Kedrovka
KEDROVKA-And; pl. genus.-wok, date-vkam; and. Forest bird of the order Passeriformes, dark brown with white spots, feeding on seeds coniferous trees, mainly cedar; nutcracker.
cedarwood(nutcracker), a bird of the raven family. Length about 35 cm. Lives mainly in coniferous forests of Eurasia. It feeds on pine nuts and seeds of other tree species, and insects. Promotes the spread of cedar pine.
KEDROVKAKEDROVKA (nutcracker, Nucifraga caryocatactes), bird of the raven family (cm. corvids) slightly smaller than a jackdaw (length about 35 cm; body weight 125-190 g), with a thin and long beak. The nutcracker is dark brownish-brown in color with white streaks, which are not present on the upper side of the head. The undertail is white, and there is a light border at the end of the tail.
Distributed in taiga forests of Europe and Asia from Scandinavia and the Alps to Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands, Primorye, Japan and China. Prefers spruce, cedar and cedar-elfin forests. The nutcracker is a typical forest bird; it deftly jumps along branches and hangs on the cones of coniferous trees. In normal years, he leads a sedentary lifestyle, making only small migrations. In some years, it undertakes mass migrations outside the breeding area.
The main food of the nutcracker is the seeds of cedar pine, spruce and insects. She also eats seeds of various other plants, chicks and eggs. small birds, lizards, frogs. The nutcracker begins breeding early: in the European part of Russia it begins to build nests in the first half of March. By this time, she climbs into remote areas of the forest, where she leads a secretive lifestyle throughout the entire nesting period. It builds nests on coniferous trees at a height of 4-6 m. The clutch contains from 2 to 5 eggs of a light bluish or fawn color with brown spots. The egg dimensions are 33.9 by 24.9 mm. The female incubates, starting with the first egg, for 16-18 days. The chicks leave the nest at the age of 21-25 days. Broods with well-flying chicks are found on different days of June.
An interesting biological feature of nutcrackers is mass migration caused by food failure. In years with a good harvest of coniferous seeds, seasonal migrations of nutcrackers are small and local in nature. When the pine nut harvest fails in some places, the birds move to others where there is a harvest. In years when the pine nut crop failure coincides with the spruce seed crop failure and covers vast territories, the nutcracker makes long flights beyond the nesting area. This is especially typical for Siberian nutcrackers.
Another remarkable feature of this bird is the preparation of food for the winter. She makes storehouses of pine nuts on the ground - under moss, lichens, in stone deposits, under bark and in tree hollows. When preparing food, the nutcracker collects nuts in its throat sac. Up to 120 cedar nuts were found in it. Birds remember the places of their storerooms and in winter they find and dig them up, making passages up to 60 cm in the snow. Some of the nutcracker reserves are not used, the seeds germinate in them. Thus, the nutshell plays an important role in the dispersal of cedar pine. The regeneration of cedar pine in burnt areas occurs exclusively with the help of this bird. It is also useful in exterminating insects harmful to the forest.
encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .
