• Class: Aves = Birds
• Subclass: Ornithurae, or Neornithes = Fan-tailed birds, new birds
• Superorder: Neognathae = New-palatine birds, neognats
• Order: Charadriiformes = Charadriiformes
• Suborder: Charadrii = Sandpipers
• Family: Scolopacidae Rafinesque, 1815 = Snipes

Species: Tringa glareola Linnaeus, 1758 = Fifi

Appearance. It looks like a cherny, but somewhat smaller (from a starling), lighter, gray back, legs light, yellowish, in flight noticeably protrude beyond the edge of the tail, sides of the head are gray, the wing is light from below with dark streaks, the chest is whitish.

Two-syllable whistle “fi-fi”. The song is “peri, peri, peri...”, followed by a quick trill “tile-tile, tile-tile...”, which resembles a yula song.

Habitat. It lives in swamps, streams, lakes and damp meadows.

Nutrition. It feeds on aquatic insects, larvae, worms, small mollusks and collects dead fish fry.

Nesting places. Breeds on sedge, grassy, ​​tussock and other marshes and marshy shores of water bodies.

Nest location. Nests on the ground among grass, rarely in old thrush nests.

Nest building material. The nest is built from dry vegetation.

The shape and size of the nest. The nest is a hole sparsely lined with dry blades of grass. Nest diameter 100-110 mm, tray depth 40-60 mm.

Masonry features. There are 4 eggs in a clutch, somewhat rounded. Shell with a slight sheen. The color of the eggs is light olive-green with large chocolate-brown surface spots, thickening towards the blunt end, and a small amount of ash-gray deep spots. Egg sizes: (37-38) x (26-27) mm.

Nesting times. Arrives in April - early May. Immediately after arrival, it starts pairing and building a nest. Egg laying occurs in May. Male and female incubate. Nestlings observed in June. Departure takes place in August - early September.

Spreading. Distributed almost everywhere from the southern tundra to forest-steppes. In the north it reaches 68-71° latitude, in the south it breeds up to the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov, Central Asia and Transbaikalia.

Wintering. Winters in Africa, South Asia and Australia.

Description of Buturlin: Fifi is very similar in size and color to the Blackie, but the white color of the undertail does not extend to the back of its back. The lining of the wings of the fifi is white, with smoky markings, while that of the blackling is dark brown, with narrow whitish transverse stripes. Taking off from the shallows or swamps, this little piece makes itself felt with short whistling cries of “pee-pee...” or “fi-fi...”, from which, undoubtedly, its name comes from.

Fifi is a swamp bird; he adheres to grassy, ​​damp river valleys, wet floodplain meadows; during migration and migrations, it happens on open shallows. This kulichka is just as common, and in some places even more common, than the blackie.

In springtime fifi sings while flying over meadows or tundra. Kulichok is carried in wide circles about 100 meters above the ground, now flapping its wings, now soaring or with outstretched wings yard almost in one place. And all the time his simple but loud song is flowing: “peri, peri, peri ...”, replaced by a quick trill “tile-tile, tile-tile ...”, which resembles a forest lark - yule.

Eggs are laid in a very simple nest - in the north, in early June, in the middle lane in May (the length of the eggs is 35.5-42 mm, and the width is 24.4-48.5 mm). In Ukraine, since the end of June, flying young have already come across.

Fifi nests in the northern and middle strip of Europe and Asia - from Belgium and Holland to Kamchatka and the Commander Islands. We go north to 68-71 ° north latitude, in the south it breeds to the coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, Central Asia and Transbaikalia.

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fifi, or herbalist, or kuvedrikha(outdated) - Tringa glareola

