The massive nesting of seabirds on an almost sheer cliff breaking off into the sea has its own name - bird market. Those who at least once saw him live call the spectacle grandiose and unforgettable. Indeed, many thousands of birds create it, moving randomly and randomly. But this is only at first glance. And the incessant cry and the roar of the hordes of many thousands will not be confused with anything.
Where can i see
Wherever these huge colonies of birds called bird market are found. You can see them on the coast of Europe and Asia, on the American continent and islands of the southern hemisphere, in New Zealand and on the Arctic coast.
And the sizes can be very different, but the largest ones occupy tens of kilometers and number hundreds of thousands of birds of different species. The largest colonies in Russia are on the islands of Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef, but bazaars are also known on Lake Baikal, on Wrangel Island and the Sikhote-Alin Mountains in the Far East.
Who lives in the house?
The most numerous inhabitants of bazaars of the northern hemisphere are thick-billed guillemots. They do not build nests, and an egg that hatches is heated on the one hand to 40 ° C, and on the ground it is in the cold, sometimes with a zero temperature. And as soon as the chick develops?
Mass colonies form chistiki, which got their name because of the habit of washing food before eating it. Sea-gulls and silly gulls, cormorants and cleaners, Arctic terns and petrels. In total, about 280 species are known - these are the inhabitants of the bird market. Birds are in a hurry to breed their chicks in a short summer period. So it turns out that on the ledges of steep rocks every millimeter is occupied, more or less suitable for nesting.
Consider the bird market of one of the Sikhote-Alin rocks, how different types of birds are placed on it. The whole lower tier is occupied by karmorans who adore living in a society of their own kind. With their gloomy black color, they sharply contrast with the white color of the stool, which covers the entire cornice. Next to them, and sometimes interspersed, small groups of cormorants are seen in small groups.
Stone ducks also prefer to settle near the water. Their coloring from a mixture of white, black and brown colors is a good defense against the background of guano, but the constant movement gives them away with their heads. And all the cracks and depressions in the stones are occupied by dark birds with a whitish head and orange-green beaks - hatchets.
On the upper floors is the kingdom of gulls. Large cormorants are mixed with elegant klushami, but there is no quarrel between them. But most of all among the inhabitants of this troubled kingdom of guillemots. These sharp-billed birds with gray-brown dark plumage occupy every inch of the earth, where you can just sit down.
Such a variety of species is in every bazaar, only they can be completely different.
And how to feed such a horde?
It would seem that in places where there are such settlements, fish should not be at all. This many-thousand horde should eat all. But it’s just the opposite. Fertilizer from the bird market, or simply bird droppings, increases the amount of phytoplankton, and then the usual food chain starts. Phytoplankton is eaten by zooplankton, which fish love so much. So big schools of fish always revolve around the locations of the bird market .
And who are the neighbors?
The same effect has a large number of birds on coastal areas. Here, due to the large amount of fertilizer, the grass becomes green much earlier, and it withers much later than in areas remote from the nesting grounds.
Greenery attracts rodents, and predators, arctic foxes and ermines, in turn come for them. Yes, and birds of prey right there - owls and gyrfalcons, skuas and eagle owls. With pleasure come to enjoy eggs and bears.
Why do you need to live in such a cramped space? The bird market provides a number of advantages for its inhabitants, and, first of all, there is less loss of both eggs and already hatched chicks. Indeed, the crowd and fight back easier, and warmer if the cold wind blows.