Many in childhood heard a fairy tale about how a small bird with a flaming tail flew to hungry, freezing people and saved the unfortunate ones by giving them fire. This is a fairy tale about a redstart - one of the most remarkable birds from the passerine order and the flycatcher family.
Young redstart. The most common species is the common redstart, also known as the coot redstart or garden redstart. The bird is famous for its unusually bright tail feathers and an interesting way of twitching its tail, which makes it seem as if its tail is engulfed in a bright flame.
What does a redstart look like?
The size of the “forest phoenix” usually does not exceed 10 - 15 cm, and its body weight is about 19 g. Its modest size is more than compensated for by its bright plumage, so it will not be difficult to spot the bird in the forest and get wonderful photos of the redstart. The back and head of the birds are ash-gray, the abdomen and tail are fiery red, many specimens have a white forehead, which is probably where the name “balt” comes from. The female can be distinguished by the brownish color of her plumage.
The redstart's beak is wide at the base, flattened and slightly elongated, well adapted for catching insects on the fly. The length of the wings reaches 8 cm with a span of about 25 cm. Mobile and active, redstarts are on the move all day long, constantly twitching their extraordinary tail, then they freeze for a few seconds and again fly from branch to branch, hunting for insects.
Young redstart after swimming. 
A male redstart sings a song about love. 
Adult male common redstart: front view. 
Adult male common redstart: rear view. 
An adult male common redstart. 
Juvenile Common Redstart. Where do redstarts live?
The bird's range extends across Europe, Asia and North-West Africa. Redstarts prefer forests and forested areas, avoiding sparse areas; they are extremely rare in forest-steppes.
Redstarts winter in the southern part of their range, and with the onset of warm weather they return to European territory. The arrival of birds depends on the weather: in April insects wake up - their main source of food, and then “tongues of flame” - redstarts with their remarkably bright moving tails - begin to appear in forests, gardens and parks between the branches of trees.
Birds occupy their individual areas and at this time you can hear their pure melodious singing. They sing even at night, and by the beginning of July they completely calm down.
Like all flycatchers, redstarts hunt mainly in flight, capturing insects flying by. Birds track live ground food from high places - lower branches, stones, eaves of buildings, and then dive for prey. Therefore, the diet of redstarts is extremely varied and includes insects, arachnids, snails, caterpillars and earthworms.
In addition to protein foods, birds eat plant foods, mainly all kinds of berries from wild and cultivated plants.
A redstart looks closely at the elderberries in flight. 
A redstart picks an elderberry in flight. 
Redstart with elderberry. With the onset of autumn, redstarts go to winter in African countries and the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula.
Features of reproduction
In one season, redstarts manage to produce offspring 2 times. The birds begin breeding for the first time in May, choosing a wide variety of shelters for the nest: tree hollows, holes under their roots, they can use voids in wood stacks and even cracks behind the cladding of buildings. Moreover, it is possible to discover a redstart nest purely by chance; from the outside it is usually skillfully camouflaged.
The female lays 5 - 8 rich blue eggs and incubates the clutch for about 15 days. For two weeks after birth, the chicks do not leave the nest and feed at the expense of their parents. In mid-summer, young birds make their first flights, but their parents accompany and feed them for about a week. Then the family breaks up, the young redstarts begin to live independently, and the parents begin the second clutch.
The redstart fed the chick a dragonfly. 
Under favorable conditions, the life expectancy of a redstart is from 7 to 9 years.
The genus Redstart includes 13 species, most of which live in the Himalayan regions, penetrating into China, Southeast Asia, and spreading widely in India. Most of our redstarts are either mountain forms or forest forms, but have retained hidden connections with the mountain landscape. It is more correct to include only the common and Siberian redstarts as typical forest redstarts.
The common redstart, or coot, is a typically European species. It inhabits all of Europe, Western Asia and, covering the forest belt of our country, except for the northernmost taiga forests, reaches east to Lake Baikal. Only one, the most cold-resistant subspecies, is rapidly spreading to the east. In Russia, the common redstart prefers pine forests everywhere, populating both dry high-trunk forests and subori mixed with rich grass and shrub layers. This distinct relationship reveals the evolutionarily important relationship of the common redstart with the mountain pine forests of Europe. It is in pine forests that the redstart population apparently reaches its limits, although in most areas this bird usually does not tolerate close nesting of other individuals of its species, actively pursuing and driving them far beyond the nesting site. It is for this species that the concept of “nesting distance” is characteristic, which means that neighboring pairs nest within the hearing range of their songs and extremely rarely, only in particularly favorable and productive places, move on to dense nesting, when the boundaries of the individual areas of neighboring pairs are almost in contact with each other. However, only males show high aggressiveness towards each other. This trait of redstarts is apparently associated with a very characteristic feature for them - the so-called bigamy, when one male has two females.