Appearance. Looks like blackie, but somewhat smaller (with starling), lighter, back gray, legs light, yellowish, in flight noticeably protrude beyond the edge of the tail, sides of the head are gray, the wing below is light with dark streaks, the chest is whitish.
Two-syllable whistle “fi-fi”. Song - “peri, peri, peri...”, followed by a quick trill “tile-tile, tile-tile...”, which resembles a song tops .
Habitat. It lives in swamps, streams, lakes and damp meadows.
Nutrition. It feeds on aquatic insects, larvae, worms, small mollusks and collects dead fish fry.
Nesting places. Breeds on sedge, grassy, ​​tussock and other marshes and marshy shores of water bodies.
Nest location. Nests on the ground among grass, rarely in old thrush nests.
Nest building material. The nest is built from dry vegetation.
The shape and size of the nest. The nest is a hole sparsely lined with dry blades of grass. Nest diameter 100-110 mm, tray depth 40-60 mm.
Masonry features. There are 4 eggs in a clutch, somewhat rounded. Shell with a slight sheen. The color of the eggs is light olive-green with large chocolate-brown surface spots, thickening towards the blunt end, and a small amount of ash-gray deep spots. Egg sizes: (37-38) x (26-27) mm.
Nesting times. Arrives in April - early May. Immediately after arrival, it starts pairing and building a nest. Egg laying occurs in May. Male and female incubate. Nestlings observed in June. Departure takes place in August - early September.
Spreading. Distributed almost everywhere from the southern tundra to forest-steppes. In the north it reaches 68-71° latitude, in the south it breeds up to the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov, Central Asia and Transbaikalia.
Wintering. Winters in Africa, South Asia and Australia.

Description of Buturlin. fifi by size and color very similar to the Blackie, but the white color of the undertail does not extend to the back of its back. The lining of the wings of the fifi is white, with smoky markings, while that of the blackling is dark brown, with narrow whitish transverse stripes. Taking off from the shallows or swamps, this little piece makes itself felt with short whistling cries of “pee-pee...” or “fi-fi...”, from which, undoubtedly, its name comes from.
fifi - marsh bird; he adheres to grassy, ​​damp river valleys, wet floodplain meadows; during migration and migrations, it happens on open shallows. This kulichka is just as common, and in some places even more common, than the blackie.
In the springtime fifi sings flying over grasslands or tundra. Kulichok is carried in wide circles about 100 meters above the ground, now flapping its wings, now soaring or with outstretched wings yard almost in one place. And all the time his simple but loud song is flowing: “peri, peri, peri ...”, replaced by a quick trill “tile-tile, tile-tile ...”, which resembles a forest lark - yule.
Eggs they are laid in a very simple nest - in the north, in early June, in the middle lane in May (the length of the eggs is 35.5-42 mm, and the width is 24.4-48.5 mm). In Ukraine, since the end of June, flying young have already come across.
Fifi nests in the northern and middle strip of Europe and Asia - from Belgium and Holland to Kamchatka and the Commander Islands. We go north to 68-71 ° north latitude, in the south it breeds to the coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, Central Asia and Transbaikalia.

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Fifi - small birds from the snipe family got their name for a simple song. In the ornithological descriptions of the 19th century, other variants were also preserved: the gray-winged oystercatcher, fifishka, kuvedrikha, but now they are not used.

Fifi belongs to the genus of snails. A characteristic feature of all birds of this genus is a straight and strong beak, slightly curved upwards. Fifi has one too. Such a structure of the beak helps birds to easily get the necessary food in shallow water: worms, mollusks, aquatic insects.

CLOSE RELATIVES

All snails are migratory birds, and almost all snipes settle in wet areas: near water bodies or in marshy places. These features of the family and genus are also characteristic of fifi. The species is widely distributed in the southern parts of the tundra, where there are many shrubs, in the forest-tundra and in the forest zone.

Most of all, fifi looks like a blackie and a hermit snail. It is distinguished from them by its smaller size and slightly different coloration, in particular dark stripes on the tail. However, the closest relative of this bird, belonging to the same genus, is the herbalist, also known as the redleg.

Fifi are rather small birds. Their body length and wingspan are comparable to those of larks and thrushes. The fifi's tail is short, and when flying, its legs protrude noticeably beyond its edge.

Ornithologists drew attention to an interesting feature of the behavior of these birds: crouching on the ground, they constantly shake the back of the body, like a wagtail.

HOUSEHOLD CARE

Shortly after the snow that covers the banks of rivers and lakes melts, fifi return from wintering. These birds spend the cold period in warm countries: Africa, South Asia. Fifi go for wintering in September, and in mid-April they return from wanderings.

When they return, they begin to draw. Males attract females with an intricate flight: they either soar up, fly close to the ground, or hover almost motionless in the air. Shortly after pairing, fifi begin nest building. You can find the "homes" of these birds in a variety of natural areas: there are swamps of various origins, and the banks of reservoirs, tundra and forests. The nest, lined with a thick layer of dry leaves and blades of grass, is located in a hole on the ground, covering it with branches of nearby trees and shrubs or thick grass. Much less often, a male and a female choose old stumps or depressions in tree trunks to accommodate their homes. Sometimes they may even settle in the abandoned nests of other birds, such as thrushes.

