This small graceful bird got its name thanks to its thin voice. The sounds that a pika makes are very similar to a squeak. It belongs to the passerine order, the pika family. Its size is so small that sometimes it is difficult to even notice the bird. It usually moves in a spiral up and down the tree, where it spends all day looking for bugs, spiders and insect larvae.
Body size of a miniature bird is only twelve centimeters, and its weight barely reaches eleven grams.
She prefers to lead a daytime lifestyle. At night, pikas, as a rule, spend the night with their flock, and during the day, each one looks for food in his own tree. These babies live for about seven years, laying five or six eggs twice a year.
Pika bird
Pikas form the pika family, which includes five other species of birds.
Features of the pika's appearance
Habitats
On European territory You can find two species from the pika family. This common and short-toed pika. Externally, it is difficult to distinguish them, even upon close examination. But these birds have different singing, which is how these species are separated.
The Himalayas are home to three species of pika, of which Hodgson's pika has long been distinguished as separate species. Externally, these birds differ in some characteristic features. So, the Nepalese pika is very light, and the brown-headed pika has a dark throat and the same sides. The Himalayan species is more variegated. It lacks the uniform color typical of all species.
American and European birds are similar to each other.
This bird prefers a sedentary lifestyle. Occasionally, pikas wander in flocks around the area, trying not to move over long distances. In Russia they can be found everywhere where trees grow. They are not only in steppe zone and in the Far North.
Common pika– the most common species from the pika family. She lives in all forests temperate climate ranging from the north of Ireland to Japan. These birds are not migratory. Only those living in the north can fly to more southern regions in the fall. And also pikas living in mountain forests in winter can descend.
What does it eat?
The usual diet of these birds consists of:
- bark beetles;
- spiders;
- larvae;
- insect eggs and pupae;
- plant seeds.
Range of the common pika already speaks about her gastronomic preferences. Living in trees in forests, the bird spends all day searching for insects from tree bark with its sharp beak. Most often it can be seen on the slopes of rivers and lakes. And also in abandoned gardens and coniferous forests.
The foraging process is interesting. She rests her whole body with the help of a strong tail and pulls insects out of crevices. Unlike the woodpecker, which waits for the prey to come out on its own, the pika does this much more efficiently and quickly.
The most favorite food of these birds are bark beetles. For this reason, pikas can safely be called forest healers. From spring to autumn, these hardworking birds manage to destroy many tree pests.
Having discovered a tree rich in insects, the bird will return to it again and again and examine it again from bottom to top.
IN winter months when it is not possible to get insects, birds feed on fruits coniferous trees or various seeds.
This bird flies little and short distances, preferring to spend whole days on the tree they liked. Despite the fact that birds prefer to spend the night in flocks, pikas are still more inclined to be on their own. Only with the onset of cold weather can these birds be seen in a group. What’s remarkable is that they often join flocks of titmice and sit tightly huddled together with them, escaping the frost.
The common pika loves to mark its territory and bravely defend it from other birds. Surprisingly, she is not afraid of humans and, in general, is distinguished by some fearlessness towards all animals and birds.
In winter, the pika falls into a state of laziness, but with the onset of spring it becomes extremely active again. Seeing food on a path or road, it falls from the tree and grabs it, but then always returns to the branches.
Very often you can notice the tousled and slightly shabby tail of this miniature bird. The point is that due to constant use, and the tail, as you know, serves as a support for it, the feathers break and fall out. Therefore, pikas often shed their tails.
Reproduction
During mating season
, which begins in March, the males become very aggressive and pugnacious. Fights of these squeaky birds can be identified by the squeals that the fighters raise.
Already in April, they build nests in the hollow of a favorite tree, about forty centimeters wide and up to thirty centimeters deep. It is noteworthy that the nests are sometimes located very low to the ground.
