Sailor [1] , or sauk [2] , or mall [3] ( lat. Clangula hyemalis ) is a representative of the duck family, a small polar duck duck. It is most easily determined by the very long and thin tail of the males, which is constantly kept raised above the surface of the water (a similar characteristic tail is also found in pintail ). Among marine birds, one of the most complex system of alternating orders of birds, as a result of which both males and females have different plumage colors in winter, summer, at the end of the breeding season and in the first year of life.
| Moryanka |
Male in winter outfit |
| Scientific classification |
|---|
| No rank : | Bilateral symmetrical |
| Gender: | Mariners ( Clangula Leach , 1819 ) |
|
| International scientific name |
|---|
Clangula hyemalis
( Linnaeus , 1758 ) |
| Security status |
|---|
Vulnerable speciesIUCN 3.1 Vulnerable : 22680427 |
|
This is one of the most common northern ducks - according to experts, only 3.8-4.3 million birds nest annually along the Arctic coast of Northern Europe and Russia west of Taimyr . [4] A flock of birds, spends most of its life on the high seas. Nests in the tundra on small lakes, swamps, rivers, on the coast and islands. Winters in the open sea, often far from the coast, and rarely appears on land in small groups, mainly during a storm or to lubricate the body. [4] Dives very well, gets food from the bottom of the reservoir. It feeds on crustaceans , mollusks and other aquatic invertebrates , less commonly fish . [5] The object of commercial hunting.
Small-bodied duck with a rounded head, short neck and short high beak. The length of the males is 55-60 cm (including the long tail), the length of the females is 37-41 cm, the wingspan is 73-79 cm, the weight is 450-900 g. [6] The male has a very long tail (up to 13 cm [4] ) and a pointed central pair of tail feathers that the duck always holds high above the surface of the water. The wings are narrow and pointed, somewhat swept, in both sexes are dark in color at any time of the year. Take off from the water, making a long run against the wind. The flight is straight, with fast and elastic flapping. Usually does not rise high. [7] Keeps in large noisy flocks. [eight]
Appearance
Male and female in flight
As with most other ducks, the plumage has pronounced sexual dimorphism (differences between the sexes). Moreover, a unique feature of this species is a three-time (in other birds, one or two times) molt per year, as a result of which the drakes have excellent winter, mating and summer outfits. [8] [9] In the male, from the second half of April to the end of June, the head (except for the light sides), the neck and chest are dark brown, the upper body is dark brown with elongated red pigtails on the shoulders, sides and bottom are grayish white. Summer molting slightly changes the overall picture - the shoulder feathers become shorter and lose their reddish tones, separate white feathers appear on the head and shoulder blades. The beak of males, which in the spring had a pinkish band, during this period becomes completely black. In September, the drakes significantly change their appearance - the head and neck turn white, large chocolate spots appear on the sides of the head, and the same chocolate bib on the chest. [5] [7] [8] [6]
In the female, only two types of plumage can be distinguished: summer (from May to August) and winter. In general, the plumage of a duck combines brownish, chocolate and gray tones, darker in the nesting period. In the nesting outfit of the female, the head and neck are dark brown (there is a gray field in front of the eye, there is an elongated bright spot behind the eye, the same bright spot on the neck), the chest is grayish-brown, the top is brownish with narrow bright borders, the belly is white. In winter, the head becomes predominantly white, leaving large dark spots on the top of the head and cheeks. The outline of the rest of the body is generally preserved, although it becomes slightly brighter. The plumage of the back acquires a reddish-brown tint. Young birds are similar to females, differing from her in a more monotonous color of the upper body. [5] [7] [8] [6]
Voice
Sailor is a noisy bird, especially in spring and early summer. The cry of the male is the loud laryngeal “a'aullah”, so characteristic of this species that the locals call the bait “auleika” or “avlik”. [10] The male cries often and for any reason - during courtship, territorial dispute, fighting for the female, take-off and landing, on the fly. [10] In the pack, the massive drake choir is quite harmonious and at the same time somewhat reminds the sounds of a bagpipe . [7] In addition, both sexes are characterized by a monosyllabic long urge, a cross between “o”, “a”, and “u”, often heard from a flying flock. [7] [10]
Range
Nests everywhere in the northern polar latitudes, including in the tundra , forest-tundra and along the Arctic coast of Eurasia and North America , the coastal regions of Greenland , Iceland , and on numerous islands. In Northern Europe, distributed in the north of Scandinavia and in the Arctic regions of Russia . In Kamchatka, nests to the south until about the 60th parallel. [11] [12] The species is characterized by uneven distribution and sharp fluctuations in numbers from year to year within the same locality. [13]
