Pink Robin: A beautiful rose-breasted bird (8 photos + video)

Description, appearance

The pink starling bird (lat. Sturnus roseus) belongs to the family and genus of starlings, which includes almost a dozen different species. The size of the bird is 19-24 cm, the wingspan adds another 12-14 cm, weight up to 90 g.

Males have brighter plumage: pastel pink color is located at the bottom of the chest, on the abdomen, sides and back. And the head, upper parts of the chest, wings and tail are black with a greenish-purple tint, the paws have a dark red tint. The head is decorated with a soft crest of rising black feathers.

The plumage of females is distinguished by lighter shades of pink, a smaller crest, and the feathers of chicks are sandy or brown. The color of the thick beak changes from black in summer to dark pink in autumn and winter.

In Russia and Ukraine, this bird has been listed in the Red Book since 2010 to protect it from extermination.

Description of the bird

The pink gull belongs to the gull family of the Charadriiformes order. A characteristic feature is the pinkish plumage of the head and lower body.

At the beginning of the last century, the species was on the verge of destruction. At that time, America and Europe introduced fashion for a stuffed pink seagull, the cost of which reached two months' wages of an ordinary worker. Therefore, the pink gull was mercilessly exterminated.

What does it look like

The feathered one is an amazing representative of the family. Refers to small birds with a graceful physique. The length of the body reaches 35 cm, the wingspan is 84 cm. Plumage in delicate tones:

• gray-blue head and back;
• pale pink chest and abdomen;
• a thin black headband on the neck in the form of an exquisite outlandish decoration.

The gull's tail has a characteristic wedge-shaped white shape, its top is decorated with a black spot. The sharp beak with a curved tip is black, and the legs are red.

In winter, the pinkish color is weakly expressed, the black rim is almost invisible, and a dark-colored spot appears near the ear.

Young birds in nesting plumage have a black-brown mantle; in the first winter month the color changes to pale gray. The upper side of the wings is marked by dark, “M”-shaped stripes.

By the summer of the gull's first year, the plumage changes color, acquiring a pinkish color. The tail becomes pure white, and a necklace adorns the neck. The final plumage of the beautiful bird appears by the age of two.

Varieties

There are about 60 species of gulls on the planet, which belong to the gull family.

1. Ozernye. They are one of the most common types. A distinctive feature is the brownish color of the head and the white nape. Lives along rivers and lakes. The body is about 40 cm long and weighs 245-345 g.
2. Small ones. They are among the smallest seagulls. The length of the body is no more than 30 cm, weight does not exceed 100 g. Habitats are located near swamps, lakes, and rivers. They have a completely black head.
3. Mediterranean. Their legs, beak and iris are yellow. The feathers on the head are white. The eyes are edged in red. Body size – 60 cm. They prefer to live on the seashore.
4. Silvery. They belong to a large species of seagulls. Body length is about 60 cm, weighs up to one and a half kilograms. The color is light: the plumage of the head and body is white, the feathers at the ends of the wings are black. The yellow beak is curved, the end is yellow or greenish. The iris is silver or light yellow. Pink paws. It is a very aggressive bird by nature.
5. Sea pigeons. Body length is about 50 cm. They have white head plumage. The back with wings is gray. The wings are framed with black feathers. Paws are red. The appearance of doves is distinguished by a very elegant, thin beak.
6. Polar. Quite large birds. Body length 70 cm. Light color. Lives in Canada and Greenland.
7. Marine. Belongs to a large species. The length of the body reaches 75 cm. The plumage is white, only the upper feathers of the wings are dark. The beak is yellow with a red spot at the very bottom. The paws are pale pink in color.
8. White. They live in the Arctic. Birds are about 45 cm in white plumage. The eyes are edged with red. The legs are black, the beak is yellow with a greenish tip.

Character and lifestyle

The pink gull's habitat is tundra or forest-tundra. But it becomes attached to a permanent place only during nesting. The bird swims remarkably well in rivers. The rest of the time she flies over the seas and lands on drifting ice floes to rest, since she does not like swimming in cold water. Birds fly easily and smoothly.

The attitude towards people is trusting and not at all cautious. The voice is high and gentle with a wide variety of notes associated with fear and anxiety. When angry, a sharp scream is heard.

They nest in small groups in the lowlands of lakes or swamps. They prefer coastal or beach areas. To build a nest, it weaves grass, leaves, mosses, algae, and small twigs. They build it on the surface of the earth.