FATHERS AND SONS

Usually the female lays four brownish or greenish eggs covered with various spots. Both parents incubate the eggs in turn, but the mother devotes much more time to this process. It lasts a little over three weeks, 22-23 days.

Flocks of fifi are very noisy, but after the birds begin to incubate, the cheerful chirping and squeaking subside. At this time, they become cautious and shy. Fifis, waiting for an addition, are afraid of a person, and they meet birds of prey and animals with an aggressive attack: they rush at the enemy with screams, driving him away and chasing him for a long time. Soon after the appearance of the chicks, the birds become talkative again. They are almost not silent in the daytime, constantly chirping.

Hatched chicks are covered with dense down. On their back, reddish-gray spots are clearly visible, surrounded by a white rim. Soon they change their downy plumage for the plumage characteristic of adult birds. Parents do not take care of the offspring for too long. Some females leave the nest even before the chicks are born, and the male has to take care of the children in the first days of their life. Parents teach the kids to hide from danger: hearing an alarm whistle, the chicks hide in the thick grass and instantly calm down. Young birds begin to fly actively at the age of three weeks, and then they finally leave the nest. Herbal grass reaches sexual maturity only in the second or third year of life.

CHANGE ATTRACT

Shortly before departure for the winter, the birds begin to molt, changing their breeding plumage to a less bright winter plumage. This outfit is not so contrasting: colorful spots are not so noticeable against the general background, and fifi looks more solid. Adult birds molt from July to September and travel to warm countries in a new outfit. Young fifi begin to change the pen already during migrations. They usually molt between September and January.

Immature fifi, which do not yet nest and do not give birth to offspring, spend the whole summer in migrations. Often they stay at their wintering grounds. Many of them fly north, but are delayed en route. Sometimes they stop well south of their nesting area.

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF

Class: birds.
Order: Charadriiformes.
Family: snipe.
Genus: snails.
Type: fifi, or herbalist.
Latin name: Tringa glareola .
Size: body length - 20 cm, wingspan - 36-40 cm.
Weight: 50-96g.
Coloration: brownish-gray upperparts with white and black-brown streaks, white underparts with dark spots on the sides and chest.
Fifi life expectancy: at least 10 years.

Fifi - Tringa glareola

Appearance.

It looks like a Blackwing, but smaller (wing no more than 129 mm), the upperparts are noticeably grayer with whitish spots, the legs are light, yellowish (in flight, the legs protrude beyond the end of the tail, which the Blackwing does not have). In winter it is grayer, the spots on the back are smaller. Juveniles have reddish spots on their backs.

Lifestyle.

Reference books of the geographer and traveler V.E. Flint, R.L. Boehme, Yu.V. Kostin, A.A. Kuznetsov. Birds of the USSR. Publishing house "Thought" Moscow, edited by prof. G.P. Dementieva. Image: Byrd , Vernon - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

ORDER CHARADRIIFORMES - CHARADRIIFORMES

Distributed unevenly throughout the region. In nesting time, it occurs mainly where there are extensive damp overgrown meadows or waterlogged moss swamps. Most common in the south of the Karelian Isthmus, for example, in the area of ​​st. Sample, and in the southern and southeastern Ladoga region in the swamps near the villages of Dubno and Zagubye. Fifi is also not uncommon in the area of ​​the Verkhne-Svirsky reservoir, nesting in separate areas of the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. It used to be common near Leningrad in the Lakhta region. At present, only st. Spill, on the territory of the former Yuntolovsky dacha. It is also found on damp wastelands north of Malaya Okhta. In other parts of the region, fifi breeds very rarely and mainly in landscapes of the northern type, for example, in the Mshinsky swamp, where this bird often settles in the neighborhood with northern types of waders - the middle curlew and golden plover. Although in the most favorable habitats the number of fifi may be quite high, in general, however, the number of nesting in the territory of the Leningrad region. birds hardly exceeds 800-1000 pairs.