Synonyms:See what “nutcracker” is in other dictionaries:
Kedrovka- Kedrovka. Nutcracker (nutcracker), taiga bird (raven family). Length is about 35 cm. It lives in Eurasia, mainly in spruce forests and cedar trees. The main food is pine nuts, which are stored for the winter. The nutcracker does not find some of its storerooms... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
Kedrovka- Nucifraga caryocatactes see also 18.12.3. Genus Nucifraga Nutcracker Nucifraga caryocatactes A bird slightly larger than a dove, brown (less often almost black) with frequent white streaks; the top of the head, wings and tail are black; end of tail... ... Birds of Russia. Directory
Orekhovka Dictionary of Russian synonyms. nutcracker noun, number of synonyms: 2 nut (3) bird ... Synonym dictionary
- (nutcracker) a bird of the raven family. Length approx. 35 cm. Lives mainly in coniferous forests of Eurasia. It feeds on pine nuts and seeds of other tree species, and insects. Promotes the spread of cedar pine... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
KEDROVKA, and, female. Forest bird of the family. Ravens Dictionary Ozhegova. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes), bird of the family. Ravens Dl. on average 35 cm. Distributed in Eurasia, in the USSR from the South. Karelia and Belarus to Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands, isolated habitat in the spruce forests of the Tien Shan. Lives in mixed and coniferous... ... Biological encyclopedic dictionary
Bird of the crow family, nutcracker. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910 ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
This term has other meanings, see Kedrovka (meanings). The request "Orekhovka" is redirected here; see also other meanings. ? Kedrovka ... Wikipedia
I Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes), a bird of the corvid family of the passerine order. Body length is about 35 cm. The plumage is dark brown with white streaks. Distributed in coniferous forests of Europe and Asia; in the USSR in the taiga zone and Tien forests... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- (nut), bird of the family. Ravens Dl. OK. 35 cm. Lives Ch. arr. in the coniferous forests of Eurasia. It feeds on pine nuts and seeds of other tree species, and insects. Promotes the spread of cedar pine. Kedrovka... Natural science. encyclopedic Dictionary
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The charming and noisy nutcracker bird is known to almost all people living near vast taiga forests. This bird is also known as the nutcracker. This small bird received this name because of the specifics of its diet, the main diet of which is pine nuts.
Due to the wide distribution of nutcrackers and their loudness, quite often these birds are shot. For this reason, you can hear the question from amateur hunters: is it possible to eat a nutcracker bird?
Kedrovka – chief forester
The small nutcracker bird belongs to the corvid family and, like all crows, has an average body size, a small body weight from 125 g to 200 g and a massive beak. Birds settle in areas where cedar trees are common. Most often you can see them in the Russian taiga expanses and in the mountains of Europe.
Nutcrackers live in noisy flocks. Noisy birds fly from cedar to cedar, constantly calling to each other and wagging their tails in front of each other.
A special feature of the nut is the presence of a storage sac in its body. When collecting nuts, the bird does not hollow them out, but puts them entirely in a compartment under the tongue. Thus, in one raid, a nutcracker can collect up to 100 nuts.
After collecting the required amount of nuts, the nutcracker flies away from the tree being processed at a distance of 2 km to 4 km and hides its reserves. During the summer period, she organizes more than 50 thousand caches.
Often, nuts are forgotten where they hid their reserves and thanks to them, not only birds, but also chipmunks, sables, and bears feed in the winter. Nuts not found by forest inhabitants swell and germinate in the spring. Thus, forgetful birds increase the number of cedars and restore the forest.
On this moment due to climate change, nuts are found even in the Moscow region. Noisy birds settle in parks in winter, looking for nuts and berries.
Edible - not edible?
Due to the appearance of a large number of nutcrackers in villages and cities, hunting enthusiasts began shooting these restless birds, and many were interested in the question of whether it is possible to eat a nutcracker bird? The answer is quite simple - you can.
A fairly clean bird, it mainly feeds on pine nuts, acorns, pine and spruce seeds. During the hungry period, the nutcracker can also eat berries, insects and small vertebrates.
According to hunters, nutcracker is quite edible. Poultry meat is dark and quite tough. A significant difference between meat is that it smells like nuts and pine. When cooked, it feels like the bird is being cooked in a nut sauce.
Kedrovka is an amazing representative of the corvid family, a small bird, smaller in size than a jackdaw, its weight on average is 150 g. But its life activity is so unique that it greatly contributes to the growth and spread of cedar and walnut trees. Therefore, its contribution to the ecosystem is truly enormous.
The body of this winged creature is about 30 cm long. The main background of its feathers is dark brown-brown, dotted with numerous white streaks. The back of the head of such a bird and the back of the wings are black, as is the tail with a white border, which is about 11 cm long.
The female can be distinguished from the male by a fuzzy pattern of white inclusions and a lighter, even dull color of the feather, due to which it usually visually merges almost completely with the surrounding space.
