This bird has an unusual appearance and talent to imitate voices. Looking at the photo of the sacred lane, you can see yellow leather spots on her cheeks, an expressive curved beak and an iridescent plumage.
The interest of people in this bird has always been increased also because the lane can be tamed and maintained at home.
Species and name options
The Sacred Lane is a bird from the order of passerines belonging to the genus of starlings. There are 7 subspecies of lanes.
The bird lives in Southeast and South Asia, but is also found in Florida (USA). It is not known for certain whether the sacred lane got there by accident on any plane or ship or was deliberately brought in by a person.
Mine is also called Indian or locust starling. Latin name - Gracula religiosa.
Holy lane in the wild
This bird can live in tropical rainforests, as well as in open glades and forest edges at an altitude of up to 2000 meters above sea level.
In the United States, a sacred lane lives far from large cities. She prefers shaded areas with sufficient humidity. Often settles near ponds.
The bird was artificially introduced to some countries to control insects. Maynes took root in Australia, New Zealand, on many islands of the Indian and South Pacific. But as it often happens, interventionists upset the ecological balance of ecosystems, depriving indigenous species. For example, in Havana, a lane is considered a robber for destroying and destroying petrel nests.
Breeding
Sacred lanes are great family men. These birds are monogamous, moreover, they are monogamous. Pairs are formed once and for all.
Both parents are involved in arranging the nest. Male and female choose an empty hollow and line the bottom with small twigs, soft foliage. If there is more than one suitable hollow in one tree, several families can live in them.
The nesting period lasts from April to mid-summer.
In clutch usually 2-3 eggs of azure color. The female is engaged in incubation, and her husband obtains food both for himself and for her. It happens that the future father briefly replaces his girlfriend so that she can rest and stretch herself.
Chicks appear after about 2 weeks. They are absolutely helpless: blind, naked, weak.
The couple is engaged in parenting together. Parents bring nestlings of small insects, pieces of fruit. Only a month later, young lanes first become winged.
Home Content
It is believed that if a person feeds and grows a lane chick from ten days of age, the bird will fully adapt to life in a human dwelling and become attached to the owner. You can tame an older individual, but it will take more time, and the memory of free bread will never be erased. An adult can also be domesticated, but it is unlikely that he will ever be able to hear how the sacred lane speaks.
Surprisingly, in the wild, these birds practically do not parody the sounds heard. Their "speech" is rather stingy.
But the lanes that grew up with a man are simply amazingly talkative. Birds of this species give odds to many parrots, learn to speak themselves, have an excellent memory: they can play sounds that they heard many months ago.
For this reason, breeders try to keep pets in a relaxed atmosphere, away from loud noises and unpleasant sounds. If a lane hears a motorcycle start up, a broken toilet bowl rustles, or water drips from a tap, it will simply drive the owner crazy with her imitation talent. It is worth seriously thinking about such a pet to the owners of cats and dogs: most likely, barking, whining, purring and mewing will not subside. Especially seriously it is worth weighing everything for families with small children. Perhaps a chatty bird will interfere with the baby.
The rest with lanes is no more trouble than with goldfinches, canaries and budgies. Provide your pet with good nutrition, buy a spacious clean cage, and install a large flat drinker. They eat lanes and vegetables, and live food. In the summer, they can be fed with personally caught meadow insects, slugs and worms, and in winter they can acquire zofobas larvae, flour worms, and small feed insects. Steamed grain, cottage cheese, and boiled yolk are also added to the diet. In the harvest season, you can treat your pet with berries, fruits, watermelon and young herbs.
Security measures
In India and other poor Asian countries, there was once a real boom in catching lanes. Little chicks were sold to tourists. To do this, local residents hung up containers in the forests and gardens that looked like nests, and a few weeks later returned to collect the "crop."
The population has declined rapidly. The authorities introduced a set of stringent measures regulating the capture of sacred lanes. Currently, no one is hunting for wild animals, since the export of chicks is still prohibited, and there are plenty of breeders who successfully receive offspring from domesticated birds in many countries of the world, including Russia.
By the way, a bird is not cheap: one individual will cost no less than 15, 000 rubles.
