Unlike plants, animals respond to various stimuli in a much more complex manner. They react to food, light, temperature and humidity of air and soil, and various odorous substances. They can approach the stimulus or, conversely, move away from it. Earthworms, for example, crawl by smell to places where there are rotting leaves and plant roots, or decomposing manure. They crawl to the surface of the soil when it is heavily moistened with water and go into its deeper layers when it gets cold.

Animals always perform some kind of action: looking for food, shelter from heat or cold, secluded places for sleeping or breeding. In case of danger, many of them take a threatening pose. Fish, for example, straighten their fins and lift their gill covers, which creates the impression of a large body size. Some animals, when in danger, “pretend” to be dead, release a foul-smelling liquid, or simply flee.

All actions of an animal in response to stimuli are called behavior.

Animal behavior can be innate or acquired. Innate behavior manifests itself in the same way in all animals of the same species. It is inherited from parents to offspring. For example, all cross-spiders of the same species build identical trapping webs. At the same time, they first stretch the web threads in the form of a polygonal frame, then connect its upper and lower sides, draw the web threads from the center to the edges, connect the radii of the catching net with a spiral thread, etc. spiders born from eggs laid by females, no one does not teach the complex craft of constructing a fishing net. However, they all make the same networks as their ancestors did.

In the first hours of life, born wolf cubs, being near their mother, randomly poke their muzzles into her fur. Having stumbled upon the nipple, they begin to make sucking movements with their lips and tongue. The milk enters the mouth and the wolf cub swallows it. This is an innate action. While suckling, the wolf cub feels the smell of the mother and the warmth of her body. Having regained their sight, the cubs see their mother. They associate its appearance with the taste of food. Over time, growing wolf cubs develop the same connection with the sight and smell of a field mouse, hare, and bird. Having seen prey or smelled it, the wolf cub begins to chase it. The behavior of wolf cubs associated with the sight and smell of a mother feeding them milk, the sight and smell of prey, a hunter with a gun and other signals is acquired during their lives. This behavior is not passed on from parents to children.

The most complex behavior is characteristic of animals that have a well-developed nervous system and sensory organs. These include spiders, insects, fish, birds, and mammals. Bees, for example, build honeycombs, collect nectar and pollen from plant flowers, and in the honeycomb cells the nectar turns into honey, which the bees feed the larvae and feed themselves in the winter. Having found an abundance of flowering plants and returning to the hive, nectar collector bees seem to dance to tell the location of the discovered place with flowering plants. Other bees watch the dancers and then fly in the indicated direction.

Birds make long flights, choose nesting sites, lay and incubate eggs, feed their chicks and teach them to find food.

Animal behavior is much more complex than plant behavior. The more complex the structure of an animal’s nervous system, the more complex its behavior. Innate and acquired behavior helps animals survive in difficult conditions of interaction between living and inanimate nature.

Having studied the behavior of various animals, I was most interested in the behavior of birds and I decided to study their behavior at home, study various manifestations of activity, find out the influence of weather conditions, room temperature and lighting on the behavior of birds. The study was conducted at home, studying the behavior of budgerigars.

Two parrots (a female and a male) live in a cage. The female's name is Lyusya, she is 1 year old, and the male, Yasha, is 3 years old. Both parrots are bright green and lemon in color, with blue spots on their cheeks. They live in a large cage, where there are 2 perches, 2 rings for the birds to enjoy, as well as a ladder that connects the upper and lower perches. Parrots are very active and often fly around the room. The main component of their diet is millet of several types, and various types of minerals are also added to the food.

Birds are one of the most interesting groups of vertebrate animals to study. They have a fairly developed brain, have a high level of metabolism, and are very mobile.

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