The common redstart clearly avoids dark coniferous (spruce-fir) forests, but in general its nesting places are very diverse. It nests along the edges of forests, in burnt areas, in clearings rich in stumps, in old groves, gardens and parks, but everywhere only where it finds suitable shelter for itself. Common in all forested settlements, as well as in well-greened towns, villages and villages. Willingly occupies artificial nests. The Caucasian subspecies is considered a typical bird of mountain forests, which indicates a close connection with the mountains even of this species, widespread in lowland forests.
Old males are the first to arrive at nesting sites. In central Russia they appear in mid-April, but the mass arrival of redstarts (especially females and young males) is observed in early May. Immediately upon arrival, males begin searching for hollows and other places suitable for nesting. Moreover, old, very dark and densely colored males occupy the best areas of the forest (near the edges of forests, along the edges of clearings, clearings, wide sandy roads, with old, sparsely standing or single pine trees, shrubs), clearings, vegetable gardens and orchards. Such places, complex in terms of rock composition and conditions, always become the scene of massive raids of redstarts, often engaging in a desperate and lengthy struggle for the best areas. Old males often try to capture areas with several hollows or other places convenient for nesting. For the common redstart, the acquisition of a hollow is the main event of nesting life. Perhaps none of our other hollow-nesting birds guards a hollow with such steadfastness and constant fear of losing it. This is also confirmed by the fact that many, even very dark old males, stay close to the nest throughout the first part of the nesting period and constantly return to it. We can safely say about many males that before the clutch appears, they can even sing on one branch in the immediate vicinity of the hollow. The ideal ecological microstructure for the common redstart, or its ideal microstation, is a very small area next to a hollow with bare sandy, clayey or rocky ground. The basic diagram here is as follows: a hollow or gap - a branch or twig, preferably near the hollow itself - several convenient low perches (posts, branches or stones on the feeding area) - clean, free from grass and bushes, preferably a sandy feeding area, which was good the hollow would be visible. Many elements of this pattern were inherited by this forest species from its mountain ancestors.
In the middle zone, common redstarts prefer to nest at distances significantly greater than the size of their nesting area. We will designate this distance as the nesting distance. At the nesting distance, it is still possible for males to communicate with each other through song. This, in turn, gives them a sense of the integrity of the settlement, some kind of intraspecific community. Within the nesting distance of each pair, several ecological or functional zones are distinguished. Moreover, in the redstart such structures turn out to be very complex and multifaceted. Let's consider these symbolic structures, starting from the biological center of the site - from the hollow or nest (crack). In the first days of arrival, the male guards the hollow with maximum tenacity. Around it is the zone of the most active singing, often as if compressed to the limit, up to several square meters around the hollow, or even reduced to one dry branch or twig. Around these two centers there is also a feeding zone, or feeding area, which is extremely narrow in the first days, sometimes located somewhat to the side of the hollow and having clearly defined boundaries. Behind these zones there is a zone of protected territory, which is also defined. Its boundaries can be accurately delineated by observing the collision of the owner of the site with arriving other males. This is the initial structure of the redstart’s nesting area. With the arrival of the female and the formation of a pair, the expansion of territorial structures begins. Now both birds can guard the hollow. Even if the female does not do this too actively, she can still notify her male with an alarm signal if a stranger appears. These days, the male usually expands the singing area, although not too much. The feeding area is also gradually expanding. Both birds often feed 10-15, and sometimes 20-30 m from the hollow.
The ritual of the first meeting and formation of a couple is interesting. The pair is formed somewhere on a horizontal tree branch or on a platform. At the same time, sitting down opposite the female, the male takes a horizontal pose that is unusual for him under normal conditions, stretches out along the branch towards the female and, raising his elongated wings upward, emits a kind of strangled gurgling cry. If the female accepts such advances from the male, they fly off together to inspect the nest. In the case when the nesting site chosen by the male or the hollow does not suit the female, she may leave the male.
The locations of the nests of the common redstart are very diverse. They can be found from ground level to a height of 8 m, and sometimes higher. Redstart nests are found in hollows and semi-hollows, sometimes simply in shallow potholes and niches in a trunk or in the forks of large branches, in crevices, cracks of trees and stumps (often open at the top), sometimes in piles of brushwood, behind the windows, under the roofs of buildings, in cracks in walls and woodpiles. Redstarts readily inhabit nest boxes.
