The burial eagle is a bird around which many legends walk: the awesome name leaves its mark. But, unfortunately, she is on the verge of extinction. About whether it is possible to prevent the extinction of a unique species of birds, read the article.
A new species of falconiform
At the beginning of the XIX century, the mass development and study of the steppes of the Aral Sea and Kazakhstan began on the territory of tsarist Russia. During research on groups of old birds, groups of birds were noticed that were similar in appearance to a golden eagle. The local population called them simply eagles, but researchers, having found distinctive features, identified a separate species and called it "burial ground".
In the Southern Urals, birds of the eagle burial grounds have long been revered by local residents, however, like all representatives of the hawk family. In the Bashkirs, Tatars and other peoples of the Volga and Urals, eagles are protected as sacred birds, where they received the name "Burkut".
Many items are taken from the people, but literally from Latin the name of this species of the eagle Aquila heliaca is translated as “sun eagle”, and in English-speaking countries it is called Imperial eagle (“imperial eagle”).
Habitat
The distribution of the cemetery eagle is not universal; it lives in the steppe zone, forest-steppe and in the mixed forests of eastern Russia and southern Siberia. Nesting sites were recorded in Europe, Asia - from the Baikal region to Altai, in the Urals, periodic nesting sites were found throughout Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Transcaucasia, Mongolia and China.
Despite the maximum concentration of the burial ground in Eastern Europe and Asia, this bird lives on the Iberian Peninsula, which indicates a break in the habitat.
Description
The burial eagle is a bird that is similar in appearance to relatives. But the bird has a distinctive feature - epaulettes, white spots on the shoulders. Photos of the burial bird clearly demonstrate this difference.
Body length varies from 60 to 84 cm (in eagles, females are much larger than males). The wingspan of the burial ground is 180-215 cm, which is slightly inferior to the closest relative - the golden eagle, whose wing length during the flight is 180-240 cm.The weight of the bird varies from 2.4 kg to 4.5 kg. Chicks are born downy, the color of down is white, only by the age of 5-7 do birds acquire a distinctive color.
Activity and vocalization
The burial eagle is a bird (appearance is described in this article), which is most active in the daytime. This is due to the warm currents of air, allowing it to soar for a long time, looking for prey.
The burial ground is a bird whose voice is similar to the vocalization of other eagles. Only during the breeding season does it make sounds resembling a dog barking, and at the moment of approaching predators it “croaks”.
Nutrition and feed behavior
Gophers, the populations of which are reduced annually, form the basis of the food supply of the burial ground. This is due to the development of feathered new lands. Do not exclude the eagle from its diet and other small rodents. Sometimes the burial ground allows itself even hunting for birds, representatives of grouse and ravens become priority. With ease it will catch even a nimble hare.
Like all birds of prey, this species of eagles does not disdain carrion, which explains the high concentration of hawk representatives on old burial grounds.
Breeding
The burial ground is a bird that begins to breed from 5-7 years, by this time the period of maturation is ending and the plumage is changing. It is believed that in the post-Soviet territory this species of eagles prefers to place nests on conifers, but this is not entirely true. Representatives of hawks with pleasure master the sections of the forest-steppe, where there are trees above 15 meters. The choice can fall on the rocks, where there are flat areas.
The female lays 1 to 3 eggs once a year with an interval of a couple of days, most often this is the end of March, all of April, sometimes the breeding season captures the beginning of May (depending on the region of habitat).
Graves are one of the few monogamous birds. But this is not their only feature - a pair of burial grounds in a favorable situation does not leave a nest, which increases in size annually (which gives the golden eagle a goal for improvement, since this representative has a much smaller nest of hawks).
Burial bird: how to prevent extinction
Unfortunately, the number of this bird is constantly decreasing, like many other unique species.
As already mentioned above, the burial ground is a bird that chooses tall trees for nesting, giving preference to the tops of pines, rarely settles on deciduous trees. However, in the last 25-30 years, there has been a massive deforestation of forest plantations that are not replenished with new plantings, which entails a reduction in places for nesting birds.
Another reason that put the burial ground on the path of extinction is the reduction of fields, steppes, where gophers live, which are its main food supply. In second place after rodents in the food chain are representatives of ravens, who are also actively exterminated by humans as pests of crops.
In connection with the above information, the following ways to preserve the population of the burial eagle can be distinguished:
- support of nature reserves in whose territory groups of burial grounds live;
- creation of artificial nesting platforms on the basis of reserves;
- exchange between zoos that have the opportunity to create conditions for the reproduction of hawks;
- carrying out environmental actions on the basis of reserves, zoos;
- preservation of the food supply of burial grounds (ground squirrels and ravens) by creating reserves.
