The mysophobia and glutton among birds, he loves to take a bath every day and eats so much that he can't fly!

In the hot summer, taking a shower is one of the effective ways for people to cool down. After taking a shower every day, I feel that I have relieved all my fatigue.

In fact, in addition to humans, birds also like to take a bath. Some birds even seem to have "cleanliness obsession", such as the protagonist we are going to introduce today - the waxwing.

Waxbird

Image source: GBIF

1. Cute birds love cleanliness

The waxwing is also called the waxwing, and is a member of the genus Waxwing of the family Waxwingidae. It is about 18 cm long, has a wingspan of 34-35 cm, weighs 40-64 grams, and usually lives for more than 5 years, and can even live up to 13 years.

The wings of the Taiping bird are very beautiful

Image source: GBIF

The waxwing is a small songbird with an elongated, tufted crest on its head. Its entire body is mainly grape gray-brown, with chestnut brown on its head. There is a black eye pattern on both sides of the crest that extends from the base of the beak through the eyes to the back of the head. The chin and throat are also black. The black wings have striking white wing spots, and the ends of the secondary flight feathers have red drop-shaped spots.

In addition, the six pairs of tail feathers of the waxwing all have black sub-terminal spots and yellow terminal spots, so the waxwing is also called "Twelve Yellows".

Waxwing foraging for food

Image source: GBIF

The waxwing loves cleanliness and bathes frequently to keep its feathers and toes clean. The frequency of waxwing bathing is comparable to that of humans, bathing once a day in summer, once every three days in spring and autumn, and once a week in winter .

After seeing how often the waxwing bathes, do you feel inferior to it?

2. A foodie who likes to overeat

The waxwing generally chooses tall coniferous forests, broad-leaved forests and poplar-birch forests as its habitat. Except for the breeding season, it will move in pairs, and at other times, it mostly gathers in large groups.

The waxwing is an omnivorous bird, but it mainly feeds on plants. It often forms large groups and searches for drupes of the Rhamnaceae family, grapes, capsules of euonymus, rose hips, berries of honeysuckle, orange fruits, etc. in trees or bushes.

It is hard to imagine that such a small bird is actually a greedy foodie. Sometimes when it comes across its favorite food, it will overeat to the point that it can hardly fly .

Flocks of waxwings

Image source: GBIF

3. Widespread but we don’t see it often

The waxwing is widely distributed in Europe, Asia, Canada, and the United States. As a winter migratory bird, it is commonly found in eastern China, including Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, and Henan.

The waxwing has a wide distribution range

Image source: GBIF

Although the waxwing has a wide range, this does not mean that it can be found everywhere.

In the past few years, we may see beautiful waxwings in the hands of bird walkers, but waxwings are difficult to breed artificially, so the waxwings seen on the market are basically caught directly from the wild . This has caused great trauma to the waxwings, and the population has declined rapidly.

The waxwing was once one of the dominant bird species in Beijing, but it was hard to see them in the past few years. Fortunately, with the improvement of the ecological environment in recent years, the waxwing has been recorded to appear again in Beijing's urban parks and Yanqing, Changping, Huairou and other places.

At present, the Great Waxwing has been listed as a bird in the Red List of the World Conservation Union and a second-class protected animal in Beijing. It is a bird that needs our protection.

The waxwing is of great significance to the ecological environment. It can spread the seeds of trees, which is related to their "indigestion". The waxwing likes to eat berries, but the seeds of berries cannot be digested in its stomach and can only pass through the intestines. After this process, the ability of the berry seeds to germinate will be improved.

In this way, as long as the waxwing excretes feces in a certain place, seedlings will germinate there, and the seeds will grow fast and well with the help of the fertility of the bird droppings.

However, it should be noted here that a very hungry waxwing will sometimes look for food in feces . From this point of view, it is not clear whether this little bird that likes to take a bath can be considered a clean bird.

Do you think it likes to be clean or not?

END

Tadpole Musical Notation original article, please indicate the source when reprinting

Editor/Xiao Xitushuo