It is quite difficult to distinguish a female from a male nutcracker; the variegated plumage on the female’s chest blends slightly
Such winged creatures usually make a lot of noise in nature. But nutcracker's voice sounds differently depending on the circumstances, her mood and even the time of year. In case of danger, it makes loud crackling sounds similar to “carr-carr”.
Often the singing of these small creatures is perceived as very euphonious and resembles the short rumbling trills of a whippoorwill, sometimes heard something like “kip”, “kev” and “tyuu”. In winter, the concerts of these birds are distinguished by the tenderness of whistling, as well as a set of screeching, crackling, clicking rhythmic sounds.
The range of these birds is very extensive. In Eurasia, they inhabit taiga forests and are distributed from Scandinavia to the eastern borders of the mainland, while also living on the Kuril and Japanese islands.
Kinds
The genus called nutcrackers does not include many, only two species. The first of them, living in Eurasia, has already been described above. And the features of the birds’ external appearance are clearly visible in the photo there are nutcrackers.
Name of the second: North American walnut. Such birds can be found in the Cordilleras. They are approximately the same size as their relatives from the previous variety, but can be a little smaller. At the same time, the color of their plumage is noticeably different. Its main background is gray-ash, and the back of the wings is black with white areas.
Birds have dark legs and beaks. Members of the feathered kingdom live in pine forests. Representatives of both species of the nutcracker genus are not in danger of extinction; their numbers are considered relatively stable, and the population is quite large.
Kuksha – bird, similar to nutcracker. She is also a taiga inhabitant and also belongs to the corvid family. These birds are approximately the same in size and body proportions. But the color of the feather of the cedar is noticeably different from the feather plumage of the nutcracker.
It has a brown-gray color, a dark crown and wings, as well as a red tail, and makes dull sounds reminiscent of “cook”, for which it was nicknamed the cuckoo. And both little birds are sometimes confused with, by the way, a representative of the same family and order of passeriformes, which includes both species of birds from the genus of nutcrackers.
North American nutcracker, second species of nutcracker bird
Lifestyle and habitat
The native home of the nutcracker is, consonant with its name, cedar forests, but also spruce and other coniferous forests. This bird is not particularly attracted to water spaces, and it does not even try to cross rivers more than 3 km wide. But sometimes it happens that storms and typhoons carry such creatures to remote islands, where they take root and remain as permanent inhabitants.
Such a winged creature is not particularly capable of other journeys, especially long ones, especially if it is not necessary. Is not migrant . Kedrovka leads a sedentary lifestyle. And in order to survive in cold times, it makes very extensive reserves of seeds and nuts for the winter - its favorite food.
And only in years when there are crop failures in the Siberian forests for various reasons, extensive fires occur there, or trees suffer from predatory felling, such birds from there in large numbers go to the west to find additional sources of food.
During such periods, entire flocks of migrated birds catch the eye of people in Central and Eastern Europe. There and nutcracker lives until better times come. By the way, in the old days in these parts, numerous groups of these birds, appearing from nowhere, were considered a harbinger of great misfortunes.
Superstitious European residents of past centuries, unable to find a correct interpretation of the invasion of flocks of nutcrackers, associated them with famine, wars and plague.
Such a small birdie, of course, has plenty of enemies in nature. Small predators can pose a particular danger to her during the nesting period: wild cats, foxes, martens, etc. Taking advantage of the helplessness of such birds, who are entirely occupied with the troubles of breeding and raising offspring, they attack them and also feast on their eggs and cubs.
Such attempts are often successful because nutcrackers are by nature very slow, not always agile, they are difficult to climb and rise into the air quite slowly.
Birds are also vulnerable during periods when they make abundant reserves for the winter. At such times, they have the habit of completely losing their vigilance, they don’t hear or see anything around them, and therefore they unusually easily become victims of their clever and cunning enemies.