Only the female builds the nest, in the spring for 6-7 days, and later, at the beginning of summer, for 4-5 days. Redstarts nest in the middle zone from late April to early June. The material used for the nest is quite varied. Under natural conditions, the nest is built from dry stems crushed by the bird itself, bast fibers, pieces of bark from various trees, and leaves. She often brings a lot of thin films of pine bark, pine needles, etc. to the nest. The tray is lined with wool, hair, and feathers. In populated areas, these materials are often supplemented with various rags, pieces of paper, cotton wool, threads, scraps of rope and tow, which the female diligently plucks from the lining of house logs.
The redstart's basic loud, short, squeaky song is quite simple. It often resembles a quiet neigh or a muffled laugh: “and-three-three.” It consists of 4-5 creaking or grinding sounds and stands out well among the songs of other birds. But this is only the first impression of the redstart song. Upon careful study, it turns out that at the beginning of the mating season, behind a loud short song, the redstart produces a quieter short sub-song. The song of the common redstart is a special world of sounds, full of the most incredible secrets, charm and charm. Redstarts weave into this sub-song many alien sounds borrowed from other species. The older, more experienced and talented the male, the richer and more unique the set of imitons in his subsong. Moreover, ordinary redstarts reproduce these alien sounds with amazing sensitivity and purity. In the subsongs of especially talented males, we counted up to 40 species of birds, the signals of which could be unmistakably identified. There were finches, sparrows, warblers, siskins, lentils, wagtails, robins and tits, flycatchers, warblers, jays, starlings and many other birds. Only the best imitators can compare with the common redstart in the richness of their imitations: starlings, song thrushes, and warblers. However, for them these sounds are included in a loud song, while for our redstart this entire fabulous grandiose world is hidden in a quiet sub-song. You can observe how, when a willow warbler, green warbler, robin or other bird appears near a singing male redstart, in response to the calls of these birds, the redstart increases the frequency of playing such variants of its song, at the end of which calls or fragments of songs of the individuals that appeared next to it are heard. However, not all redstarts do this. In some, mostly young males, imitative subsongs are reproduced in the usual random mode. It is possible that such situations only indicate that at the moment the male redstart is simply not in the mood to enter into vocal and psychological contact with this bird.
The usual loud songs of the common redstart are also not as monotonous as they seem at first. Each male has several strictly fixed types of song, each of which he, like a tape recorder, reproduces without the slightest change. These songs can be relatively varied. The geographic ranges of individual classes and song types (or variants within a class) vary widely. The laughing song covers vast areas. In addition, in the repertoires of individual males there are special imitative songs, also with rigidly fixed patterns, which are based on fragments of songs of some other birds - robins, willow warblers, pied flycatchers, etc. Common redstarts use such loud imitative songs when the quiet sounds of imitative sub-songs are insufficient to establish the necessary interspecific connections with a bird of another species. Such connections are not only negative (repulsion or scaring away an unwanted partner). They can also carry a positive meaning - a feeling of closeness and unity of partners in the settlement. These positive functions of imitative songs are especially clearly manifested in years of low bird numbers, when redstarts, finches, robins, warblers and flycatchers, oppressed by the silence of the spring forest, deliberately flock closer to each other, sometimes moving away from their hollow or nesting site to considerable distances, for in order to sing next to each other and mutually feel the “feeling of an elbow”.
The alarm signals of the common redstart are a short and clear whistling sound and a quiet, often hasty clicking or crackling sound. These urges are always shouted out one by one, "Whee...Whee...". This is a general alarm signal. Clicking and crackling noises may occur frequently. A bird can easily and endlessly change its signal patterns. The crackling sound of a redstart is a high alarm signal. Its free combinatorics allows it to reflect the slightest shades of the bird’s emotional state, and through them accurately reflect the slightest changes in the external situation. Rare cods - weak alarm, more frequent - increasing alarm, iridescent almost continuous waves of cod - maximum alarm or threat to the nest. Switching to a less frequent crackling sound - a predator or other dangerous object is moving away from the nest. From the first days of arrival until the appearance of fledglings or chicks in the hollow, the main alarm signal is a whistle. Only in the most difficult situations (when a cat appears) can you hear a crackling sound these days, usually interspersed with individual whistles: “wheet... tr-tr... whee-tr-tr-tr....” After the chicks have fledged, the main signal is a crackling sound. But even these days, endless swimming cod are usually interspersed with whistles. When maximum danger appears (the cat sneaks up on the chick or even grabs it), usually one of the parents (most often a male, but sometimes a female) emit endless waves of crackling sounds, flitting over the predator that alarmed them.
