Order Copepods. Brief description of the squad

The order includes medium and large-sized aquatic birds that feed on fish. Only copepods among modern birds have a paw, all 4 toes of which are connected by one membrane. The back finger is turned slightly forward and inward. Their legs are generally short, but can be strong, as in pelicans and cormorants, or so weak, as in frigate birds, that they can neither walk on land nor swim.

In cormorants and darters, the legs are carried far back, which causes almost vertical landing birds on the ground or on a tree. The beaks of copepods are varied. They are either straight, almost conical, sharp, or with a hook at the end, or, finally, wide, flattened, with a highly extensible, non-feathered skin throat sac. The tails of copepods are also varied. Pelicans have a short, rounded, soft tail, cormorants and darters have a long, stepped, hard tail, gannets have a long, wedge-shaped tail, frigates have a forked tail, with greatly elongated outer tails, and finally, phaetons have a long, stepped, with elongated middle tails. The plumage is dense, rigid and (with the exception of pelicans) fits tightly to the body.

Australian pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus) from the order Copepods. Photo: Lip Kee

Down grows on both pterilia and apteria; apteria are narrow. In those species that cannot dive, the skeleton is highly pneumatic; air cavities are present in almost all bones. There is also a good network of subcutaneous air sacs. Copepods have a very small, vestigial tongue. Their esophagus and stomach are highly extensible, which allows them to swallow large prey. All copepods are monogamous birds, settling in colonies, often very large, sometimes together with other birds, such as herons. Colonies are located near water, but in the most marine, but flightless birds. They dived well, and their wing turned into a kind of flipper. They lived on both sides of the Pacific Ocean in the northern hemisphere in the Upper Oligocene - Middle Miocene. The closest related order of copepods are the tubenoses.

Copepods inhabit the coasts of oceans and seas, the banks of large rivers and lakes almost throughout the globe, with the exception of the polar regions. In Russia there are representatives of 2 families: cormorants (6 species) and pelicans (2 species); the most numerous colonies of cormorants and pelicans are located on the coasts of the Caspian and Aral seas; large colonies of cormorants are in the Far East (Pacific coast).

Copepods feed mainly on fish. Cormorants and darters swim and dive beautifully; gannets and chaises dive, rushing into the water from a flying start (they swim reluctantly); Pelicans swim well, but cannot dive. Pelicans, frigate birds and gannets are capable of soaring. On the ground, most copepods move poorly. Nests are usually near the water (for cormorants - on trees and rocks; for pelicans - on reed-covered shallows). Copepods nest in large colonies.
Females and males incubate; The chicks hatch blind and naked and grow slowly. On some tropical islands, guano deposits form at the sites of copepod colonies. In the south, cormorants in some places harm fisheries, and in some places they are hunted in small numbers (meat is used).

In copepods, the three front and fourth hind fingers, directed forward, are connected by membranes. Other waterfowl, tubenoses, ducks, gulls, guillemots, and loons have only three front toes with membranes or, like grebes, edged with leathery plates. The tongue is small and underdeveloped. The esophagus and stomach, stretching, accommodate a lot of fish.

Nests in trees, rocks, on the ground. Monogamous. Pelicans apparently form pairs for life. Females and males are similar in appearance, except for frigatebirds and darters. They incubate in turns. Cormorants - 23-25 days, pelicans - 30-40, phaetons and frigates - 40-50. In a clutch there is one egg (frigates and phaetons), 1-3 (gannets), 2-5 (pelicans) and 3-5 (cormorants). The type of development is nestling. Sexual maturity at 3-4 years of age. Small chicks are fed semi-digested food, and later fish. Pelicans - 3-4 months, phaetons - up to 5, and frigates - even 6-11 months. Frigate chicks do not leave their nests for 4-5 months.

Medium height, about the size of a crow, and very large birds: 300 - 700 grams (phaetons) and up to 9-14 kilograms (pelicans). Wingspan up to 3.15 meters.

Copepods are widely distributed throughout the world. They live in colonies on the coasts of oceans and seas, as well as fresh water bodies. Nests are made in trees, bushes, rocks or directly on the ground. Most copepods are good fliers; many use gliding and soaring flight. Some species of copepods are good swimmers and divers. They feed mainly on fish, being a natural regulator of the fish stock.

