Sitarul | Facts & Information

Origin

The scientific name of the forest sitar is Scolopax rusticola rusticola and it alone makes up the genus Scolopax.

It is a migratory bird, in our country being in passing, few specimens remaining to nest with us.

Ornithologists and biologists have identified over time the migration zones of the sitars,but from the latest estimates of researchers it seems that there are changes in the migration lanes,along with significant changes in the climate.

Food Sitarul

Does sitar food consist of worms, spiders, insects ?and their larvae, like ?from berries or some hair?I plant plants.

Features Sitar

It is a relatively small bird (250 – 300 g), rust-colored. As a physical aspect it is unmistakable compared to other birds, with large eyes as if adapted to the night life , which ensures a radial vision of almost 360 degrees, but with which it sees excellently during the day, the proof being its flight of defense in front of man or dog, with ears placed under the eyes,and its specific long beak, and with which it rummages the Earth reavan in search of larvae and frames,its basic food.

The rust-colored plumage stained with different shades is in symbiosis with the environment in which it lives, ensuring a perfect camouflage in front of the enemy.

Sexual dimorphism is a little obvious. However, males are distinguished from females by: the smaller body and the more gray ventral side, compared to the females which is yellowish-whitish, and by the ends of the pubis bones closer together.

The most developed senses are sight and hearing. The Sitar has no preference for a certain species of trees can be found from spruce forests, to those of Acacia or birch and Alder.

It prefers forests that have rich branched undergrowth in the vicinity with fanatas or pastures.

It is known that they come together in migration with sprightly Crows,then in the mountains they are said to have arrived when the Blackbird's voice is heard in the evening and in the plain when the larks begin to sing.

There are not to be ignored the clues from the observation of spontaneous flora, that is, when the yellow Horn flower erumpe or when the appearance of fluff begins on the willow mattisorii.

They appear early in the south and are quite late in the Highlands, with the fiimd crossing period between March 10 and April 15.

If after a cold time warm weather follows, the passage will be shorter and more abundant, as the number of birds, and if the spring weather will be warmer then the passage will be longer and with a smaller number of sitari.

The legal hunting period of this bird is September 15-February 28.

Breeding The Sitar

A peculiarity is that once left the Nest does not return to it. In case of threat he covers his young leaves or takes them in flight by holding them tight between his legs(or reported cases when he carried two at once!).

There were shot specimens that had on their foot a lump of Earth tight with grass threads,under it a wound or even fracture was discovered, so the Bulgarian's role being bandage.[2]

The male carries out the evening and morning nuptial flight in search of the female waiting for him on the ground, after the appearance of the evening star and, respectively, before the disappearance of the morning one.

Mating takes place on the ground. The female lays on average 3-5 eggs, which she hatches alone for 22-24 days. Usually the female takes out two rows of chicks, the first time in April-May, and the second time in July-august.

The chicks are nidifugi, at 4 weeks already becoming fliers. By the age of one year they can be distinguished from adults by the configuration of the first remige, which in puppies has darker serrated edge, while in adults it is whitish.

It is claimed that in case of danger the females move their young in flight, holding them tightly with their legs, or between the beak and the chest, the hypothesis insufficiently researched.

Age is estimated at 12 years.