Full clutches of redstarts of 6-7 blue eggs are found in May - June. The clutch is incubated mainly by the female after laying the last egg for 13-14 days. In the first days, the female flies off every hour to feed for a few minutes, and when returning to the hollow, she turns the eggs over. If the female is absent for more than 15 minutes, a nearby male sits on the clutch and flies off the nest when the female returns. From time to time the male feeds the brooding female. Chicks hatch more often at the end of May - the first ten days of June in 1-2 days. They are born, like many other birds, blind and deaf. According to E.S. Ptushenko, with 5 chicks, the number of food deliveries starts from 40 and reaches 368 per day by the end of the nesting period. With 6 chicks it starts from 94 and goes up to 470 per day. The chicks are fed by both parents for 12-14 days in the nest. During the first days, the female warms the chicks a lot on the nest, and the male feeds both the chicks and the female. Then, as the chicks grow, the female begins to bring food much more often than the male. In cases of bigamy, when one male has two females with two nests, the male usually flies to one of the nest boxes much less often than to the other. In this nest he feeds both the female and the chicks less often. There are cases when in the second nest the chicks are incubated and fed by one female alone. Sometimes in both nests the male feeds both females and chicks equally. In central Russia, the mass emergence of common redstart chicks occurs in June. The chicks emerge from the nest at the age of 13-15 days, not yet able to fly. For 4-5 days, the parents feed them in the immediate vicinity of the nest, then another 3-4 days not far from the nest. The chicks begin to fly 7-8 days after they leave the nest. At this time, some couples, leaving the chicks, begin the second clutch.
The young of the first brood wander for some time near their nesting sites, and then, joining with the second broods (if any appear), stay along the outskirts of the forest, in places with dense undergrowth, often not far from water and in the river area. The migration of redstarts begins at the end of August and continues in September. Individual individuals, mostly old birds, sometimes linger until the first ten days of October.
The redstart feeds mainly on insects, which it most often looks out for and grabs from a perch (a branch or post located not high from the ground) or even sitting on a pebble near a piece of bare leveled (often sandy) area, a well-trodden path or near the road. In these clean areas, the bird vigilantly looks out for emerging prey. It often grabs prey from the foliage of trees and bushes, and sometimes catches insects flying from the ground. But still, like all thrushes, it apparently collects most of its food from the ground. The chicks are fed on small soft insects and spiders, mainly spiders, flies, mosquitoes, caterpillars and small beetles. In autumn, redstarts collect berries (red elderberry, black currant, etc.).
Common redstarts winter in Central Africa and the south of the Arabian Peninsula.
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Features and habitat of the redstart
The redstart family includes 13 species of birds, mostly found in China, in the foothills of the Himalayas, on the European Plain, mainly in the central region of Siberia, and in a small part of Asia.
Redstart belongs to these types birds, which chooses places to live either in forest slums or mountainous regions. Eg, common redstart, whose second name is coot- This is a typical representative of the European range. And the Siberian taiga forests up to the northern regions are inhabited by redstarts with title Siberian.
Common redstart which is often called garden redstart or redstart coot- a bird from the flycatcher family, passerine order. It is called one of the most beautiful birds that live in our parks, gardens, and squares.
The body weight of a small bird does not exceed 20 g, the length of the body without the tail is 15 cm, the wingspan at full expansion reaches 25 cm. A distinctive feature of the redstart is its beautiful tail, which, without exaggeration of comparison, seems to “burn” in the sun.
In the photo there is a redstart coot
It’s hard not to notice such beauty even from a long distance, and this despite the fact that the bird’s size is no larger than a passerine’s. Flying from branch to branch, the redstart often opens its tail, and in the sunlight it seems to flare up with a bright flame.
Look at photo and make sure that redstart- pretty bird. As with many bird species, the male is distinguished by a more intense coloration of his plumage. The tail feathers are fiery red with hints of black.
The female is colored in muted tones of olive color with an admixture of gray, and the lower part and tail are red. True, not all species of redstarts have black speckles on their tails. This is a distinctive sign redstarts nigella and our compatriot - Siberian redstart.
In the photo there is a black redstart
By the way, ornithologists call the redstart the largest of all described species red-bellied redstart. The male is usually brighter colored than the female.
Its crown and outer edge of the wing are white, the back, side of the body, neck are black, and the tail, sternum, abdomen and part of the plumage located above the tail are painted in red tones with an admixture of rusty. On the picture in this species redstart You can clearly see the full range of plumage colors.
Character and lifestyle of the redstart bird
Siberian redstart Although it is a typical representative of taiga forests, it avoids dense impassable coniferous thickets. Most of all, this species is found on forest edges, in abandoned parks and gardens, in clearings where there are many stumps. As usual, the bird prefers to settle in artificial hollows closer to human habitation.