Nutrition
The diet of the nutcracker is highly varied. Such birds can feed on seeds, beech nuts, berries, fruits and acorns. Even larger animals that contain a sufficient amount of protein also serve as food for them.
Having a thin beak, the nutcracker easily extracts nuts from cones
But still, most of all, the body of these birds needs carbohydrates, because it is they that provide it in any cold weather, which often occurs in winter in taiga forests, with so much energy necessary during these periods. Therefore, the main food of these winged creatures is still pine nuts, which contain these elements in large quantities.
Birds have adapted to obtain nuts from cones. This kind of thing is not particularly difficult for nutcrackers. After all, nature itself provided such a small bird with a beak that is very adapted to this type of activity, long and thin in shape.
It is for this purpose that the nutcracker peels the cones, and when removing the nuts, smashes them on stones or trees, making them suitable for their own consumption.
But nutcrackers most often feed their chicks with protein food, that is, insects, because the rapidly growing organisms of the young require precisely this kind of food. These amazing creatures begin to collect pine nuts as they ripen. Birds usually do this together, grouping in flocks, such communities, and going in search of food.
When collecting supplies, nutcrackers are inventive and tireless, and are rewarded with snow, frosty winters is the abundance of food for themselves and their offspring. Working tirelessly during the warm period, only one nutcracker is able to prepare about seventy thousand nuts. She carries them in a special sublingual pouch.
In such a natural adaptation, inherited from birth and located under the beak, up to a hundred nuts can be carried a considerable distance at a time. But in the stomach of these little birds no more than twelve of them fit. The rest remain in reserve.
Next, the nuts are hidden in a pre-prepared pantry. This can be a hollow in a tree or a depression in the ground, located from the cedar from which the crop was harvested, at a distance of up to four kilometers. Such birds strive to make more hiding places. And usually the birds remember their location well and do not forget.
Although there is an opinion that nutcrackers detect their secret places by smell. However, during periods of heavy snowfall this is hardly possible, and therefore this version cannot be considered valid.
But incidents with pantries sometimes happen; such storehouses with tasty nutritious delicacies may well be discovered by other living beings: field mice, which, of course, will not deny themselves the pleasure of being satisfied at the expense of the thriftiness of other living beings. And the real owners of the reserves - the little hardworking birds - remain without a well-deserved reward.
That’s why nutcrackers try to make more hiding places. And if they notice that unwanted observers appear while they are hiding tasty treasures, they try to strengthen camouflage measures.
Large warehouses of pine nuts buried in the ground are not always useful to the birds who made them, which greatly contributes to the spread of pine seeds, moved by tireless winged creatures in this manner over considerable distances.
And then wonderful trees grow from them in large numbers. That is why in Tomsk in 2013 people built a real monument to this feathered worker. After all, the nutcracker essentially cares about the revival of nature much more than humans, although, of course, it is not capable of realizing its grandiose purpose.
In the photo there is a monument to the nutcracker in Tomsk
It should be noted that in many regions of the European West, where such birds are also found, there are no cedar trees, but there are walnut trees, and they serve as the main source of food there for these creatures. That's why they call it nutcracker nut, for example, in the territory.
Reproduction and lifespan
These already cautious birds become even more timid during the mating season; they try not to leave their nesting territories and hide from prying eyes. It is precisely the fact that such creatures make significant food reserves for the winter that allows them to very soon begin breeding and growing a new generation of nutcrackers in the spring.
They place their nests on coniferous trees, placing them at a considerable height, and construct them from the most ordinary building material: lichens, moss, grass and of course twigs. Their nutcrackers are simply piled randomly and held together with clay.
Nutcracker nest with chicks
The birds begin to make these preparations even before the ambient temperature rises above zero. Already in March, in some cases in April, the mother nutcracker lays up to four greenish and oblong eggs, in the incubation of which the father of the family always helps her.