All copepods are monogamous birds. Both parents take part in building nests, incubating eggs and feeding chicks. A full clutch contains from 1 to 6 eggs. The chicks hatch naked and helpless, feeding on semi-digested food from the mouths of their parents. They begin nesting at 3–4 years of age.

Often, entire deposits of guano - bird droppings, which are tens of times more effective than manure when used in agriculture, accumulate on secluded sea islands. Guano is produced mainly by three species of copepods: the Peruvian cormorant, the Peruvian gannet and the brown pelican.

There are six families in the order Copepods

Pelicans: 7-8 species. Fresh waters and sea coasts of Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and America.

Cormorans or cormorants: 25-30 species. Fresh waters and sea coasts of countries almost all over the world.

Phaetons: 3 types. Islands and coasts of the tropics and subtropics.

Gannets: 9 species. Islands and coasts of the temperate zones of the North Atlantic, extreme southern Africa, Australia, tropical islands.

Frigates: 5 types. Islands and coasts of the tropics and subtropics around the world.

Anhingas or anhingas: 2 types. The American anhinga lives in the fresh waters of the extreme southern United States, Central and South America and the Old World anhinga of Africa, India, Indochina, Indonesia and Australia.

This family includes birds with a dense, ridged body and a long neck. The beak is of medium length, in some cases cylindrical with a pronounced hook at the end (subfamily of cormorants), in others straight and pointed (subfamily of darters). The legs are short, set far back, the tail is long, the wings are short, wide, rounded at the end. The plumage is mostly black with a metallic sheen. Some species have white underparts.

Representatives of the family inhabit the shores of inland freshwater bodies of water, as well as seas. They nest in a variety of conditions, placing nests on rocks, trees, reeds, or simply on a flat section of the coast. The chicks are born blind and naked, only later becoming covered with down. At the age of 7-8 weeks, the young begin to fly.

Cormorants change plumage twice a year. At the beginning of the year, an incomplete, prenuptial molt occurs. Complete, postnuptial molting begins at the very beginning of summer and lasts until late autumn.

The main food of cormorants is fish, which they obtain by diving.

The family has a very wide, cosmopolitan distribution. Birds inhabiting temperate and cold latitudes are migratory; species and populations inhabiting hot countries are sedentary.

The family is divided into 2 subfamilies: actually cormorants(Phalacrocoracinae) with 2 genera and 26 species (in addition, 31 fossil species and 1 species that became extinct in the last century) and anhingas(Anhinginae) with 1 genus and 1 species (6 more fossil species).

Cormorant(Phalacrocorax carbo) is a large bird: it weighs about 3 kg, its wing length is 33-38 cm. Females are only slightly smaller than males. The adult bird has black plumage with a metallic greenish-violet sheen and wide dark blue borders on some groups of feathers on the upperparts. There is a wide white half-ring on the underside of the head. The bare parts of the head are yellow, the bare ring around the eye is greenish-brown. The legs are black, the beak is brownish-black. During mating time, elongated thin feathers appear on the back of the head, and a large white spot appears on the sides of the belly above the lower leg.

The great cormorant is very widespread. It is found as nesting grounds in Europe (north to the Kola Peninsula), in Asia (north no further than northern Kazakhstan and Lake Baikal). Its nesting area extends from Asia south to Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. It nests in many places in Africa, except for the Sahara, of course. In the Western Hemisphere, the great cormorant nests only in Greenland, although not so long ago it also inhabited northeastern North America. In the northern and southernmost (New Zealand) parts of its range, the great cormorant is migrant, in warm latitudes it leads a sedentary lifestyle. In the Soviet Union, cormorants can be found in winter only in the southernmost parts of the country: in the Crimea, Transcaucasia, Turkmenistan, etc. Cormorants winter in the Mediterranean, North Africa south to the Cape Verde Islands. In South Asia they lead a sedentary lifestyle.

Cormorants appear at nesting sites in our country early, with the first warming, for example in the Volga delta, sometimes even in February, more often, however, in March. If cold weather returns, the cormorants fly back. In Western Europe they sometimes appear even in January, most often in February.

Great cormorants are monogamous birds; they arrive at their nesting sites in pairs, which they form, apparently, for their entire lives. Most birds begin nesting for the first time at the age of 3 years, some even later - at the age of four or even five. Still immature two-year-old birds still return to their native colony and stay there together with adult nesting birds.