Pictured is a Siberian redstart
Redstart singing deserves a lot of positive feedback. Its trills are a medium-key melody, abrupt, very varied, and melodious. The sound begins with a high hil-hil - and" and then turns into a rolling hil-chir-chir-chir."
Listen to the redstart singing
It is interesting that in the singing of the redstart one can hear the melodies of many species of birds. For example, a refined ear will be able to hear the melodic tune of a starling and robin, while others will notice that the melody is in tune with the singing of a titmouse, chaffinch, and pied flycatcher.
Redstarts love to sing all the time, and even at night the taiga is filled with the quiet melodies of these amazing creatures of nature. A little more about the songs of redstarts: ornithologists have noted that at the beginning of the mating season, the male emits a short roulade, which can be called a chorus, after the end of the main concert.
So, this chorus is a unique sound series, filled with the voices of various species of birds, and the older the performer, the more emotional his song and the more talented his performance.
Redstart nutrition
The diet of the redstart largely depends on its habitat. It mainly feeds on insects. She does not disdain all types of insects, and she picks them up on the ground, removes them from the branches, and looks for them under fallen leaves.
With the onset of autumn, redstarts' diet becomes more saturated, and they can afford to eat forest or garden berries, such as rowan, viburnum, currant, elderberry, chokeberry and others.
When the food runs out, which most often happens in mid-autumn, redstarts gather for the winter in warm places, mainly in hot African countries. These bird species migrate at night.
Redstarts return to their native places even before the buds open. As soon as the birds reach the nesting sites, the male immediately begins to look for territory for the nest. As mentioned earlier, birds make nests in natural or artificial hollows.
Woodpecker hollows are the most suitable nesting place, but a tree stump that has a secluded crevice near the ground is quite suitable for this. Birds are not afraid to settle near humans, so their nests can be found in attics, behind window casings and other secluded places in buildings where people live.
Until the arrival of the female, the male adequately guards the place he has found and drives away uninvited feathered guests from him.
Reproduction and lifespan of the redstart bird
A very interesting ritual is performed by redstarts at the time of courtship. The male and female sit side by side on a branch, while the feathered suitor stretches out in an unusual position for him in the direction of the chosen one, at this moment he strongly stretches his wings upward and makes a muffled sound reminiscent of gurgling.
If the female reciprocates his feelings, they simultaneously fly off the branch and fly away, being a married couple. But if a female, for example, is not satisfied with the chosen place for the nest, she leaves Romeo in love without any hesitation.
The photo shows a redstart nest in a hollow
The female personally builds the nest and this takes a week. All this time, the redstart drags the material at hand, or rather, the scavenging material into the nest. The material can be moss, wool and hair from domestic and wild animals, scraps of thread, rope, tow, which is used to stuff houses, and other rags that can be found nearby.
A clutch of redstarts consists of 6 eggs, less often there are 7-8 eggs. Redstart eggs, covered with a blue shell. The incubation period of the clutch lasts two weeks.
In the first days, the female allows herself to leave the nest to refresh herself, and then, returning to her place, she carefully rolls the eggs so that heating is carried out evenly.
It is interesting that if the expectant mother is absent for more than a quarter of an hour, then the caring father takes a place on the clutch and sits there until the female returns.
The photo shows a redstart chick
The young appear at the end of spring or at the very beginning of summer. Redstart chick is born blind and deaf, which is actually no exception, because in many species of birds chicks are born in this form.
Both parents feed the offspring. However, for the first few days the female does not fly out of the nest so that the chicks do not freeze, and the father of the family obtains food, and he feeds both the female and the chicks.
Often a male has several clutches, in which case he shows care for both one family and another, but in different ways. He flies to one nest more often, while the other family sees him less often.
After half a month, the grown and strengthened chicks, not yet able to fly, begin to slowly get out of the warm nest. For another week, parents feed their children, who at that time do not move far from the nest. After a week, the chicks gain courage and make their first flight, after which they are ready to live on their own.
A married couple, having released their first offspring, without wasting time, proceeds to the next clutch and everything repeats. The maximum known lifespan of redstarts in the wild rarely exceeds 10 years; at home, with good care, they can live a little longer.
Hello, friends!
For a naturalist biologist, winter is a pause to process the avalanche of spring and summer impressions and systematize observations. Today I was sorting out my archives and notes, planning what I could talk about in the blog, what should be clarified in the next season of observations. And I really wanted spring and blessed summer to come!Therefore, who is talking about what, and I will talk about the warm and fluffy, and infinitely cute - about the chicks from the Bukhtarma Reservoir.