To build a nest, the bird takes up to two weeks. All responsibilities for arranging a home for future chicks rest with the female. Construction material, as often happens with birds, twigs, moss, lichen, cobwebs and their own fluff protrude. The hardworking pika strengthens it not at the bottom of the hollow, but on the wall. Thus, the nest does not lie, but hangs in the hollow.
Already at the end of April, the first clutches of pika eggs can be seen. Males become silent during this period. You usually get up to eight eggs. The usual number is five or six. Their color is white with small red spots.
Sometimes laying begins later in June. It depends on the weather conditions in the area where birds live. The eggs are very small and almost without a sharp end.
Chicks appear on the fifteenth day after hatching. Moreover, with a large display, several eggs may turn out to be undeveloped. Weak chicks can be trampled into the nest in the first hours of life. The male and female, trying to feed their offspring, constantly fly up with food.
As soon as the chicks grow up a little, they are already trying to crawl along the tree while tightly clinging to the bark. As the parents approach, the chicks begin to squeak and open their mouths.
Pikas usually have two broods a year. But as already said everything will depend on the climate, in which they live. Young chicks usually settle close to their parents. Starting from the first year of life, the chicks molt completely. This occurs at the end of summer and lasts until mid-September. The contour feather is replaced first, and the down much later. Moreover, the new pen is usually brighter than the previous one.
, hardworking pika these cute and hardworking animals live in mountainous areas (up to 6,000 meters above sea level) temperate latitudes Asia. One species, the American pika, lives in North America, one - steppe pika - in Southeast Europe. There are about 15 species of pikas in the world.
Externally, pikas resemble a large mouse or guinea pig. They have short legs and a tail, and neat rounded ears are in no way similar to those of a hare or rabbit, although the animals are classified as lagomorphs.
The mustache is long and the color is usually uniform. Often the color of one animal is very different in different time of the year. The size of an adult animal varies from 10 to 25 cm in length, weight usually does not exceed 350 g.
Pikas live in burrows, which they usually dig themselves. The length of one hole with all exits and branches reaches 10 meters. If the layer of snow is deep enough, the pika can build a ball-shaped nest in it, neatly lined with grass.
In habitats where there is little soil, the animals find shelter in rock crevices or among stones. Pikas do not move quickly, but in small jumps. Most species live in colonies - this makes it easier to protect themselves from enemies: sable, weasel, birds of prey and others who want to feast on a small animal.
To a good day sunny weather pikas love to sunbathe in rocky areas; in rainy and windy periods they hide from bad weather in natural shelters. But more often than not, pikas can be found doing the painstaking and serious work of collecting hay.
Why was the pika called haymaker?
Many pika species live in harsh, high-altitude environments where summers are short and winters are cold. Therefore, they learned to prepare food for the winter. Collecting plants around their burrow, pikas make hay from them.
To prevent the haystack from being blown away by the wind, smart animals weigh it down with stones. The American pika makes stacks about half a meter high in the center of its site. The Appallas pika collects 3-4 kg of hay over the summer.
There is reliable information about the hardworking Altai pika, whose stack height reached 2 meters, and the weight of undried hay was 27 kg. Dry hay is stored under natural shelters in the form of stones or rocks.
Although pikas live in colonies, they carefully protect the boundaries of their territory and their supplies from attacks by outsiders. If it is inconvenient to place stacks, pikas hide their supplies in crevices between the rocks.
Hardworking animals constantly check the provisions, lay them out for drying after the rain, take them to their burrows, and protect them from attacks by their fellow tribesmen. Most pikas do not fall into hibernation, relying on hay reserves made during the warm season.
Mating season for pikas occurs two or three times a year. After month's pregnancy The female usually gives birth to two to eight cubs.
The peak fertility of pikas is twelve babies in one litter. The cubs are born blind and helpless; in some species they are covered with hair from birth, in others they are born naked.