Kedrovka – bird in relationships with the opposite sex it is constant, that is, monogamous, because pairs of such birds do not break up throughout their lives. Members of the family union carry out incubation in turns, and while one guards the eggs, the other flies to last year's food supplies.
At first, small nutcrackers are also fed on seeds softened in the parent crop, but when it becomes very warm and insects appear, the chicks switch to this type of food. Three weeks old, the young are already eager to test themselves in flight, and in June the new generation gradually gets used to independence.
True, for a long time (somewhere until the end of the season) the young members of the family are under parental supervision. Such small birds live a relatively long time. If accidents do not shorten the life allotted to them by nature, they are able to live up to ten years, or even longer.
The nutcracker bird is a tireless fighter for the spread of Siberian cedar. What does a nutcracker bird look like?? These winged creatures are smaller in size and are related and belong to the passerine family.
Birds cannot boast of size and size. The length of these birds is 30 cm, the weight is only 190 grams, and in some cases it is even less. Nutcrackers have a dark brown color, and their plumage is completely covered with white spots.
The birds have a fairly large tail, 11 cm in size, bordered by a white stripe. The long, thin beak and legs of these winged creatures are painted black.
Description of the nutcracker bird wouldn't be complete without some addition. By external signs male birds are somewhat different from females, which are smaller in size and lighter in color, and the white spots of their plumage are not as clear as those of their cavaliers.
These are inhabitants of taiga forests, and are found over a vast territory from Scandinavia to Kamchatka, spreading further to the Kuril Islands and the coast of Japan.
The closest relatives of the nutcracker are the feathered inhabitants of the North American continent. These miniature creatures are very small in size, reaching a length of only 25 cm.
Character and lifestyle of the nutcracker
Unpretentious nutcrackers are not afraid of forty-degree frosts, and are quite capable of withstanding much more severe cold. Thanks to this natural feature, birds do not fly away for the winter in search of warmth, as many of their feathered relatives do, but remain in their homeland, where everything they need is available during the cold season.
Nutcrackers are wintering birds that can withstand frosts
However, they still undertake minor trips in search of food, looking for new sources of food and more convenient habitats. In difficult times, with an acute lack of nutrition and a poor food harvest, nutcrackers make mass migrations.
Nutcracker bird has a cheerful, energetic and active character. And although birds often live alone, they are quite sociable and love to form small but noisy flocks.
Their entire existence is spent in search of food, and having found it, barely satiated, the busy winged creatures rush to stock up for future use. It is with this feature of economic feathered creatures that many interesting facts.
The nutcracker is very thrifty, and thus benefits not itself, but the surrounding nature. How? This will be discussed further below.
Nutcracker nutrition
What do these birds eat? From the name of the birds it is not at all difficult to guess this. Nutcrackers simply love to feast on pine nuts, skillfully opening them with blows of their beaks. In addition, they consume berries, beech seeds, hazel fruits and acorns as food.
Such winged creatures are known for their habit of storing food for the winter. The nutcracker loves nuts very much, and when collecting them, she buries the excess in the ground as a reserve. And this property of birds greatly contributes to the cultivation and spread of Siberian cedar.
The unlucky birds soon forget without a trace where and what they are supposed to have, leaving the seeds of the Siberian pine in the fertile soil. And in the place of the supply warehouse, after a while, powerful trees grow.
Such an ecological mission has not gone unnoticed by human civilization. And in memory of the heroic work of the birds, an impressive monument was erected to the nutcracker in one of the parks of the Siberian city of Tomsk, perpetuating its tireless work for the benefit of nature. Around such a unique monument there are majestic Siberian cedars, which in itself is symbolic.
In the photo there is a monument to the nutcracker in Tomsk
He not only buries his reserves in the ground, but also leaves them in the hollows of trees, and also hides them under the roofs of people’s houses. Nature, for the benefit of which birds work so persistently, has abundantly supplied the birds with everything necessary for this. The sublingual pouch is an organ that the nutcracker has, allowing it to store up to a hundred pine nuts inside itself.