Where is the phoenix bird found?
Do you know what a phoenix bird looks like? The imagination pictures something close to a firebird. Phoenixes are found in legends and fairy tales; they have no place in real life. But let's not rush to conclusions. A living and real phoenix can be found in our forests, parks and gardens.Carl Linnaeus christened it in 1758 redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus, What does phoenix tail mean?Redstarts are small slender birds from the order Passeriformes, relatives of flycatchers and thrushes. About 10 cm in size, sometimes up to 15 cm. A distinctive feature of the bird is its red tail. The redstart shakes it like a wagtail, but faster, with pauses, so it seems that it has a flame instead of a tail. A bird that constantly lights up and does not burn out is the property of a real phoenix.
At the end of April, redstarts return from Africa to our parks, gardens, forests to their old nesting places and sing their song. But the most popular nesting site for redstarts is sparse pine forests with shrubby undergrowth.
The males arrive first. They return to their former nesting sites and look for new niches for nests. Redstarts are cavity nesters and raise their chicks in covered nests. They are located in hollows, voids, under the roof, in rotten stumps.
Redstarts are territorial birds with nesting distances. A pair's range is determined by the distance over which the male's song can be heard. About 200 - 300 meters in diameter. Males jealously monitor boundaries and can even attack their own reflection.
Family secrets of redstart
Redstarts have permanent pairs, but sometimes the phenomenon of bigamy in males is noted. The male becomes a bigamist. It's time to write a script for a soap opera.
If there are nesting places on the male’s territory, and the territory is rich in food, the female, who is left without a pair, settles on the edge of his territory. Usually, this happens when the first female has just laid eggs in her nest and began to incubate them.
At the same time, the male rarely takes on the responsibility of feeding the chicks of the second wife, along with the main pair. Dad only feeds the second brood a little, or even pretends that he has nothing to do with it, and the children are not his.More often, the second female is forced to feed the offspring alone.Thus, the female from a permanent pair is a priority for the male.
I suppose the amount of help from the male to the second female depends on the number of eggs laid by the first female. If there are many chicks from the first wife, then the male gives his all there, and if there are few chicks, then the male’s care also falls to the offspring from the second female. It would be interesting to test this assumption.
By the end of May, 4-9 bright blue eggs appear in the nest, about 17-19 mm in length and 13-14 mm in width. The female incubates the clutch. The male replaces his wife for about 15 minutes, when she flies out to feed, and sometimes feeds his girlfriend.
After two weeks, blind and deaf chicks hatch from the eggs. Their parents feed them together, making up to 500 flights a day. After two weeks, the chicks leave the nest and become... The parents feed them for another week, and then the chicks begin adult life. And the ancestors make a second clutch during the summer, in early to mid-July.
Last year I was lucky enough to get into the pine forest during the week when the baby redstarts had already left the nest, but they had only just begun to comprehend the science of flight.
Redstart fledglings
The redstart song includes a main theme and a sub-song. Males constantly improve the sound of their subsong, including ambient sounds and snatches of songs of other bird species. In the Smolensk region, people heard the boastful patter in the redstart song: “I was in St. Petersburg, I was in St. Petersburg. I saw Peter. I saw Peter.”
Listen to the recording with your children. I wonder what words you will hear?
I don’t presume to talk about the song of an adult redstart, but when many years ago For the first time I heard their fledglings murmuring, I was surprised. At first I thought that some crickets were singing in the bushes. Because the calling song of chicks is very reminiscent of the chirping of hoarse and hoarse Orthoptera. Of course, the mystery was immediately resolved when I came closer to the bushes and saw a short red tail among the branches. But the sounds of baby redstarts are not common.
At the end of June 2016, I heard familiar murmuring sounds along the route and stopped in search of the source. Not far away I saw three chicks with short red tails and fluff sticking out on their heads. The puffballs have just left the nest.
Perhaps it was the first or second day of their stay on earth. I noted to myself that I saw older redstart chicks nearby. There is a high probability that this is a later brood of the second female. In the video you can hear the chick chirping.
I stood with my camera on the trail, getting closer for a good shot. The kids noticed me, but weren’t too scared. They were hungry. When the chicks were nearby, they began to beg each other for food in a characteristic pose. From a pine tree nearby, a female redstart with a caterpillar in its beak was vigilantly watching me. I embarrassed her, so she didn’t dare to fly up.
And suddenly, about 30 meters away, more voices began to murmur. And the redstart darted towards the sound. Another hungry trio of chicks was waiting for her there. A mother with many children has six yellowthroats.
