Everyone knows a feathered predator - a falcon, but not everyone knows that it has varieties. One of them is the Falcon Falcon.
Who is Saker Falcon?
Saker or balaban, itlegi or itlegu, shargh,rarog - there are many names, but the essence is one. They all designate a species from the family of falconry, perhaps the most dangerous among all its predator representatives. The exact origin of the word "Saker Falcon" is unknown. There are suggestions that it is borrowed from the Iranian name of this bird. One of her other names is sharq. It comes from the Latin name of the falcon: Falco cherrug.
Falcon Falcon is a sedentary predator.Only those birds that live in the north wander. Despite the fact that the Saker Falcon itself is only a species of falcon, it has several subspecies, which we will discuss in more detail later.
Falcon Falcon: characteristics of the species
Any saker is a fairly large bird,whose dimensions can exceed sixty centimeters in length. The difference in the length of the body makes it easy to distinguish the female from the male. As a rule, female individuals are larger. The weight of the falcon Falcon fluctuates in the range from one to one and a half kilograms. The wingspan of an adult is 1-1.5 m.
According to the description and photos of the falcon Falcon, you cannote that the appearance of males and females is not different from each other. This is a pretty beautiful bird of interesting color. Their head is usually light brown with dark spots, dark brown or gray is the upper part of the trunk, while there are light or red stripes. Breast, on the contrary, is light, and the strips on it are dark. The lower body and legs are practically white, sometimes with a light yellow tint. The beak is bluish with a black tip, the eyes are surrounded by yellow circles. From the characteristics and photos of the Saker Falcon you can see what a beautiful bird it is!
It is interesting that the closer to the east, thethe color of the bird is more intense, in addition, the more saturated color is usually found in the chicks. The offspring, having appeared on light, has a white fluff, which then slightly turns gray. Feathers, both helmsmanlike and tentered, begin to grow in the third week of life. Characteristically, the development of males goes somewhat faster than females, this fact also concerns the growth of feathers.
The falcon of the falcon
There are six subspecies of the bird:
- Saker Lobolus is ordinary. The most numerous subspecies. It lives in Eastern Europe, Kazakhstan and on the border of Kazakhstan and Russia.
- Saker-fish Turkestan lives in the mountains of Central Asia. At the present time, it is for certain not known whether he has survived.
- Mongolian saker, as it is easy to guess, lives in Mongolia, as well as in China, Transbaikalia, Tuva and Altai.
- The Tibetan saker lives in Tibet.
- Saker Falcon lives in the Aral-Caspian region.
- Central Asian Sakerwood. The bird can be found in the mountains of Central Asia.
It is important to understand that not onlyThoroughbred Saker. In many regions, for example, in South Siberia, live crossed species: hybrids of common, Central Asian and Mongolian Saker Falcon.
Habitat
Falcon Sokol lives in the mountains, steppes and forest-steppes,as well as in the zone of mixed and deciduous forests. They are distributed territorially in the south of Siberia, in Transbaikalia, Eastern Europe, Kazakhstan, China, and Central Asia. The birds inhabiting the northern regions are migratory, they begin to roam in October. They return to their nests of the Saker in the second half of March.
Number of
This species of birds is very rare.It is listed in the Red Book. The Falcon Falcon is on the verge of extinction, its abundance in nature is constantly decreasing. Ten years ago the number of birds was about eight and a half thousand individuals. For almost thirty years in the reserve of Galichya mountain of the Lipetsk region there is a nursery where saker falcons are bred.
Why Saker Says
The reasons for the extinction of the falcon Falcon are several.First of all, this is due to falconry smuggling into Arab countries, where hunting for these birds is permitted. In addition, Saker Falcon often die because of poisoning by poisons for rodents or on power lines, due to the attack on them of the Filin (this is the only natural enemy of the Saker Falcon), due to the ruin of nests by people, as well as extreme climatic conditions.
Food
Falcon Falcon is a bird of prey.It feeds on small rodents (for example, gophers), as well as hares, pigeons, partridges, ducks, large lizards. All potential "food" is very afraid of Saker Falcon. When the victim sees a falcon in the sky, it seeks to hide and not to leave the burrows. Sakers do not hunt near their own nests, and this fact is used by small mammals.
The falcon searches for prey, as a rule,near the water, next to the rocks or trees, that is, in the area where it is clearly visible. To the victim, the Saker sails at a high speed, sometimes it can reach even two hundred and fifty kilometers per hour. Having flown to the prey, the speed of the bird does not decrease. At the same time, the saker does not get injuries, the whole reason is a strong skull and joints.
The bird kills the victim with lightning speed and very quiet:having fallen at a right angle, he strongly beats her in the side. As a rule, death occurs instantly. If this did not happen, the saker sights a second blow, thus finishing off the victim. The bird absorbs food at once on a place or carries away in a nest.
Nesting
Falcon Sokol differs in that he neverbuilds nests, but only takes strangers. As a rule, crows, buzzards and kurgans suffer from raiding ravens, but it happens that the saker invades even an eagle's dwelling. Typically, the bird tends to settle on the rocks and hills. The maximum that the saker can make in the nest is to make "minor repairs", if it is already completely dilapidated. For this he uses dry branches, shrub shoots, skins of killed rodents, down, fur. It is interesting that sometimes a saker likes several nests and lives in them in turn.
Reproduction
Saker fuckers immediately after they foundand set up their home. As a rule, this happens in April or in the last days of March. The female lays three to six eggs, which can be yellow, red, red, brown or brown with dark spots. They have to be hunted for thirty or forty days. As a rule, the future mother sits on the eggs, however her father replaces her in the evenings. At other times of the day he procures food and takes care of the female.
Chicks are born usually in May.They are fed with small birds and rodents. In the nest, the Saker's chicks spend about one and a half months, then gradually begin to learn how to fly. Completely on the wing, they get up at about the age of two months, then start to look for their own food. This happens in July-August. Puberty at the Saker comes at the age of one year, and the total life expectancy at will is about twenty years (however, there are cases when the Saker Falcon lived to thirty).
Interesting Facts
- Related species, which are very similar to Saker Falcon - peregrine falcon and gyrfalcon. Saker is a little lighter. At the same time, some scientists believe that the bird is the northern species of gyrfalcon.
- The most popular type of falconry is the Saker Falcon.
- The falcon is very attached to its owner.
- It is the Saker Falcon that is mentioned in all ancient works.
- The falcon does not hunt in the daytime, it takes the morning or evening to get food.
- The scientific name of the falcon (Falco) is translated as "sickle". So these birds are called because of the shape of their wings during the flight.
- This is one of the smartest birds on earth.
- Saker eaters provide invaluable help in the fight against rodents, like all falcons, are excellent watchmen.
- The Falcon Falcon is by its nature a loner, with another bird converging only for the continuation of the genus.
- Falcons are one of the fastest birds in the world.
- Saker is a totem bird in ancient Egypt.
