. The mother takes them to the grain field and stays there with them, showing very touching and great care for her offspring. She selflessly protects the chicks from the enemy, looks for insects and worms for them, and gathers them under her wings for rest, like a mother hen chicks. Protecting and teaching her offspring, the mother remains with the chicks until the tomboys grow up.
Young corncrakes are exceptionally agile creatures. They, like mice, run deftly in thick grass, and in case of danger they immediately hide, and so skillfully that it is almost impossible to find them.
Young people are growing and developing quickly. After just 2-3 days, the chicks begin to get food on their own, but the loving mother continues to feed them for several more days, while teaching them how to get food on their own. Having comprehended this science, the chicks subsequently feed themselves, staying for about another month near the mother, who continues to care for the offspring, teaching them survival skills. Soon they are completely covered with reddish-brown feathers, and from chicks - “mice” - turn into adult corncrakes. Only the feathers on the wings of young birds do not grow back immediately, and they cannot fly for some time (hunters call them “floppers”). Already 2-3 weeks after birth, the youngsters can separate from the mother and begin to lead an independent lifestyle. Gradually, feathers grow on their wings, and the corncrakes become completely adult birds: 34-38 days after birth they can already fly.
As soon as the chicks of the first brood become completely independent and begin to live their own lives, the mother again acquires a nest and begins the second clutch. Males contribute to this, as they can display until mid-July, singing their “serenades”. Going for a second brood can also provoke the death of the first offspring or the first clutch from human actions or attacks from enemies.
Having established the second brood, the female corncrake begins to lead a solitary nomadic life. The young ones also break up, and everyone begins to live alone.
What sounds do beetles make?
The length of the insect is 7-16mm. The yellow-spotted longhorned beetle has an interesting feature: if disturbed, it makes a creaking sound. Like other species of longhorned beetles that produce sounds, the beetle uses a stridulatory apparatus that works on the “comb and nail” principle.
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Eagle owl (Bubo) - photo
Cries of a night bird - eagle owl
Eagle owl sings 01 minutes 37 seconds
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Eagle owl habitats
The bird is sedentary. Lives in forest and steppe areas. Likes to live in cities and villages. Hunt large and small rodents, hares, hedgehogs, chickens. It makes nests in holes hidden under branches or in rock crevices, on slope ledges. It’s interesting that it got its Latin name from the word scarecrow, and indeed its singing is reminiscent of a children’s scarecrow - “boo”. He can also turn his head 200°.
Video - female eagle owl with chick in the nest
Slender-billed
Distinctive qualities: the beak is thin, long, more or less bent. The fingers are long, especially the hind ones. They feed on insects and flower sap.
Dart frogs (pikas)
They deftly climb trees in search of insects, which they extract from the narrowest crevices. The famous beak helps them with this. The song is a melodic whistle, with a short final “blow”, the current motif is “tzit”, performed in high tones, more like a squeak.
Pikas also include mosquitocatchers and wrens - two numerous subfamilies close to warblers. All of them are wonderful singers, they are called flutists for the purity of their sounds and the richness of their performance.
In the photo there is a mosquito catcher
bird wren
Listen to the voice of the wren:
Honeysuckers and nectaries
In addition to a long beak, they have an elongated tongue, which helps draw out flower nectar. In addition, they feed on insects, fruits and berries. Honeyeaters usually have dark colors, while sunbirds have bright, festive colors, with many pearlescent tones. That’s why their names - malachite, orange-breasted, bronze, purple-bellied, red-throated - all speak of elegant plumage.
Long-eared owl (Asio otus) - photo
The calls of the long-eared owl in mp3
This is the cry of a small night bird - a long-eared owl. Of course, many species live in our country. But we wanted to find this one. It seems like a kitten was abandoned, doesn’t it? The author of this publication looked for a kitten at one time. Then the ornithologist explained that it was most likely a long-eared owl. And he also advised me to wait for her to fly. And if you see a bird, but do not hear the sound of its wings, then it is an owl.
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Video: Who screams at night
How to prevent guests from returning
Sealing all cracks and cracks through which crickets can enter the house will help prevent re-infestation. Insects can enter a room if there are cracks and holes in the floor and baseboards near the sewer pipes.
Mosquito nets are attached to the windows so that insects cannot get into the home. The corners near the batteries are also treated with special sprays to effectively destroy the larvae. Be sure to close the trash can tightly so as not to attract the smell of crickets. It is important not to leave crumbs on the table and immediately remove leftover food. Dampness in the premises is unacceptable. It is imperative to warn employees of the management company or sanitary service employees about the accumulation of water in the basements. Residents of lower floors or private houses require special attention. In the evenings, it is necessary to close the curtains and lower the blinds so as not to attract uninvited guests from the world of insects with bright light. To illuminate the yard, it is recommended to use medium-power lamps, preferably yellow light. Ventilation grilles are covered with fine mesh. Compost heaps should be located at a distance from private houses, in the far corners of the plots. The greenery near the home is trimmed regularly; climbing plants are not recommended to be planted close to the home. If night trills do not cause insomnia, and the appearance of insects does not seem repulsive, then the neighborhood can be quite pleasant
However, there are ways to get rid of restless guests. And they should be used so as not to turn life into constant stress.
If night trills do not cause insomnia, and the appearance of insects does not seem repulsive, then the neighborhood can be quite pleasant. However, there are ways to get rid of restless guests. And they should be used so as not to turn life into constant stress.
Young animals
What does a young river cricket look like? The bird in the photo will, of course, differ from the adults. The nesting plumage of the young is yellowish. At the end of summer, the coloring approaches that of the adult, but remains browner, and the streaks on the chest are blurred.
Fledgling chicks, which have not yet fledged, quickly run across the grass thickets. While feeding, they make clicking or hissing sounds. The young animals move a lot and stupidly and scream. Their calls also resemble the trills of crickets. The chicks do not shut up even after their parents signal danger.
The singing cricket is a very cautious bird, but still gives itself away with its unusual singing and iridescent trills.
Enemies
The adult corncrake does not have many natural enemies. The bird is very careful, runs fast and hides well, and is extremely difficult to catch. Young birds are at greatest risk. Until the chicks fledge and learn to run quickly, they can be caught by foxes, lynxes or raccoon dogs. Even domestic cats or feral dogs can destroy the nest or eat the chicks.
However, the greatest threat to bird populations is humans. The area of human activity is increasing every year. Draining of swamps, shallowing of rivers, plowing up of new lands - all this leads to the fact that the corncrake simply has nowhere to nest, and in the central zone of Russia the bird population is declining. A stable number of birds is maintained only in environmental protection zones and reserves.
High-voltage power lines cause very serious damage to the population. Sometimes birds cannot fly over them and get burned in the wires. It often happens that up to 30% of all individuals migrating to Africa die in wires.
House Owl (Athene) - photo
The calls of a night bird - the house owl
The frightening and alarming cries of a little owl
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Screams that sound like a complaint or a desperate request for help
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More such screams of a little owl
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Habitat of the Little Owl
The little owl loves to live near people. In addition, it is often tamed and considered a pet. However, the voice of this tiny nocturnal bird can cause serious concern to a person who hears its calls for the first time. It does not cause fear, but anxiety. In natural areas, it settles on flat areas, where it is easier for it to get food.
It feeds on small rodents, insects, and earthworms. Its dimensions are about 23 cm and its weight is about 200 g.