At first, the mother was noticeably nervous from my presence and did not feed either group of chicks. She sat down on a thick branch and examined me carefully, assessing the degree of harmfulness.
Then I began to notice that she left the branch for a couple of minutes and sat down on it again, sticking something with her beak into the cracks of the bark. Yeah! A redstart reserves on a branch. So that when I leave, I can quickly shove the loot among the hungry kids.
It happens that redstarts catch large insects, then they make live canned food out of them, storing them for future use in the near future. To immobilize large beetles, they hammer them on the ground, and the legs and wings of locusts and praying mantises are torn off. This supply is vital to ensure the continuous feeding of chicks.
When the bird was convinced that I was not dangerous, it began to feed the distant group of chicks from me. To ensure that both babies got food, I slowly drifted between them, taking pictures.
Every 3-4 minutes, a mother with many children appeared with some tasty treat in her beak to satiate her offspring. She quickly flew up to the chick and put food into her open mouth. It was impossible to get a good picture of the process.
ATTENTION! The board from the inside should not be planed so that the chicks can get out by clinging to uneven surfaces. I think that if you have to work with treated wood, you can create an artificial roughness inside by working with a chisel so that the chicks can easily get out through the entrance.
The houses are mounted at a height of about 4 meters. You can hang the nesting box on the back wall of your country house.Tits can also nest in such an artificial nest.
You can prepare for spring in winter by making bird houses in advance. Pests in gardens and parks can be controlled using environmentally friendly biological methods, without poisoning the soil with pesticides.
The size of the redstart is 10-15 cm, but the wingspan at full swing reaches 25 cm. Body weight does not exceed 20 grams.
What does it look like
The redstart can be easily recognized, it is small bird with a red tail. A distinctive feature of the redstart is the color of the tail and abdomen; they are rich red, the back is gray. Despite this, females are browner in color. During the flight from branch to branch, the redstart characteristically twitches its tail, which seems to flare up with a bright fire in the sun's rays, after which it freezes. The redstart was so named because of the rich color of the tail, it seems to be “burning” (The tail is burning).
Kinds
Among the redstarts, there are several different species, which include: gray-headed redstart (common), black redstart, Siberian redstart, red-bellied redstart, coot redstart, garden redstart. At the same time, they are all distinguished by a slender physique, an awl-shaped beak with a small one at the end, and long and thin legs.
Redstart
The black redstart or black redstart is often found in Europe and central Asia. It is smaller than a sparrow and weighs 14-19 grams. The male has dark gray upper plumage; forehead, frenulum, cheeks, neck and crop black; the tail is rusty orange with black speckles. At the same time, the female has a uniform grayish-brown tint, with the exception of the red uppertail and light red undertail.
The following birds live in mountain landscapes:
- rocky niches
- on the ledges of cliffs
- on slopes with a scattering of pebbles
They are also found in populated areas, where they are most often located in industrial and construction zones, open areas with individual buildings such as factory chimneys or church domes. Black redstarts live alone and in pairs.
In Ukraine, the black redstart is considered a nesting, migratory bird species that is found throughout the country.
The singing is very primitive and rough with hoarse elements, like that of wheatears. At the beginning, a short hoarse trill is heard, the volume of which gradually increases, and after that a rough, long trill is formed. In black redstarts, the melody can be repeated several times in a row.
Grey-headed or common redstart
The Grey-headed or Common Redstart is one of the beautiful birds. However, only the male can boast of luxuriously colored plumage, because the female’s plumage is poorer. The color is brown, but the tail is bright red. The male has an ash-gray back plumage, his chest, belly, sides and tail are painted in a rusty-red hue, but his throat and cheeks are black. Also sometimes the male has a white forehead.
The common redstart lives in northwestern Africa, Eurasia and most of Russia.
Despite the external differences, the common redstart is also distinguished by its sonorous singing. At the beginning, the trill is frequent and sonorous, but over time the frequency of the trill decreases.
Garden redstart
The garden redstart prefers to build nests only in trees, which are located in old orchards and parks. At the same time, he prefers to live away from people. The garden redstart is also found in tall mixed forests and coniferous forests, where there are always dense shrubs.
The male garden redstart has an ash-gray upper body and a black throat, sides and forehead. In addition, the upper part of the head and the middle of the lower part of the body are white. The chest, sides and tail are bright rusty red. Unlike males, females are dark gray in color, but the lower part of the body is gray. The gray feathers of the lower body are also edged with rusty yellow.
The singing of the garden redstart is euphonious and rich. The singing contains melodic and gentle stanzas. Despite this, the redstart is a wonderful and shameless mockingbird, so it often interprets other people's songs.