In the spring, fifi appears relatively late within the region. The earliest date of arrival, noted over the past decades, is May 1, 1966 at the station. Try. Usually these waders come to us in the second half of the 1st decade of May, when they appear immediately in large numbers. In the south of the Karelian Isthmus in the floodplain of the Morya at this time they are regularly found in flocks of up to 30-50 birds and in smaller groups that constantly fly over damp meadows, feed and lek. However, already in the second decade of May, a sharp decline in numbers occurs, and only a few birds nesting here remain on the breeding grounds. Some individuals in some years can be observed on migration until the end of May, when our birds have been incubating for a long time, and mating of local males ends. The last lekking individuals were noted by us in early June, except for the rare songs of males, which can sometimes be heard at the beginning of summer bird migrations.

We managed to find the earliest clutch of four eggs already on May 8th. The nest, found in the Vsevolozhsk district in Krasnoe Bog, was located on a tussock among the thickets of dwarf birch, cotton grass and narrow-leaved sedge. Other 5 nests known to us were located in similar places or among sparse thickets of horsetail growing in waterlogged, but not flooded areas (Fig. 86). Lowland swamps, overgrown with herbs, fifi clearly avoids.

Reproduction fifi in the Leningrad region. runs mostly smoothly. Delays in terms were observed by us relatively rarely. In most cases, hatching of chicks was noted at the end of May - in the first ten days of June. For example, in 1964 in the area of ​​st. The test, judging by the age of the chicks found in 18 broods, hatching occurred in the period from May 28 to June 8. In Zagubye in 1965, chicks hatched in one of the nests on July 2, and in the area of ​​the village. Dubno in 1967 - July 3. Thus, the difference in the timing of hatching of chicks in different years can reach at least 36 days.

After leaving the nest, the broods concentrate near small puddles in the flooded part of the meadows, at the edges of ditches on the edges of the forest, on swampy moss bogs bordering on reeds, near roadside puddles and similar places. The number of birds here can be judged from the following data. In the area of ​​the village Zagubie on a route of 6 km, passing along the border of reed beds and a moss bog, in June 1965, 13 fifi broods were counted, i.e., approximately 2 broods per 1 km. In the area of ​​the village In Dubno, in the Igolnik bog, at the same time, 23 broods were found with the help of a pointing dog on the territory of 4 km2 in habitats suitable for fifi habitat. However, the highest concentration of non-flying broods was noted in damp meadows near the village of Lepsarki. Here, on an area of ​​10 ha in June 1964, 18 fifi litters were counted, i.e., about two broods per hectare of marshy meadows.

We note in passing that fifis nest here in the neighborhood of turukhtans.

The reaction of hiding in fifi chicks, like in other waders, is expressed up to their rise to the wing, however, it is much weaker than in the chicks of the Lesser Plover nesting on open beaches. In response to the alarm signal of the parents, which is usually extremely intense, they initially run away, hiding in the thick grass, and then hide.

Rice. 86. Fifi (Tringa glareola) at the nest.
District der. Dubno in the southern Ladoga region, July 1, 1965. Photo by Yu. B. Pukinsky.

According to the observation of N. S. Ivanova, the ability to fly in fifi chicks occurs at the age of 30-35 days. Thus, by the end of June - the beginning of the second decade of July, most of the young fifi nesting in the Leningrad Region are already on the wing. From this period, broods begin to concentrate on the banks of water bodies, in puddles that do not dry out by the end of summer among marshes or near ponds in fields.

Already from the end of the second decade of June, during broods, not two birds, but one, more and more often begin to meet. At one time, V.D. Kokhanov drew attention to this phenomenon, and it turned out to be characteristic of many species of waders. So, for example, in Zagubie in 1965, on June 19, we found 12 fifi broods, around which two birds were restless, and 2 broods, in which only one bird kept; June 25 - 6 broods with two adults and 7 with one bird, and finally on June 30, with all 6 broods found, only one bird was disturbed.

With chicks, Fifi apparently has a female left. "This can be judged by the fact that at the beginning of summer migrations, which in the Leningrad region can be observed already in the third decade of June, fifi, being on the flyway, sing, although irregularly. Thus, the first in summer migrations, obviously , the males separated from the broods are included.The time of leaving the family is determined not by the age of the chicks, but by the date of the start of summer migration.

Thus, all fifi broods found by us in July were led by only one female, despite the fact that the age of chicks in different families varied from 1 to 30 days.

As with the cherny, summer fifi migrations, in which an increasing number of birds are gradually involved, pass into autumn, when females and juveniles already begin to migrate. This occurs in the second half of July - the first decade of August.

In the middle of the last month, apparently, birds nesting in more northern latitudes fly. By September fifi already stop meeting within the Leningrad region.