It spends harsh winters close to the nest, near the open sea. Birds group near non-freezing areas of water, from where they get their food in winter.

What does it eat?

During the mating season, the diet consists of ground food. Birds eat:

1. insects and their larvae;
2. vertebrates living in rivers;
3. small fish.

When there is not enough live food, the diet includes green parts of plants and their seeds. Pink gulls are omnivores. They peck any insects they see on an ice floe, on the surface of a river, or in the air.

During the nesting period, they feed on those insects that they encounter while moving on the ground. On the shore it eats small mollusks, fish and crustaceans.

They also fly to human settlements and find food in landfills. As the air begins to warm, mosquitoes appear and become the main food for seagulls.

At sea they hunt for prey near the ice floes. They sit on the water and eat the insects that live there. If they see prey in the water, it dives partially into the water or dives completely after it. When there is not enough food in the gull’s habitat, it begins to protect it from other birds.

Where does it live?

The habitat belongs to the tundra in Siberia, Canada, Norway. Gulls are found on the southern borders of pack ice; they prefer Scotland and Iceland for wintering. Sometimes found in Central Europe, Japan, America, and northern China. The bird loves to nest in the area of ​​Lake Taimyr and in the adjacent tundra.

The summer period is spent in the tundra and forest-tundra. The seagull likes the coast of western Greenland. For the winter, it moves to the sea in the Norwegian and Bering Seas. This graceful little beauty loves to travel throughout the ice-free Arctic waters.

Reproduction

Gulls arrive at their nesting sites in May or June. The nest is built on earthen soil. The immediate surroundings may contain about twenty such nests, since the birds live in groups. The nesting season lasts up to 2 months.

The male and female are very friendly. They take turns incubating the clutch for 20 days, which usually contains 3 eggs. If the weather is very cold, incubation lasts about 28 days.

The chicks appear 21 days after the start of hatching. In time, this is the end of June - beginning of July. Young individuals quickly adapt to the harsh Arctic life and after three weeks they take wing; their flight is as good as that of adult birds.

The birth of chicks coincides with the molting period. After this period ends, the entire group flies out of the tundra to the cold expanses of the sea. The young people there are growing up.

The Moscow Zoo incubator has made a successful attempt to breed pink gull chicks in captivity. According to unconfirmed data, the life expectancy of birds is 10 – 12 years.

Natural enemies

The birds themselves become targets of prey. Arctic foxes and reindeer eat eggs during hatching. People also hunt the bird. Crafts are made from adult specimens. This trade is considered profitable, since stuffed pink gulls still cost a lot of money today.

Wintering

Bird migration occurs in early autumn. On the lands of the American continent, they winter in temperate climate zones. Occasionally, seagulls reach the salt lakes of California.

Birds can be found in the open waters of the Arctic. They winter on the sulfur of the Pacific Ocean near the edges of the ice. Pink gulls fly there in August.

Habitat

These birds are widespread in the countries of Central Asia and South-Eastern Europe. On the territory of Russia and the former countries of the USSR, the range of pink starlings is the northern part of Siberia, the Caucasus and Transcaucasia, Kazakhstan, and the western regions of Ukraine. However, every year they fly to Asia for the winter: India or Ceylon. Some of their species migrate to the south of Europe, others fly to North America.

These are social birds that nest and live in large colonies, which can reach several hundred individuals in the summer season.

They return from wintering in large flocks, roosting in groups for the night, clinging to their neighbors. They arrive at nesting sites in April, forming flocks of several thousand pairs. Sometimes they flock with other small birds (sparrows, crows, etc.).

Starlings fly at high speed in large flocks, being close to each other, so they form huge “gray clouds” in the sky, which looks very impressive (as can be seen in the photo of pink starlings flying over the trees).

Every day they go to the steppe to feed, sometimes dividing into several groups. Seeing the prey, they immediately descend to the ground in the entire flock and attack the moving waves of locusts. Moreover, the latter, having taken off above the flock, fly forward, so the “cloud” seems to roll in waves.

When in danger, birds gather in large communities and drive away enemies with loud warlike cries. They are known for their fighting spirit when they evict other birds from occupied nesting boxes.

Nutrition

Pelicans eat exclusively fish. The process of catching it is remarkable. Birds use collective food production, which is extremely rare among birds. They line up in a chain. They flap their wings, make a lot of noise and slowly move towards the shore. In this way, the fish are driven to shallow waters, where they are caught by pelicans.

