The lentil bird is a beautiful songbird that belongs to the finch family. Lentils have a small size and body weight: its weight is from 19 to 25 grams. The bird has a rather bright plumage. The male has a red breast, back, head, and nails. In females and young birds, the plumage is greenish-gray, the abdomen is white, the wings are dark. In males, the colorful plumage appears after they fly to the winter for the second time, and until then, young males have a very dull greenish color. The lentil bird is endowed with a strong beak that has a conical shape.
The main places for the settlement of lentils are moist forests, riverbanks and streams. She also lives in city parks, gardens, is found in thickets of lilacs. The main habitat of the bird is an open space where shrubs grow and there are forest edges. It is quite rare to meet lentils in their natural habitats, because they behave very carefully and prefers to hide in dense foliage, but you can learn about its presence by the sonorous voice of a bird.
The lentil bird (photo in the article) is a migratory bird, so the area of its distribution is quite wide: almost the entire European part of Russia, the Caucasus, the Asian part of Russia and Siberia. To build lentil nests, roots and grass stems are used, diligently lining the nest tray with down and grass to give accuracy. The main place for the construction of the nest is the branches of shrubs and low trees. Full clutch contains about 5-6 eggs, which have a greenish color with purple spots and dots. Hatching, which lasts about 14 days, is done by the female lentils, and the male at this time is engaged in feeding her. The chicks leave the nest quite early, not even knowing how to fly well.
The lentil bird got its name thanks to the melodic trills, which are formed as a result of the sonorous and sufficiently clear sound combination of “che-vi-tsa”, which is a peculiar visiting card of a colorful bird. The basis for the nutrition of lentils are various overripe seeds and fruits, less often they consume small insects (while feeding chicks), mainly caterpillars, small beetles and aphids. In spring, the time comes for the flowering of bird cherry, and for the lentil, its flowers at this time become the basis of nutrition.
Lentil bird winters in Asia and India. Males having a red color are the first to go to wintering places. After them, old males fly off, who do not have nests, and the last - young birds. Many bird lovers decide to keep lentils at home and face some problems, the most important of which is the molting process. Shedding of lentils in captivity occurs due to improper feeding, which leads to obesity and metabolic disorders. Therefore, bird lentils are very demanding on the quality of the feed.
Lentils are colorful birds that take place in a children's literary work authored by Nikolai Sladkov. “Bird Lentils” is a book that includes interesting poetic stories about various forest birds.