Domain - Nuclear (Eukaryota)
Kingdom - Animals (Metazoa)
Type - Chordata
Infratype - Vertebrata
Class - Mammals (Mammalia)
Subclass - Beasts (Theria)
Infraclass - Placental (Eutheria)
Squad - Lagomorpha (Lagomorpha)
Family - Pischuchaidae
Genus - Ochotona
View - Northern pika
Pikas or haymakers are distant relatives of lagomorphs and although they look more like hamsters, they are not rodents. There were once 11 genera in the pika family, but now only one remains. It is divided into 14-16 species, of which in the territory former USSR found 7. Fossil remains indicate that pikas lived on earth 15 million years ago. Pikas got their name because of the characteristic thin squeak they make when jumping. Pikas live in the mountains, steppes and even deserts of Eurasia and North America, mainly on rocky landscapes at altitudes up to 6000 m, and one of the species described here is northern pika (Ochotona hyperborean)– has even mastered the Arctic coasts. The northern pika is one of the most typical representatives of the pika family, both in structure and in lifestyle. She lives in the mountains Northern Urals, Eastern and Southern Siberia, mainland Far East, in Kamchatka and Northern Sakhalin, in the rocky tundra from the Yenisei to Chukotka. Lives in stone placers of the taiga and tundra mountain belts. In Chukotka, it sometimes settles in road embankments and heaps of large rubble.
The northern pika is one of the most large species family of pikas. The length of the animal is up to 25 cm, weight - 250 g, the length of the sole of the hind leg is up to 25 mm, the length of the hind and front legs is almost the same. The tail is very short and invisible from the outside. The ears are short, up to 15 mm, with rounded tops and often with a light border along the edge. Vibrissae (whiskers) up to 55 mm long, black-brown. The color of summer fur ranges from light gray-brown with a pale-reddish or yellowish admixture to rusty-red-ocher or brown-brown; the color of the sides is usually lighter; the belly is whitish or grayish with a fawn admixture. Despite their appearance, pikas are very agile and deftly run along the slopes of cliffs.
Pikas lead a predominantly diurnal lifestyle, their activity has two peaks - morning and evening; begins at the first sign of dawn and continues until darkness. During the day, many of them sit motionless on a pebble, their appearance reminiscent of the Egyptian sphinxes at the foot of the pyramids. They live in colonies that are distant from each other at a considerable distance, without forming continuous settlements. For housing, they dig holes or settle in the voids between stones, but only one animal or a pair settles in a hole, at some distance from its neighbors. The presence of pikas can be recognized by the loud alarm calls they make. There are 3 types of sound signals: long, short and trills. Animals often die, becoming prey to birds of prey and other predators of the animal world.
In summer, pikas feed mainly on herbaceous vegetation. Hardworking animals not only eat plants, but also stock up on food for the winter; since they do not hibernate, they must prepare enough food to survive the hungry time. They harvest grass by storing hay in underground storage facilities or, more often, in stacks, which are placed under stones in well-ventilated niches, usually not far from their burrows. The stacks reach a height of 45 cm and to prevent the stock from being blown away by the wind, the pikas press them down with stones. Each family collects several stacks of food. From time to time, pikas stir up stacks and turn over, shake and spread the hay for even drying like real peasants (hence another name for pikas - hay stands). Northern pikas hide the finished hay in their pantries for winter storage. They are very sensitive to changes in weather and before prolonged rains they sharply reduce activity, stopping food preparation a day or two before bad weather.
The northern pika's offspring are born twice a year. The duration of pregnancy is 28 days. There are 4-7 cubs in a litter.
The common pika is a bird from the order Passeriformes. She is the most common of her family. The bird is very hardworking, most is on the move for days. Thanks to the coloring it is perfectly camouflaged. Constantly searches trees in search of food. And thanks to its sharp, sickle-like beak, it can check even the narrowest crack in the trunk for insects. In addition to trees, the bird, being in the city (or in the vicinity of villages), looks for food in wooden houses, log houses, in places where insects gather.