However, birds are still not as frivolous as they might seem. Their lively intellect completely allows them, when collecting nuts, to discard unsuitable, spoiled and rotten ones, and set aside only the best.
Nutcrackers have the ability to select only the best nuts
Mature birds also teach this art to young birds. Nutcrackers do not disdain animal food, mercilessly exterminating small invertebrates. And pieces of meat are often found in food supplies of nutcrackers left in people’s homes.
Reproduction and lifespan
Nutcrackers are a species that form married couples for life. They build nests for their chicks among the branches of coniferous trees, placing their buildings, which are secured with clay and also lined with moss and feathers, very close to the ground. Such construction usually begins in early April.
The mother nutcracker not only lays, but also incubates eggs for two and a half weeks. And when the offspring appear, the parents diligently feed their pets with the much-loved nutcrackers, nuts, and small insects.
The photo shows a nutcracker nest
After about three weeks, the young chicks are already eager to fly, soon boldly soaring into the sky. But for a few more days they feel the care of the parents, who look after their cubs and feed them.
Despite their small size, the birds live quite a long time, in some cases reaching the age of ten or more years.
Today we will talk about the most important forester - the nutcracker bird. The photos and videos that you will see in the article will help you understand and appreciate the role of this little bird in the life of the coniferous forest.
Kedrovka - a feathered forester
There is a bird in the corvid family with an interesting name - the nutcracker. In another way it is also called nutcracker.
The bird got its name due to the fact that it feeds mainly on pine nuts. That's why nutcrackers live where cedar forests grow. In the taiga expanses of the European and Asian parts of Russia, in the mountain forests of Europe, this noisy, noisy bird nests.
What does nutcracker look like?
Like all crows, it is of medium size. The body length can reach 36 cm, the tail is 11 cm, slightly rounded at the end and bordered by a light stripe. Body weight varies from 120 to 200 g.
The plumage is dense, the color is variegated. The back, head and abdomen are dark brown with white spots scattered here and there. The wings are dark, brown-brown, with shades of black. But the legs and beak stand out sharply with their black color.
The female can be distinguished from the male by its lighter color. The white spots on the body look blurry and not so sharply highlighted.
Peculiarities of nutcracker reproduction
Nutcrackers try to build their nests in remote and inaccessible places. Nest construction begins in April. In their beaks they carry small twigs and twigs covered with lichen, moss, and grass on the high branches of coniferous trees. The female lays from 3 to 7 eggs. Like the bird itself, the eggs are also variegated in color. On a white background with bluish or brownish tints there are spots of olive brown or gray.
When the chicks grow up, the whole family flies away from these remote places. Nutcrackers are sedentary birds. But in the fall they can move closer to human habitation or roam quite long distances in search of food.
Nutritional Features
You can often see such a picture in the forest. Flocks of nutcrackers sit on the tops of cedars, wag their tails in front of each other and call to each other. An amateur hears a crow's "carr" in their cry, but in general they make a sound similar to a crack, "cray."
As soon as one of them notices a pine cone in the crown of the trees and flies towards it, the entire flock takes off and also descends onto the tree.
At the same time, everyone also makes their crackling sounds.
With the help of a long strong beak, the nut frees the cone from the shell, but does not hollow out the nuts themselves. She swallows the entire nut whole and puts it in a kind of pouch under her tongue. The bag in the crop contains almost a hundred nuts. When it is completely full, it hangs down greatly, like a tightly stuffed purse.
He will go down lower, stick his beak under an old moss-covered dead tree and drop a few nuts.
If he sees a hole under a snag, he will throw the nuts there.
Flying past the hollow of any tree, it will pour some of its “wallet” into it. And so the bird flies through the taiga until it shakes and loses all the nuts.
We need to hide the nut in reserve... In years when the nut harvest is large, the nutcracker can fly up to 10 km a day, hiding nuts in reserve for the winter. Its storehouses are found in hungry years by sable, chipmunk, and.
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