Winters in the sea south of the breeding range - along the western and eastern coasts of North America south to northern California and North Carolina , on the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay , south of Greenland and Iceland, in Europe mostly in the Baltic , as well as in the Northern the sea and the northern British Isles , east of Lake Issyk-Kul , in the Far East along the coasts of Kamchatka, Hokkaido and the Korean Peninsula . [4] [11]
Habitats
In the nesting period, it inhabits the internal reservoirs of the tundra and forest-tundra , sometimes penetrating the upland marshes of the northern taiga . [6] In the rest of the time (about 9 months of the year [14] ), it spends in coastal waters off the coast or on large lakes. Compared to other sea ducks, sea-dwellers dive to a greater depth (individual individuals fell into marine nets at a depth of up to 60 m), and for this reason they are found further from the coast. [14] During this period, birds rarely appear on shore, mainly during a storm or to periodically lubricate the body with fat from the coccygeal gland . [four]
Puberty occurs in the second or third year of life. [14] Pairing takes place in the winter, usually in January or February [4] , both birds arrive at the breeding sites together in a large flock. The current male swims animatedly around the female, raises its long tail, shakes its neck and throws its head back on its back. [8] In most regions, mass migration of birds to nesting sites is observed from mid-May to early June, sometimes when still small inland water bodies are covered with ice. In this case, the birds keep close to the sea, waiting for the first screeches to appear. [8] Despite the fact that the mariners live in large flocks, mass nesting colonies do not form, although several birds can nest in heaps within a small territory, often near the settlements of the common eider or Arctic tern . The latter provide additional protection, with a loud cry, warning of the approach of danger. [6] The female is engaged in the choice of a place and the arrangement of the nest, the male protects the forage territory - a reservoir or just a large puddle. [6] Despite the fact that usually there are more males in the pack, both members of the couple remain faithful to each other. [four]
The nest , a rather deep depression in the ground, is sometimes completely open, sometimes slightly masked at the foot of a large stone, in a thicket of shrub birch or in low grass. In any case, even on an open nest, a densely sitting female is not easy to detect, so close she is pressed to the ground and merges with the surrounding landscape. Usually the nest is located near the water, but almost always in a dry place. The female sometimes adds several blades of grass to the dug fossa and at the end it always lining profusely with the fluff plucked from the chest. The laying time of eggs varies widely and directly depends on the beginning of snow melting - for example, in Iceland the first clutches are observed in the third decade of May, in Svalbard and in the Murmansk region in mid-June, and in the north-west of Greenland or Novaya Zemlya only in early July . [4] [8] In the nest there are usually 5-8 eggs of greenish-olive, greenish-brown or olive-gray color, sometimes with a slight blue or yellow hue. The size of the eggs is (48-60) x (33-41) mm. [6] One female sits for 24 - 29 days, at first periodically leaving the clutch for feeding, and at the end it is very tight. The male is in the immediate vicinity of the nest for several days, however, in the middle of incubation, it forever leaves the nest and flies off to the sea coast, where it cools into large unisex flocks for moulting. [five]
Young ones are born synchronously, and after a few hours they leave the nest and follow their mother to the reservoir. From the very beginning, they get their own food, biting insects from the surface of the water or diving. Sometimes the female helps them find food by beak pushing bottom sediments to the surface of the water. Despite independence, the first days of ducklings spend the night in a nest and are heated by their mother. Subsequently, often neighboring broods combine, and then one duck can accompany a large number of ducklings of different ages, while the second mother finally leaves her offspring. At the age of 35 - 40 days, the grown chicks begin to fly and disperse. [five]
An animal-eating duck, forage gets at the bottom of reservoirs. In the nesting period, it stays mainly in shallow water, where it feeds on insect larvae ( springflies , caddis flies , mosquito-bells , etc.), worms , small crustaceans ( amphipods , artemia , gills ( Anostraca )). [5] Out of the breeding season, he spends on the open sea, where in search of food he dives to a depth of 10 m and spends under water from 30 to 60 seconds. [4] Cases of immersion of birds to an even greater depth of 60 m are known — more than that of any other representative of the duck family. [14] At this time, the diet of birds was dominated by mollusks , crustaceans , small fish and snails . [five]
- ↑ Boehme R. L. , Flint V. E. The Bilingual Dictionary of Animal Names. Birds. Latin, Russian, English, German, French / Ed. ed. Acad. V. E. Sokolova . - M .: Rus. lang., "RUSSO", 1994. - S. 33. - 2030 copies. - ISBN 5-200-00643-0 .