Cormorants always nest near water bodies rich in fish. These could be rivers, lakes, seashores. There are many cormorants in the deltas of large rivers. It’s amazing how diverse the places where a cormorant can build a nest are. In many cases these are trees. However, in treeless areas, cormorants place nests in the creases of reed thickets. Often nests can be found in coastal cliffs and rocks. Sometimes cormorants make nests on a flat piece of land. For example, in the Aral Sea there is a small uninhabited island of Komsomolsky, on this island there is a shallow lake, and in this lake there are flat sandy islands on which cormorants nest in large numbers - thousands of pairs. Sometimes they nest on very small islands near the coastal cliffs of the sea.

Having chosen a place suitable for placing a large colony, cormorants stick to it for decades and in many cases centuries. But if a place does not present any special advantages over neighboring ones, and the feeding conditions are the same everywhere, nesting sites may change. In trees, cormorants sometimes capture the nests of herons, but usually they make nests themselves.

When constructing a nest, the cormorant first makes its base from thicker sticks and large branches, and places thinner, often even green, branches with leaves higher up. The result is a turret with a height of 50 to 100 cm. These turrets are often located close to each other, and if they are made on a small saxaul tree, then the result is a large multi-cavity mound, from which dry branches of a dead tree protrude in places. Both parents build the nest and, apparently, on an equal footing; sometimes the male is more diligent in carrying building material. In the early morning, groups of birds fly out to collect nesting material. It happens that they take a liking to only one particular tree, which is densely seeded and together they tear off its branches and leaves. As a rule, during one flight a bird brings only one branch in its beak. On occasion, the cormorant does not hesitate to steal a branch from someone else's nest.

Eggs are laid during April, May, and June. In Western Europe, there are cases when birds laid eggs in August - September. There is one clutch per year and only if it is destroyed can there be a new, additional one.

A full clutch usually contains 5 oval-elongated eggs of a pale brownish-green color. However, it is difficult to recognize this color, since the eggs on top are contaminated with a thick layer of droppings. The sizes of the eggs vary, but on average they are 64 X X 39.5 mm. In almost every clutch you can find an egg that differs sharply from others in its small size. In a number of colonies, it was noted that in clutches, especially those containing 5-6 eggs, one of them is unfertilized.

Both members of the nesting pair incubate the eggs. The duration of incubation, according to observations in the Volga delta, is 28-29 days. In Western Europe, incubation periods are shorter - 23-24 days.

Sometimes local conditions can influence the timing of incubation. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, for example, it has been noted that tree-nesting cormorants begin laying eggs approximately 2 weeks earlier than ground-nesting cormorants. The latter are delayed by the snow cover that has not yet completely melted by that time.

The chicks hatch naked and blind. Their eyes open on the 3rd-4th day, and at the age of about 2 weeks, thick brownish-black fluff grows. At the same time, flight and tail feathers begin to grow. At approximately seven weeks of age, young cormorants leave the nest. However, they tend to crawl out of the nest much earlier, and then they climb branches or wander around the nest. At the age of 12-13 weeks, young birds become completely independent. After this, the cormorants first gather in small flocks and roam close to the nesting sites. Then the flocks become larger and larger and the flight begins.

In the Caspian Sea, in the second half of summer, a curious phenomenon of birds migrating to the north is observed. Cormorants, nesting on the eastern shore of the sea, fly along this shore with delays on the Mangystau Islands to the northern shores of the sea, almost to the Volga delta, and only later, having fed on fish-rich places in the delta front, they fly south, now along the western shores of the sea.

Cormorants can swim, dive excellently, and fly not so bad, but they do not resort to soaring flight. On the ground, cormorants are held almost vertically and walk with some difficulty.

Cormorants are true ichthyophages. Their food is fish, which varies from place to place. In our waters, cormorants eat gobies, roach, etc. In other places, cormorants eat herring and can, on occasion, grab young sturgeon. Very rarely, in the stomach of a cormorant, you can find mollusks, insects, amphibians and even some plants that apparently accidentally got there. A completely unusual phenomenon was observed in the Danube Delta: cormorants grabbed and swallowed swallows flying low over the water.