There is no reliable evidence that this species can dive. The pink pelican in the photo or video only lowers its beak, head and neck into the water. The fishing process is similar to scooping fish with a ladle. Lucky anglers may be joined by cormorants or other waterfowl.

Nesting and breeding

The breeding season for pink starlings occurs in steppes or semi-desert plains, where they can easily find food: various insects. Laying eggs and raising chicks occurs from May to July, because... It is during these months that the number of locusts they love is maximum.

In nature, they make nests among hills, in rocks, in cracks between stones, in burrows dug on cliffs in the forest, and less often in tree hollows. They often settle under the roofs of houses or in birdhouses made for them by people.

They improve the nests where pink starlings live with the help of plant stems, dry leaves and bird feathers. The female lays 4-7 light gray eggs; both parents hatch them in turn. After only 4-5 weeks, the chicks, generously fed by locusts and other insects, begin to try to fly. Having learned to fly, the young unite into groups that gradually move away from the nesting sites.

Reproduction

Roseate spoonbills find a mate and begin building a nest. Birds build their homes in difficult to pass places, most often in swamps. The female is capable of laying 3 to 5 eggs, white with brown speckles. Young parents take turns incubating their future offspring and after 24 days the chicks appear. For a month, the cubs stay in the nest, and the adults feed them. Food absorption occurs in the following way: the chick sticks its head deep into the open mouth of the parent and takes a treat from the crop. By the fifth week of life, babies begin to fly.

Benefits and harms of pink starlings

The pink starling is beneficial to humans, destroying a large number of insects for its food and feeding its chicks. In a day, one small bird can catch and eat about 200 different large and small insects, and each parent catches the same number for their younger generation.

Most often, starlings eat ants, caterpillars, beetles, cicadas, butterflies and even snails. The bird's favorite delicacy is locusts, which the bird tears off its legs and wings, then hits it on the ground to soften it and swallows it. For this, he is loved and revered by all local gardeners and farmers, for whom the locust is a pest that devours useful plants and seedlings.

Starlings often fly in flocks when they detect clusters of insects, which they destroy to the last beetle or ant. According to historical observations of biologists, it was they who saved the crops in Kazakhstan in 1944-45, when the steppes were flooded with billions of breeding locusts, which the extermination measures and chemical insecticides could not completely cope with.

However, in some countries, especially closer to autumn when switching to plant food, these birds cause damage to orchards, vineyards, and mulberry trees. Thus, in India, pink starlings can damage and devastate rice fields. Winemakers save their plantings using home methods: wooden rattles, metal rattling sheets, basins, and watchtowers are often placed in the vineyards to monitor the activity of starlings.

However, the benefit of these birds in destroying locusts many times exceeds the damage from eating berries and plants.

Lifestyle and habitat

The pink starling bird is well known in Central Asia and southeastern Europe. In Russia, birds are found in northern Siberia, the Caucasus, and Crimea. Wintering is spent in southern Europe, North America or India.

The birds return in early spring, when in some places there is still unmelted snow, but the mating season begins at the end of April, when the chicks of other spring birds are already growing up.

Pink starlings spend nesting time in steppe, semi-steppe zones, and desert plains of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran. The habitat may change due to seasonal fluctuations and the availability of sufficient food supply. Where the pink starling lives , there are always cliffs, rocks, and steep banks of reservoirs.

Bird colonies need steep niches. They make nests under the roofs of buildings, in rock crevices, cracks in walls, and can occupy a woodpecker’s hollow or settle into an individual birdhouse. A prerequisite for nesting is the presence of water nearby. Birds are ready to fly for food within a radius of up to 10 km.

Established bird colonies require large amounts of food, which both adult starlings and young offspring need. The most favorable period is mid-summer, when food supply is abundant, as insect larvae grow to adulthood.

The flight of starlings is very fast. The birds are always close to each other, so from a distance they appear as a dark cloud. They also move quickly on the ground, but do not leave the flock.

The artistic talents of starlings are well known. The ability to copy the voices of other birds, animals, whistles, and car horns is amazing in its diversity. If the croaking of a frog, the meowing of a kitten, or the clucking of a hen is heard in a flock of starlings, it means that the birds have visited a person’s home or lingered near a pond with local inhabitants.

There are known cases when migratory starlings returned from their winter quarters and “spoke” in the voices of tropical birds. Ornithologists notice that the rose-colored starling's own voice resembles a grinding, squealing, squeaking sound; there is no melody in its singing.