Common pika
The common pika bird, described in this article, is very small in size, smaller than a sparrow. She has a stiff, pointed, stepped tail. The beak is long, sickle-shaped, thin. The paws are short with strong claws. Body length in males is from 110 to 155 mm, in females - from 121 to 145 mm. The weight of the pika ranges from 7 to 9.5 grams.
She crawls beautifully through trees, using her stiff tail for support. It climbs the trunk, always starting from the bottom, in a spiral, going around the trunk in a circle. When it flies to another branch, it always sits lower than it was before. And again it begins to rise from the bottom up.
It moves in short leaps and sticks its beak into every crack. This bird is one of the best. Thanks to its thin beak, the pika even reaches larvae laid by tree pests. But it does not pursue fast running and flying insects.
Range and habitat
The pika is a bird that leads a sedentary, less often nomadic, lifestyle. It is common in Europe. And also in North Asia, Canada and America (USA). In Russia, the pika can be found in the European part, starting from Arkhangelsk and ending with the Crimea and the Caucasus. This bird is not found only in the steppe and places where trees do not grow. During migrations it can fly far beyond the border of the breeding range. Often found in small populated areas. In Asia, the pika is found in the forest belt of Siberia, east of Sakhalin and the Sea of Okhotsk, south of the Tien Shan, Mongolia, Northern Iran and Kazakhstan.
Prefers deciduous, coniferous and mixed forested areas. Pikas prefer old trees. During the nesting period, selects old deciduous and mixed forests. It can be seen less often in conifers. During migration, it is found in gardens, parks, groves - wherever trees grow.
What does a pika bird look like: color
The back of the pika is grayish or brownish-red, with pale white spots. The loin and rump are grayish-brown. The abdomen is white, silky. The flight wings are light brown with small light spots. The helmsmen are the same color, but they have light edges and barrels.
The beak is brownish above and paler below. Brown iris. The legs are the same color, but with a grayish tint. Young pikas have round spots on their backs, while adults have elongated spots. The color of the young is duller, and the abdomen is yellowish.
Nutrition
The main food of pikas is insects and spiders. Birds mainly eat dipterous insects, spiders and beetles. They love weevils the most. The pika's diet also contains aphids, caterpillars, centipedes, bugs, moths, weevils and other forest pests. Birds also feed on seeds, but mainly from coniferous trees and in winter time. In search of food, these birds search without missing a single crack. If the tree has a lot of food, the pika may return to it several times.
In winter, this bird can be temporarily accustomed to one feeding place by smearing soft food and beef fat on the bark. In the summer, a nest box is hung, into which food is constantly placed.
Pika bird: description of reproduction
The mating season for pikas begins in March. At this time, you can see males fighting and how they sing. Pikas begin building nests later. First, carefully select the location. Pikas prefer narrow hollows or loose bark. But the nest is always located low to the ground.
Pikas build nests from eight to twelve days. But only females prepare it for themselves; males do not care about their offspring. The bottom of the nest usually has a loose platform and consists of pieces of bark and thin branches. They rest against the walls of the hollow. It turns out that the nest does not lie in it, but is strengthened in the middle. On top, the dwelling is built from bast fibers mixed with small pieces of bark, lichen, wood and tufts of moss. The inside is lined with many small feathers mixed with wool, cobwebs, and insect cocoons.
The common pika lays five to seven eggs. Eight or nine are extremely rare. The eggs are reddish-brown, with dots and specks. There are most of them at the blunt end. Sometimes the clutch contains white eggs with barely noticeable pinkish spots.
The female incubates the clutch for 13 to 15 days. After birth, the chicks remain in the nest for the same amount of time. The female feeds them spiders and small insects. The chicks of the first clutch begin to fly in May-June. From the second - in June-July. Having grown stronger, the chicks begin to wander, but without flying far from the nest.
Shedding
The pika is a bird that molts in the first year of life. She begins to change her plumage in July. Molting ends in September. For older birds, this period lasts from June to August. Moreover, the contour large wings are the first to change. Small ones - later, at the end of molting. After changing the plumage, it becomes brighter. And the color of the feathers turns red.
