Syrian woodpeckers appeared in Moscow

The resettlement of Syrian woodpeckers in Moscow can be associated with climate change, said the expert of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Russia Julia Kalinicheva.

As previously reported Moscow authorities, unusual for the breadth of the capital of the southern Syrian woodpecker began to nest in Moscow in the Bitsev forest. The staff of the Bitsev Forest managed to find a young woodpecker, who probably was born in Moscow.

“The advance of this southern species to the north may be due to climatic changes, and in recent decades scientists have observed the dispersal of a number of species of animals and plants to more northern latitudes,” Kalinicheva said.

According to her, the Syrian woodpecker in the capital will have to change its food: unlike its northern brethren, this species prefers insect larvae of fruit bones – cherries, apricots, plums. In addition, hollows he builds mainly on fruit trees with softer wood.

“If the employees of Bitsevsky Park met a young bird born in Moscow, that is, it is reasoned to assume that both she and her parents were fully adapted to feeding our insects and cones, and for the nest we chose ready-made hollows of a large motley or white-backed woodpecker,” – the representative of the fund specified.

At the same time, Kalinicheva noted that this woodpecker was noticed by scientists a year ago in Losiny Island. Despite the name, the Syrian woodpecker is not a “refugee” at all and has Russian “citizenship”: its area includes the south of the Bryansk, Voronezh, Volgograd regions, as well as the Rostov Region, the Krasnodar Territory and Kalmykia.

Syrian woodpeckers can be recognized by higher and soft cries, and the “drum roll” is twice as long as those of other woodpeckers. Birds nest in hollows, hollowing out each year a new one. Most often their houses can be found at a height of one to six meters. About half of the diet of the bird is plant food, and favorite delicacy is stone fruits.

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