Redstart Coot
The coot redstart is a small, slender bird on high, thin legs. These are very active birds, so they fly from place to place all day, twitching their charming tail.
The singing of the coot redstart differs from others. The song consists of a short, somewhat nasal trill, which begins with an extended sound and ends with a call that is sharply different from the middle of the song.
Siberian redstart
The Siberian redstart is found in light forests, bushes, gardens and even some villages in the south of Siberia, the Amur region and the Prigorye region. In this case, nests are built in hollows, rock cracks, piles of stones or under the roof of buildings.
The male Siberian redstart has a light gray color on the top of the head and neck, the sides of the head, throat, back and wings are black, but there is a white spot on the wings. The belly and tail are bright red. The female is similar to the female common redstart. Her plumage is brown, but her tail, like that of the male, is bright red. In addition, she also has a white spot on her wings.
Red-bellied Redstart
The Red-bellied Redstart is very similar to the Siberian Redstart, but is larger and more brightly colored. The male has a reddish-brown chest, but the female has a reddish abdomen and no white spot on the wings.
It lives in the highlands of the Central Caucasus and Southern Siberia, but winters in the lowlands - in sea buckthorn thickets or floodplain willows.
Spreading
The redstart is a typical European bird species, so its distribution area is quite diverse. Found in Europe, most of Western and Central Siberia and Western Asia. They mainly prefer to settle in pine forests. However, the main nesting sites are still forest edges, stumps in clearings, old groves, gardens and parks. In addition, redstarts prefer to nest in shelters where nests are safely erected. Nests are made in hollows, on thick tree branches, in dense bushes and old stumps.
Reproduction
Most redstarts have a clutch of no more than 6-7 eggs, which are colored bright blue. The eggs are incubated exclusively by the female. After 2 weeks of incubation, the chicks are born, after which for another 2-3 weeks both parents bring food to the chicks. Chicks begin to fly a month after hatching. The chicks leave the nests after they grow up and learn to fly, but roam close to the nest. Young animals are located near ponds and in thickets of bushes. A distinctive feature of redstarts is that during the summer some pairs lay 2-3 clutches.
Nesting
Nests are built in closed and inaccessible places. At the same time, the nests are constructed in a careless manner and are cup-shaped. To build redstarts, they use a variety of dry stems of herbaceous plants, wood fibers mixed with leaves, moss and pieces of bark. After that, bedding is placed in the nest, consisting of wool, feathers and pieces of leaves. The dimensions of such a nest are small: diameter - 110 mm, height - 90 mm, tray diameter on average 90 mm, tray depth 40-70 mm.
In addition, in the forests there are often special houses for redstarts, made by human hands. However, the house should be made only from high-quality material suitable for birds. It is best to use skipped boards for this - slab or edged, the thickness of which is 2-2.5 cm. In this case, the board should be planed only on the outside of the house.
It is better to make the house the optimal size:
- height - 20-25 cm
- bottom – 12 by 12
- the internal bottom area is 15-20 sq.cm
- patch diameter - 3-4 cm
- the distance from the bottom of the tap hole to the bottom is 10-12 cm
- from the top of the taphole to the ceiling - 4-5 cm
It is also worth remembering that redstarts are partial to diamond-shaped houses, so you can attach them at an angle. In addition, in the summer the house is directed to the west or south, the main thing is not towards the wind.
Redstarts are also kept at home. They live well in cages. However, it is not recommended to keep several redstarts in one cage at once, because they fight, often until the death of their opponent.
What does it eat?
Common redstart / Phoenicurus phoenicurus / Redstart The redstart feeds exclusively on insects - flies, mosquitoes, beetles, caterpillars, spiders. They are also not averse to eating berries - currants, elderberries and raspberries. In autumn and winter, redstarts pay attention to fruits and seeds. If you keep redstarts at home, you should feed them both live and surrogate food for insectivorous birds (Padovan).
Migratory bird or not
The redstart lives in many countries. It is most often found in Southeast Asia, almost throughout Europe, as well as in China, India and Russia. However, in the fall, most of them go to the southern parts of the Arabian Islands and Africa for the winter.
Singing
- Redstarts sing around the clock, but are especially active in the morning and late evening.
- Often the redstart is also called the coot, kaluferka, and mountain redstart.
- Redstarts look like, because, like them. swing their tail up and down.
- The redstart got its name because of the color of its tail, which seems to be burning in the sun’s rays.
- Cuckoos often leave their eggs in the nest of redstarts, which take care of them as if they were their own.
- The male redstart hunts exclusively while flying, while the female searches for food on the ground.
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