Subspecies and changing characters
The pika is a bird with geographic variability. This is manifested in body size and changes in the color of the feathers in the upper half of the body. But it can also be seasonal or individual. And this makes it much more difficult to identify geographical species. Now there are twelve of them. The differences between them are very slight, and it can be very difficult to distinguish between them.
In England and Ireland, the color of pikas is darker than those of Western Europe. In Japan - with a pronounced red tint. The singing of different subspecies also differs. Basically, their trill is loud and drawn-out, with short pauses. It was for its squeak that the bird received its name.
Pika lifestyle
The common pika is lumpy and does not fly well. Basically, these are just flights from one tree to the foot of another. Thanks to its long and curved claws, this bird holds onto the bark very tightly. Pikas live mostly scattered. They are loners. But when autumn comes, they unite in flocks. And with other types of birds. For example, with tits.
In cold weather, they can sit in a tight ring of 10-15 birds, keeping warm. In autumn, pikas look for places with big amount trees - parks, squares, forests. But in other seasons, birds have their own feeding and roosting areas, which they aggressively defend.
The pika is a fearless bird. When she is in search of food, even when she sees a person, she will not fly away.
She can even sing. True, its trill is double, similar to a piercing squeak. The second one is always lower than the first one.
Since the pika's tail serves as a support when searching for food, over time it wears off and the feathers become ruffled. Therefore, the tail of this bird sheds more often than the rest of its plumage.
Pikas are not easy to spot. She always stays unnoticed, and the color of her plumage camouflages well. But sometimes, having noticed something suitable in the snow, it can still jump onto it. Having grabbed the prey, she again hurries to the trunk.
With the end of winter, the pika becomes more energetic and lively. She begins to crawl along the trunks much faster, and when she meets her relatives she even fights.
Species: Certhia familiaris = Common pika
We encounter this little noticeable bird most often in the fall. On a damp and foggy October day, when few forest creatures remain silent, busy searching for meager food, among the thin and fragmentary whistling of tits and wrens, one involuntarily attracts attention to a rather loud and drawn-out squeak, like “blue... blue...” or “tsii...”, repeated with short pauses. Sometimes it sounds very close, but when you look closely, you don’t see any bird on the nearest branches. And the squeak is heard very close. And suddenly on the vertical trunk of an old tree you notice a slowly moving small creature. As if a grayish-brown mouse had turned out from behind the trunk and was crawling upward along the bark. But if you take a closer step, you will see that this is a small (smaller than a sparrow) bird, its color strikingly matching the tone of the bark of an old tree overgrown with brown lichens.
She has gray-brown plumage, with small light and rusty specks (the male and female have the same ones), and a slightly reddish tail, which she seems to “carry” along the bark. For its thin, drawn-out squeak, it received its generally accepted name - pika. So she crawled to the edge of the trunk and became visible in profile. Take a closer look! The underside of her body is noticeably lighter than the top - dirty white (throat, chest, abdomen), and her wonderful beak is clearly visible - long, slightly curved down and thin, like tweezers. Long fingers with tenacious claws firmly hold the bird on the uneven bark, and it feels as comfortable on a steep trunk as tits on branches. And its tail feathers (tail feathers) are slightly curved downwards, with a very rigid shaft and pointed (like those of a woodpecker). When crawling, the pika relies on them like a spring.
In short leaps, the pika slowly moves up and diagonally along the trunk, squeaks and every minute thrusts its beak into every crack in the bark.
The thin beak allows her to reach small spiders huddled there, deeply laid eggs of butterflies, beetles and other tiny living prey. She willingly eats earwig larvae. Having found round holes of bark beetles (for example, “typographers”) in the bark, she manages to use her beak to pull out either an adult gaping beetle or a fat larva. Its food range is very diverse, and pikas destroy many formidable forest pests during their autumn and winter migrations through the forests.
