The crossbill is a bird of the forest and has very interesting biological features. Body length 14-19 cm, weight 30-47 g, wingspan 27-31 cm. The male is carmine or orange-red with a brownish back, grayish areas on the head and sides, dark wings and tail. Young males can be dirty yellow or red. The female is grayish-green with a brighter, yellow-green breast and rump. The voice is a metallic roll call in a flock of “klit-klit-klit”, the song is a beautiful ringing chirping, trills, whistles, sometimes females also sing. They live in dark coniferous forests; their main food is seeds of spruce and fir. Because they have a very interesting crossed beak, with such a beak it is easy to get food from the cones of spruce and fir. The seeds of spruce and fir ripen in winter and therefore crossbills hatch their chicks in winter, when there is plenty of food. They build a deep, thick-walled nest of moss and twigs, lined with wool and feathers, located high in the crown of a coniferous tree, usually on a branch near the trunk, in a thicket of needles. The clutch contains 3-5 eggs, white or greenish-blue with rare small spots, dark, reddish and purple. The male feeds the brooding female, the brood is fed by both partners, but mainly by the male, while the female warms the chicks. The chicks are fed the same thing that they eat themselves - conifer seeds, but crushed and moistened with saliva.

The question is often asked. Which bird is the smallest and everyone answers the hummingbird. And if the question is posed differently. Which bird is the smallest in Siberia. Not everyone can answer this question. Therefore, I want to introduce you to this interesting bird - its name is the kinglet. And even more precisely, the yellow-headed wren, which is considered the smallest in Russia. Body length 9-10 cm, weight 4-8 g, wingspan 15-17 cm. It has a short thin beak and a large head. The top is olive-green, the bottom is grayish, 2 light transverse stripes are developed on the wings. The male has a yellow longitudinal stripe with an orange center, bordered with black on the side, from the forehead to the back of the head. The female has a narrower, lemon-yellow stripe. Call (king song) - high-pitched squeaking “qi-qi-qi”, the song is hasty, consists of alternating whistles and squeaks of different tones.

Kinglets live in spruce forests. Throughout the winter they roam in flocks, often joining flocks of tits. They start singing in February - March and finish at the end of summer. The nesting season begins at the end of April - May, by this time the flocks break up and the pairs are distributed among the nesting areas. They nest in separate pairs (the shortest distance between nesting areas is sometimes 50 m). The nest is built by both partners, a spherical structure with a diameter of 8-10 cm with a small upper entrance; it is usually located in the thick of spruce paws or under them, rarely lower than 6-8 m above the ground. The outer walls are covered with cobwebs, green moss and lichens, held together by spider webs and cocoons. Thin dry blades of grass are woven into the walls, as well as narrow thin strips of birch bark, in small quantities - plant fluff (aspen, willow), the tray is lined with wool, hair and feathers. The clutch usually contains 8-10 light-colored eggs with small rusty specks. Egg dimensions - 13 x 10 mm. Only the female incubates for 14-17 days. The first few days after hatching, the female only warms the chicks, and the male carries the food, later they feed together. Brood feeding lasts 17-22 days; fledglings are fed for about a week. Maximum known age is 7 years. Inhabits a wide variety of forests, preferring mature and tall-trunked forests, with an abundance of hollows and a rich food supply in the autumn-winter period. Pairs live in permanent territories, often persisting throughout their lives. Where did such an interesting name for the bird come from? It turns out that when there was a dispute between the birds in the forest, who will be the king of the forest birds? At the bird council, they decided which of the birds flies the highest will be the king. So the competition began, the birds began to take off and rise towards the sun, then the wren attached itself to the eagle, hid in its feathers, the eagle rose for a long time towards the sun, when its strength began to run out and it began to sink to the bottom, at that time the wren flew out of the eagle’s feathers and that’s it They saw that another bird was flying up, and at that time the sun’s rays burned the head of the kinglet. He began to descend to the ground. And when everyone saw that the sun gave the bird a yellow crown and agreed that the yellow-headed kinglet would become the king among the birds.

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