Listen to the voice of the pink starling

Where pink starlings live , there must be a concentration of insects, otherwise large flocks of birds will not be able to feed themselves. Huge colonies require a good food supply, but even in danger they act together: they scream loudly and circle around militantly.

In human life, flocks of starlings help destroy agricultural pests. The arrival of birds in spring makes people happy, symbolizing the onset of warmth and the revival of nature. But the encroachment of birds on the harvest of cereals, fruits and berries leads to the destruction of gardens and fields.

Starling Singers

Like some of its relatives, pink starlings perfectly copy sounds: the voices of other birds (crows, hens or sparrows), dog barking, frog croaking, etc. They often try to imitate people whistling, car horns, and other original sounds. Birds arriving from Asian countries can repeat the voices of birds of the subtropics, and those who visited the Kazakhstan steppes can imitate the bleating of sheep, the barking of dogs and even the cracking of a whip.

The very singing of starlings does not at all resemble a melody, but rather a squealing or grinding sound.

Shpak is a close relative of the pink starling

The starling family has about 40 species. Most of them have a sharp, straight beak and live in Asia, Africa and Europe. To the question of who is the relative of the pink starling, any schoolchild can answer: this is an ordinary starling or shpak, distributed throughout Europe and Russia, as well as North America, Australia and New Zealand.

It differs from the pink bird in its gray-black color with white spots and a yellow beak, habitats and diet (plant and animal). Unlike their pink counterparts, shpakis live in small groups of several pairs. They settle in deciduous forests (they love oak forests) near water and small fields or meadows. They make nests in tree hollows and often live in cities near people in birdhouses or dovecotes.

Subspecies

The pink pelican lives over vast territories stretching from Eastern Europe to the very south of Africa and from the Balkans to the Philippines. However, no subspecies have emerged within this species. Local communities vary in color, size, and anatomical details.

In addition, individual variability is developed. But these variations are insignificant and do not provide grounds for classifying any population as an independent subspecies. Despite living in very different conditions, the pink pelican is a bird of a monotypic species.

Variety of starling species

In addition to the shpak, there are other interesting species of these birds:

• The Amethyst Starling, native to North Africa, has an unusual iridescent blue-red plumage and feeds on insects and berries.
• The buffalo starling differs from other species in its thick red beak and strong legs, with which it clings to the skin of buffaloes, parasitizing on their skin in search of food.
• Swallow starling - inhabits the western regions of India and Australia, their lifestyle is similar to swallows.
• The red-winged starling is decorated with red inserts on the wings and is large in size (up to 30 cm).
• Black-winged or white-breasted species - lives in Indonesia, has a white body, and the wings and tail are decorated with black inserts, the skin around the eyes is bright yellow, feeds on fruits and insects.

Interesting facts about the animal

• The bird's wingspan can reach 5 meters;
• The pelican has no nostrils;
• Capable of flying to a height of 3 thousand meters;
• During the hunt, it can throw prey up and catch it with its beak;
• The animal's buoyancy is provided by air sacs;
• Mating games resemble a dance;
• Mentioned in bestiaries and other works of fiction;
• The only place where pelicans have not settled is Antarctica;
• In Egypt it was considered an honor to keep a pelican in the house; in Islam the bird is considered sacred;
• An ancient legend says that the pelican sacrifices its life while feeding its offspring;
• In India, birds were trained;
• Archaeologists have established that pelicans already existed 30 million years ago.

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Signs associated with starlings

Starlings are very common in nature, and people have long come up with various proverbs and noticed signs that are associated with their behavior:

• the starling has arrived - spring is coming;
• if the birds arrived early, then spring will be warm;
• when they don’t fly away for the winter for a long time, the autumn will be dry;
• after the loud chirping there will be rain at night.

Almost all types of starlings, incl. and pink ones that live next to a person have their own unique character.

Sacred birds

Since ancient times, Asian peoples have revered pink starlings as sacred birds. Their deification, as well as some religious cults common among Asian tribes, created for them the fame of “children of the air.”

This was due to invasions of locusts, which in the steppes always destroyed most of the crops of farmers and nomads. People could not fight this pest, because then there were no chemicals and insecticides that are now used in agriculture. Therefore, locust invasions doomed entire settlements to hunger and poverty. Whole clouds of birds with pink and black plumage suddenly swooping in and destroyed the locusts almost completely, thus saving people.

That’s why starlings are considered messengers of good gods who help people.