What birds live in the city (Moscow or other locality - it doesn’t matter)? What do they feed on and what is the area of their distribution? Before answering this question, let's say a few words about artificial selection between animals.
The strongest survive
From century to century, man directly or indirectly influenced nature, changing its appearance in every way. Naturally, following changes in the conditions of existence, the fauna also underwent metamorphoses: some species completely disappeared from the face of the Earth, replaced by new ones, while others simply lost their population, remaining only on untouched lands. But, despite this, many birds managed to adapt and settle in completely unusual stations for them, not paying any attention to a sharp change in habitat. So, the topic of our article is birds living side by side with humans. In it you will find out which birds live in the city, we will give a photo and a description of them here.
Our neighbours
There are animals on the planet that have become strong neighbors of man. These are cats, dogs, and, of course, birds. You can meet the latter wherever there are human settlements: in villages, cities, parks, squares, forest-park zones, etc. Many of these birds make a huge contribution to human activity, rendering them invaluable benefits: they destroy objectionable insects that damage rural and forestry, they fight rodents in our gardens, etc. Before telling which birds live in the city, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the feathered creatures manage to survive even in million-plus cities, here they manage to find with Your food, shelters at night and in bad weather, as well as in most cases, are saved from predators.
How do birds survive in cities?
Birds living in cities arrange their nests in trees, shrubs, on balconies of dwellings, on covers, and, of course, in attics. If you delve into this, it is important not so much what birds live in cities, but how they manage to survive in the territories of administrative units numbering more than a million people! Ornithologists say that all this is due to their unique ingenuity and resourcefulness: only those birds survive who can find food and shelter from enemies and bad weather in a short time. What do birds eat in the city? They collect insects on trees and bushes, regale themselves with berries in parks and gardens, peck grass seeds on flower beds and lawns. In especially difficult times, they feed on food waste in urban landfills.
The most famous city birds
What birds live in the city and are the most famous? Of course, pigeons! These feathered creatures are distributed throughout the globe. The only exceptions are the polar regions of our planet - the Arctic and Antarctic. Ornithologists estimate that the largest number of these birds lives in Australia and the Malay archipelago. Currently, scientists have described over 300 species of all kinds of wild pigeons. Why do you think these birds are so drawn to us and practically inseparable from us? The fact is that they were specially domesticated by humans about 5, 000 years ago. All domestic breeds of pigeons, numbering more than 200 species, were descended from wild cesar. Once he inhabited only rocks, and now he moved to the cities, living side by side with people.
What do pigeons eat?
Basically, these birds prefer to eat the seeds of certain plants. However, among the pigeons there are tropical species that enjoy eating fruits and berries. But if we talk about pigeons that live next to us (about city cesars), it should be noted that in difficult times they adapted to eat garbage in landfills. It is the lack of disgust that plays a decisive role in the natural selection of urban sizars. It is curious that these creatures reproduce year-round due to the fact that they live in warm basements and in attics. In addition, they do not leave the city in the winter. That is why the blue pigeons are the most numerous birds in our cities.
Crows
What birds live in the city in winter and summer, except for pigeons? These are ravens. As a rule, two subspecies of these birds live in Europe: black crows that inhabit western Europe, and gray crows that spread closer to the East (Eastern Siberia). Initially, these birds chose for their nesting edges of copses and forests, meadows and fields. But several decades ago, they firmly entered our lives and began to inhabit the centers of large cities in huge numbers. Especially a lot of these birds in eastern Europe: in Siberia, in Altai. These feathered creatures never nest in whole colonies, as rooks do, but only in separate pairs. Crows-parents build their nests high above the ground in the dense crowns of trees.
What do crows eat?
These birds are omnivorous, but still give their preference to animal feed. Crows eat everything that comes to their teeth: insects, small mammals and birds, carrion. These gray scoundrels love to ruin bird's nests by eating their eggs. With great pleasure they devour various grains, green parts of various plants, berries, fruits and other fruits. In winter, when their diet is becoming scarce, they scoop up in urban landfills, eating all kinds of food waste. In principle, these are smart and careful birds, but not the gray crows that inhabit the cities of the eastern part of Europe, these birds are intrusive to arrogance! In winter, they often join flocks of rooks and jackdaws. What other birds live in the city?
Oriole, jackdaw, crane, sandpiper, black grouse
The Oriole, or forest flute, is one of the most beautiful songbirds in our forests. But its habitat is not limited only to the forest zone. These singers settle in malls, gardens, cities. Their favorite urban areas are old parks with tall trees. For gardens, these birds bring great benefits, exterminating harmful insects. You can meet these creatures all over Europe to the south of England and Sweden, as well as in the south-west of Siberia. Oriole also lives in northwestern Africa and Asia Minor. What birds live in the city besides them?
City dwellers are also jackdaws - funny and lively birds. They are able to breathe life into even the most gloomy regions. Jackdaws bring joy and delight. These birds are omnivores. They, together with ravens, rummage around in garbage deposits, earning their own food in the winter. You can meet them not only in Europe, but also in Asia. Usually settled in abandoned city towers.
This is not to say that cranes are purely urban residents, since the habitual places of their habitat are large swamps in both suburban and forest zones. They especially like to settle in swamps bordering the fields. In cities, these creatures settle in nests at high altitudes. In nature, they make their nests mainly on earth. They live in Central Europe right up to Eastern Siberia, in Transbaikalia and in Africa.
Sandpiper is an unusual bird. The family of waders includes spindles, and stone-chamfers, and jacans, and fins, and wader-magpies, and many, many other species. The smallest sandpiper does not exceed the size of a sparrow, and the largest - the size of an adult chicken. These birds, like cranes, can be called city dwellers with a stretch, because the main habitat is coastal stripes.
Some ornithologists rank black grouse as urban and forest birds at the same time, while their opponents, on the contrary, believe that the habitats of these birds are exclusively zones of mixed forests and forest-steppe. We will not take responsibility and give preference to any of the options, but simply note that these birds are common throughout Europe and Asia.