Among the pika's prey, eggs of insects and spiders, pupae and sedentary small larvae predominate, which it destroys in large numbers. This further enhances the pika's usefulness in forestry. But it does not pursue flying and fast running insects.
These birds do not flock. Only at the end of summer and early autumn When the broods have not yet split, you can notice 3-4 pikas close to each other. Later, in winter, they separate, and each lives separately. But the pika treats other birds differently: it willingly joins flocks of tits in the fall and wanders with them through the forests, often visiting gardens (even city ones). Hunting places tits and pikas are not the same, their habits are different, and life in a flock is always beneficial for its members with greater protection from enemies. Tits search for food on tree branches, rarely clinging to the bark of large trunks. The pika dominates here, and only the nuthatch can compete with it. But the much thicker beak does not always allow it to reach from a narrow and deep crevice the prey that the pika easily extracts.
The pika is found in many places all year round. Even in winter, in frosty conditions, she finds food for herself in the forest, since many small insects, their eggs and pupae overwinter in the cracks of the bark. Throughout the vast area of its habitat, the pika is sedentary, despite its delicate build and feeding exclusively on insects. Only in some years in the fall is something like a migration observed. This bird is distributed throughout Europe, northern Asia and North America. In Russia, it is found in forests throughout the European part - from Arkhangelsk to the Crimea and the Caucasus, inclusive. It is absent only in steppe and treeless places. In Asia, the pika is distributed in the forest belt of Siberia, east to the Sea of Okhotsk and Sakhalin, and south to Mongolia, Tien Shan, Kazakhstan and northern Iran. In different areas of this vast distribution area, geographical variation in color is observed, and several subspecies have been recognized. In general, Siberian individuals are lighter than European ones, and the lightest are concentrated in Central Siberia. Further to the east (for example, in the Ussuri region), the color of the upper side becomes darker again. Western European pikas are very dark. Sizes are also variable, for example the length of the wing, the length of the beak and claws. The average length of pikas is about 13 centimeters.
At the end of winter, with the first thaw, the pika begins to behave more animatedly. She crawls faster along the trunks, repeats her squeak more often and louder, and sometimes when she meets her she even fights with her own kind. And a little later, on the eve of spring, her hasty, ringing song, consisting of high tones with several extended initial high sounds, is already heard through the forest, then turning into a frequent, sharply ending trill. It is very noticeable at this time, since there are no vocal summer singers yet, and tits and buntings, which also begin to sing, cannot drown out the lively trill of the pika.
But you can't listen to it for long. The pika begins to nest very early, and as incubation begins, the male becomes silent. The first masonry in middle lane come across already at the end of April. The pika nests in mixed and deciduous old forests (sometimes in gardens), making its nest in very characteristic places - most often behind the loose bark of some old, rotten tree (aspen, linden, in the south - hornbeam and beech) or in a dilapidated hollow
The testicles are very small (only 15-16 millimeters long), and there are up to 9-10 of them in a nest. They have a very clean (white or slightly fawn) main background, and at the blunt end there is a cap, or corolla, of densely spaced brown and reddish spots. The sharp end has almost no stains. The female incubates very tightly. I had to approach the incubating bird at a distance of no more than a meter (leaning over the nest), and it did not fly away.
After twelve to thirteen days, the chicks hatch. If the clutch is large (8-9 eggs), then it often contains one or two undeveloped eggs, and among the chicks the weakest usually dies and is trampled into the base of the nest by the others. Parents almost continuously bring food to the nest. The colorful, short-tailed chicks, not yet able to fly, crawl along the tree where the nest was and tenaciously cling to the bark, squeaking when their parents approach. In some favorable years, even in the middle zone, pikas are hatched twice; Sometimes even in July you can see young birds flying well, still receiving food from their parents. Through binoculars you can see that their beak is shorter and straighter than the old ones.
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