Everyone knows a feathered predator - a falcon, but not everyone knows that it has species. One of them is the Saker Falcon.
Who is a Saker
Saker or balaban, Itelgi or Itelge, Sharg, Rarog - there are many names, but the essence is one. All of them represent a species from the family of falcon birds, perhaps the most dangerous predator among all its representatives. The exact origin of the word "Saker" is unknown. There are suggestions that it is borrowed from the Iranian name for this bird. One of her other names is sharg. It comes from the Latin name for the falcon: Falco cherrug.
Falcon Saker Falcon is a sedentary predator. Only those birds that live in the north roam. Despite the fact that the Saker Falcon itself is just a kind of falcon, it has several subspecies, which we will discuss in more detail below.
Falcon Saker Falcon: characteristics of the species
Any saker is a fairly large bird, whose dimensions can exceed sixty centimeters in length. The difference in body length makes it easy to distinguish a female from a male. As a rule, females are larger. The mass of the falcon falcon in this case ranges from one to one and a half kilograms. The wingspan of an adult is 1-1.5 m.
From the description and photo of the saker falcon, you can see that the appearance of males and females does not differ from each other. This is a pretty beautiful bird of an interesting color. Their head is usually light brown in color with dark spots, the upper body is dark brown or gray, with light or red stripes. The breast, on the contrary, is light, and the stripes on it are dark. The lower body and legs are almost white, sometimes with a light yellow tint. Beak bluish hue with a black tip, eyes circled in yellow circles. From the characteristics and photos of the Saker Falcon, you can see how beautiful this bird is!
Interestingly, the closer to the east, the more intense the color of the bird, in addition, the more saturated color is usually found in chicks. Offspring, having been born, has white fluff, which then turns slightly gray. Feathers, both tail and fly, begin to grow in the third week of life. It is characteristic that the development of males is somewhat faster than females, this fact also applies to the growth of feathers.
Subspecies Falcon Saker Falcon
There are six subspecies of the bird:
- Saker Falcon ordinary. The most numerous subspecies. It lives in Eastern Europe, Kazakhstan and on the border of Kazakhstan and Russia.
- Turkestan Saker Falcon lives in the mountains of Central Asia. At present, it is not known for certain whether he survived.
- As you might guess, the Mongolian saker lives in Mongolia, as well as in China, Transbaikalia, Tuva and Altai.
- Tibetan Saker Falcon inhabits Tibet.
- Sink falcon lives in the Aral-Caspian region.
- Central Asian Saker. Bird can be found in the mountains of Central Asia.
It is important to understand that not only purebred sakers are found. In many regions, for example, in Southern Siberia, there are crossed species: hybrids of the common, Central Asian and Mongolian saker.
Habitat
The Falcon Saker Falcon lives in the mountains, steppes and forest-steppes, as well as in the zone of mixed and deciduous forests. Geographically, they are distributed in the south of Siberia, in Transbaikalia, Eastern Europe, Kazakhstan, China, and Central Asia. The birds inhabiting the northern regions are migratory; they begin to roam in October. Saker Falcons return to their nests in the second half of March.
Number
This type of bird is very rare. It is listed in the Red Book. The Falcon Saker Falcon is on the verge of extinction, its number in nature is constantly decreasing. Ten years ago, the number of birds was approximately eight and a half thousand individuals. For almost thirty years, a nursery has been operating in the Galichya Gora Reserve of the Lipetsk Region, where saker breeds are bred.
Why does the saker disappear
There are several reasons for the extinction of the Saker Falcon. This is primarily due to falconry smuggling into Arab countries where hunting for these birds is allowed. In addition, Saker Falcons often die due to poisoning by rodents or power lines, as a result of the attack of owls (this is the only natural enemy of Saker Falcons), due to the ruin of nests by people, as well as extreme climatic conditions.
Food
Falcon Saker Falcon - bird of prey. She feeds on small rodents (for example, gophers), as well as hares, pigeons, partridges, ducks, large lizards. All potential "food" is very afraid of saker. When the victim sees a falcon in the sky, she seeks to lie low and not leave the hole. At the same time, Saker Falcons do not hunt near their own nests, and small mammals willingly use this fact.
Saker falcon searches for prey, as a rule, near water, near rocks or trees, that is, in the area where it is clearly visible. Sacrifice flies to the victim at high speed, sometimes it can even reach two hundred and fifty kilometers per hour. Having flown to the prey, the bird does not slow down. In this case, the saker does not receive injuries, the whole reason is a strong skull and joints.
The bird kills the victim with lightning speed and very quietly: falling at a right angle, he strongly hits it in the side. As a rule, death occurs instantly. If this did not happen, the saker inflicts a second blow, thereby killing the victim. The bird absorbs food immediately in place or carries it to the nest.
Nesting
Saker Falcon is distinguished by the fact that he himself never builds nests, but only occupies strangers. Ravens, buzzards, and Buzzards, as a rule, suffer from sabotage raids, but it happens that the saker invades even the eagle's dwelling. As a rule, the bird seeks to settle on the rocks and hills. The maximum that a saker can do in the nest is to make “minor repairs”, if it is completely dilapidated. To do this, he uses dry branches, shoots of shrubs, skins of dead rodents, fluff, wool. It is interesting that sometimes the saker takes several nests at once and lives in them in turn.
Breeding
Saker mates mate right after they found and arranged their home. As a rule, this happens in April or in the last days of March. The female lays three to six eggs, which can be yellow, red, red, brown or brown with dark spots. Hatch them have thirty to forty days. As a rule, the future mother sits on the eggs, but the father replaces her in the evenings. At other times of the day he gets food and takes care of the female.
Chicks are born usually in May. They are fed small birds and rodents. In the nest, the saker's chicks spend about a month and a half, then gradually begin to learn to fly. They rise completely to the wing at about the age of two months, then they begin to independently search for food. This happens in July-August. Saker puberty occurs at the age of one year, and the total life expectancy in the wild is approximately twenty years (however, there are cases when the saker survived to thirty).
