Watching the world around us is very exciting, because you can learn a lot of interesting things. For example, everyone heard the monotonous chirp of a cricket, and some even saw what a night musician looked like. But many people think that river cricket is an insect, and they are mistaken. If loud chirping is strewed from above by the intermittent syllables "Tserr-Tserr-Tserr", we can confidently say that this is a small bird.
Classification
River cricket - a bird from the order of passerines. It belongs to the family Locustellidae and belongs to the genus Crickets. The obsolete name is river warbler, and the current scientific name is Locustella fluviatilis.
In a separate family, this group of birds is distinguished relatively recently. Before that, crickets were in the Slavkov family. But they did not fit according to the species description, because they did not have a complete list of characters, because of this they stood out as a “garbage taxon”.
Description of river cricket
These are insectivorous birds with a characteristic appearance, having a wide rounded (blunt) tail. The undertail is decorated with a sweeping whitish peak. The beak is wide, but tapering towards the end, above which the bristles are barely visible or completely absent, dark in color. The length of the river cricket is 14-16 cm. In the wingspan, the bird is slightly more than 23 cm, the tail is about 7 cm long. The back and top are brown-olive in color. Dark vague spots are visible on the throat and chest, creating oblong mottles. The bottom of the body is grayish-white in color, and the sides, like the back, are brown-olive. In the photo of the river cricket it is clearly visible that his legs are not long, thin, reddish-pink.
A thin white stripe similar to an eyebrow is above the eye of a small bird. The eye itself is framed by a light ocular ring.
River cricket, like all representatives of this genus, is mobile and very careful. Thanks to an inconspicuous coloring, it can quickly hide, merging with branches, reeds or grass.
Features of river cricket singing
The river cricket starts its song in the evening or in the early morning. You don’t have to wait for melodicities and beautiful overflows from the bird. The male flies up on a tree and begins to chatter, like a locust or a large grasshopper. Sounds vibrate slightly and do not merge, but are perceived separately. Sometimes a separate, more rude scream sounds. At the slightest danger, the “singer” falls down and hides in the thickets of grass. At the nesting stage, especially at the very beginning, river crickets can be heard even at night. The solo part of a feathered artist can sound up to 30 minutes.
In the morning and evening, the song is more diverse and loud. Rustling and gurgling sounds are added to it. In cloudy weather, a river cricket can sing even at noon, but more quietly and monotonously.
During singing, the bird adjusts the sound volume by turning the head. The male can quickly move along the branch and raise his head up. The beak opens wide, the throat feathers sometimes scruffy. The female responds to singing with jerky shouting “chik-chik”. If she is frightened or alarmed, she makes a crackle “cr-cr”.
What is included in the diet?
In the diet of Locustella fluviatilis, only animal food. It can be insects at the stage of imago or larvae, spiders of different sizes and another trifle. Toward the end of summer, when insects become smaller, river crickets fly off to wintering places in Africa.
Species distribution
The distribution range of river crickets includes vast territories from Western Siberia to the center of Europe. Gradually it expands to the west.
The bird is widespread along the course of the Urals, Ilek, Sarysy, Danube. River crickets can often be found even in the suburbs.
African wintering takes place in Zambia, Botswana and Malawi. The flight takes place through the Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula and Kenya. Departure takes place in August-September, birds get to the place of wintering until December. In winter apartments are until the end of March.
Places for nests
River cricket prefers to settle in the floodplains of the rivers or settles in a dense undergrowth. Places nests on the ground, preferring moist areas in dense thickets. It can be tall grass or light forest. Often birds locate nests in nettles or in bushes of riverine ravines. In the steppe zone, Locustella fluviatilis settles in moist beams. Finding a cricket nest is difficult, as it is hidden in marshy wet overgrown places.
Near the nesting place there are tall trees or shrubs. Trees are necessary for rapid throws down after "concerts", and in the bushes it is easy to hide from enemies.
Nest shape
Cricket's nest is not very neat. It was built from dry stems, but not intertwined, but crumpled and bent. The nest bowl is slightly elongated, its diameter is about 140 cm, and its height is 6 cm.
The river crickets are lined with dry moss and flexible roots. The interior decoration of birds is paid much more attention than the accuracy of the walls. Often around the nest of birds, a large pile of material is used that was used for construction.
Reproduction of river crickets
River cricket is a monogamous bird. Upon returning to the nesting area, the male begins to current and form a pair. The nest is mainly built by the female. In the clutch of river crickets there are up to 6 eggs, which the couple hatch in turn for 13-15 days. The eggs are not large, white, densely covered with numerous gray-red-brown dots. On the thick end, the spots merge into a fuzzy corolla. The length of the egg is about two cm.
The litter of steam is also engaged in feeding, the duration of this period is almost 14 days. Since nesting starts late, not earlier than June, the couple manages to make only one clutch.
