Briefly:
- Length up to 29 cm.
- Weight up to 130 gr.
- Swing up to 46 cm.
- Life up to 18 years.
Active, noisy bird with a good memory and its own security system.
A bonus for those who are not afraid to read.
These European wanderers of the thrush clan also feel perfectly well in central Russia, inspecting freshly ploughed fields in organized gangs of 30 to 40 pairs of accomplices. There isn't much food, taking into account that they have to deliver fresh food to the nest about 100-150 times a day. The demanding young eat an average of 13 times an hour. Nest design and construction is left to the fragile wings of females, but control and guarding, as is customary, is up to the males. And here we must give credit to these noble birds, they are very reliable neighbors.
If a squirrel or a crow comes to ravage a neighbor, help will come instantly. These feathered nomads have a funny mechanism of attack. Attacking the enemy like a kamikaze on a cruiser, a rowan thrush completes its terrifying flight by bombarding with caustic droppings. Imagine this "calo-escapade" that instantly coats the enemy like a doughnut with icing. And if it is a crow, you can forget about flying until it cleans its feathers, because they are sticky, and squirrels or cats need to urgently submit the skin to the nearest dry-cleaner. It is because of this collective defensive alliance that other species of smaller birds are very happy to settle in the perimeter security area. The voice alarm of a noisy feathered bird is sometimes useful even to the beasts in the neighborhood.
With the onset of cold weather, mountain ashberries switch to a berry-fruit diet and gladly reduce the number of berries of rose hips, hawthorns and, of course, mountain ashberries. By the way trees and shrubs only benefit from such symbiosis, because having fallen as "precipitation" from the bird to the ground, the seeds are not always digested and provided with nutrient medium, which enviably increases germination. So, what's up with the cold weather? If the year is good, winters are possible in their native lands, besides scientists say thrushes are frost-resistant and can survive till -30 C, though they don't feel very happy about it.
These winged catchers have excellent memory and if the fruits have passed their taste, the shrub couldn't hide from the visits, even if it's hidden in thickets, like a bum in a beard. But in case the food is scarce, the rowan bushes will have to make a tiresome journey on their own to the Caucasus, the south of Europe or even to Central Asia or North Africa. The appearance of these spotted friends signifies the end of frosty days. How the birds unmistakably sense this is still not clear.
With us bipeds, these tourists are usually seen in squares and parks of our cities, for there are chances to find careless and naive bugs. We must not forget the curiosity that brings a bird into people's homes. Of course in connection with this there are omens of superstitious inhabitants, but mostly good ones, for as the French say, "on the wings of this fidgety bird rides joy through the world."
Always remember that the bird is not afraid to fall from a fragile branch, because it does not trust the branch, but trusts its wings.
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