- ↑ Arlotte N., Brave V. Birds of Russia: A Guide-Guide. - SPb. : Amphora, 2009 .-- S. 71 .-- 446 p. - ISBN 978-5-367-01026-8 .
- ↑ Sailor // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Gooders, Boyer, S.206-209
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Carboneras, P.622
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ryabitsov, Birds of the Urals, Urals and Western Siberia, S.79-80
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Mullarney et al, C.64
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dementiev, Gladkov, S.572-582
- ↑ Sailor - Clangula hyemalis (neopr.) . Encyclopedia of the nature of Russia . Central Scientific Agricultural Library of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Date of treatment November 1, 2009. Archived April 10, 2012.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Ryabitsov, “Birds of the Tundra”, S.48-50
- ↑ 1 2 Scott, Rose, S.229-232
- ↑ Stepanyan, 2003
- ↑ Rogacheva, 1988
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis) (unspecified) (inaccessible link) . Sea Duck Information Series . The Sea Duck Joint Venture. Date of treatment November 2, 2009. Archived April 10, 2012.
- C. Carboneras 1992. Family Anatidae (Ducks, Geese and Swans) in del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., & Sargatal, J., eds. Vol. 1. // World Birds Guide = Handbook of the birds of the world. - Barcelona: Lynx Edicions, 1992 .-- S. 622. - ISBN 84-96553-42-6 .
- John Gooders, Trevor Boyer. Ducks of Britain and the Northern Hemisphere. - London: Collins & Brown, 1997 .-- S. 206-209. - ISBN 1855855704 . (eng.)
- Killian Mullarney, Lars Svensson, Dan Zetterström, Peter J. Grant. Birds of Europe = Birds of Europe. - United States: Princeton University Press, 2000 .-- S. 64 .-- 400 p. - ISBN 978-0-691-05054-6 . (eng.)
- Derek A. Scott, Paul M. Rose. Atlas of duck populations in Africa and western Eurasia = Atlas of Anatidae populations in Africa and Western Eurasia. - Wetlands International, 1996 .-- S. 229-232. - 336 p. - ISBN 1 900 442 09 4 . (eng.)
- G.P. Dementiev, N.A. Gladkov. Birds of the Soviet Union. - Soviet science, 1953. - T. 4. - S. 572-582. - 635 s.
- E.V. Rogacheva. Birds of Central Siberia. Distribution, abundance, zoogeography. - M .: Nauka, 1988 .-- 310 p. - ISBN 5-02-005252-3 .
- V.K. Ryabitsev. Birds of the tundra. - Sverdlovsk: Middle Ural Book Publishing House, 1986. - S. 48-50.
- V.K. Ryabitsev. Birds of the Urals, Cisurals and Western Siberia: A guide-determinant. - Yekaterinburg: Publishing House Ural. University, 2001 .-- S. 79-80. - 608 p. - ISBN 5-7525-0825-8 .
- L. S. Stepanyan. Synopsis of the ornithological fauna of Russia and adjacent territories. - Moscow: Academic Book, 2003 .-- 808 p. - ISBN 5-94628-093-7 .
