The winter months are darkish within the boreal forest. Hours of obtainable searching are low and temperatures are extraordinarily low. It’s a miracle that something can discover sustenance and survive right here. The birds that stay listed here are robust and belong primarily to specific households of birds. Owls do significantly properly right here, the lengthy nights really working of their favour by rising searching time. That stated, some owls will hunt throughout the low mild hours of the day.
These birds rely closely on the crop of rodents from the earlier summer season so their distribution and abundance is closely depending on the supply of their favorite prey. The Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo) is the biggest owl up right here, simply on the northerly restrict of its vary. It must take prey bigger than rodents and this marks their restrict, hares most likely being the principle prey. Among the many rodent specialists the biggest is the Nice Gray Owl (Strix nebulosa) intently adopted by its cousin the Ural Owl (Strix uralensis). Amongst my favourites, and by chance fairly energetic throughout the day, is the Hawk Owl (Surnia ulula). On the small finish of the owl dimension vary is the Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium passerinum).
Among the many diurnal raptors, Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) will hunt alongside the forest edges for hare or some unsuspecting roe deer however they will even scavenge at carcasses. Tough-legged Buzzard (Buteo lagopus) successfully performs the rodent-catching position throughout the day, coming into competitors with the extra diurnal owls. Though you’ll typically be in these forests in winter and never realise it, Eurasian Goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) are literally fairly widespread. Their stealth predatory ways, geared toward catching birds but in addition hares, preserve them properly among the many timber.
The remaining species rely largely on seeds to outlive the winter months. Some species, just like the Eurasian Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes) will cache seeds throughout the summer season and depend on their unbelievable reminiscence to retrieve them within the winter. Woodpeckers will drill into the bark of timber looking for dormant grubs whereas additionally taking seeds. The smaller tits are equally adaptable. And there are the finches, which rely nearly completely on seeds.
The hen variety of those excessive latitudes could be very low, particularly within the winter. The few species that handle to stay up right here all 12 months are among the many most resilient of birds. It’s no coincidence that they’re derived from only a few households and that they’ve diets able to sustaining them by way of the winter. Within the case of owls and a few diurnal raptors it’s meat – hunted or scavenged; within the case of woodpeckers, tits, finches and a few corvids (together with the nutcracker) it’s a largely plant-based omnivory.
Autor Clive Finlayson