Where there are many cormorants, it is easy to observe their collective hunt for fish. During the hunt, the noise is unimaginable: the flapping of wings, the constant splash of water, croaking. Birds dive, emerge, flapping their wings, the rear ones fly over the flock to its “head”, overtaking others, and those who have become rear ones rush to become the front ones again. This school is trying to keep up with the school of fish it is pursuing. And then you can see cormorants calmly sitting on the shore with open wings. They dry their plumage. Previously, cormorants hunted for fish together with non-diving pelicans.

The daily food intake of cormorants was estimated differently, but in many books it was exaggerated. Now it can be considered established that the average daily food intake is 300-400 g of fish. Special studies show that the harm from cormorants is not as great as it might seem at first glance. But still, cormorants should not be allowed to reproduce excessively. Therefore, the number of cormorants is regulated annually in the Astrakhan Nature Reserve. In this case good help a person is rendered by a gray crow. She, one might say, wraps the cormorant around her finger. The crow sits very close to the incubating bird and “teases” it, as if trying to attack. The cormorant is stronger than the crow. He tries to hit her with his beak, and he almost succeeds. The crow, however, is obsessive, and the cormorant finally rises to its feet to deal the finishing blow to it. That's all the crow needs. She calmly flies to the side, while her partner, who was quietly guarding the cormorant from behind, picks up the egg from under the carelessly rising bird with his beak and flies away with it.

Cormorants change plumage twice a year. Their complete molt occurs in the summer; it begins during nesting, in May, and ends in September - October. Incomplete molting occurs in wintering grounds, in December - January. During this molt, the birds grow white breeding feathers.

Cormorant meat is edible, but tough. It must be cooked for a long time, after removing the skin. Young birds are more tender, and

When fishermen go fishing, they visit the nesting sites available to them in order to collect the already grown chicks.

The smallest cormorant is called the small cormorant (Ph. pygmaeus). Its weight is about 800 g. In addition to its small size, it is also well recognized by the presence of brown teardrop-shaped spots on the ventral side of the body. Breeds on the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor. In the USSR, it nests in the Crimea, in some places on the Caspian and Aral seas and at the mouth of the Ili River.

The flightless Galapagos cormorant (Nannopterum harrisii) lives in the Galapagos Islands. Its dimensions are large, and its wings are underdeveloped and unsuitable for flight. It is curious that this bird, unlike its flying counterparts, does not dry out its wings after a long dive.

Perhaps the largest cormorant is Steller's cormorant(Phalacrocorax perspicillatus), named after the naturalist Steller,

who first discovered this bird on Bering Island in 1774. Birds used to be numerous there. Its numbers quickly decreased, and in the 80s of the last century the Steller cormorant disappeared. We do not have exact information, but, apparently, the Steller's cormorant could not fly.

Anhingas They differ sharply from cormorants with a straight, pointed beak, a longer neck and a longer tail. They live exclusively in inland freshwater bodies. In the darter subfamily there are 4 species of birds belonging to the same genus.

In the Indian darter(Anhinga melanogaster) the color of the plumage is dark, sometimes brown, sometimes almost black with a transverse streaky pattern. The throat is lighter. A white stripe runs from the eye along the neck on both sides. The shoulder feathers are long and pointed. The tail is long, hard, stepped.

The Indian darter inhabits South Asia from India to Sulawesi. It sticks to fresh waters - rivers, lakes, reservoirs. Less common near the sea in the estuaries of large rivers.

This is a social bird; it stays in large groups all seasons of the year and often joins in common flocks with cormorants, with which (as well as herons) it often forms joint colonies.

Anhinga nests are placed in trees and used for a number of years. The clutch contains 3-4 oval-elongated eggs. Eggs are laid at different times, depending on the timing of the monsoons: in some cases in January - February, in others - from July to August.

The darter is an exceptionally good swimmer and diver. Usually it swims slowly so that its body is submerged under water and only its head and neck are visible from the outside. The neck constantly bends from side to side and twists, which is very reminiscent of the movements of a snake. Having noticed a fish, the bird dives after it, and if the fish is caught, and this is usually the case, then, having emerged, the darter throws the prey into the air and then swallows it. After a long dive, the bird sits on a tree and, spreading its wings wide, dries them.

a brief description of squad

The copepod order consists of large and medium-sized birds with varied body shapes. Pelicans reach the largest sizes. The weight of the Dalmatian pelican reaches 13 kg, body length - up to 1800 mm, wingspan - up to 3000 mm, wing length - up to 770 mm. The smallest sizes are in the phaetons (not represented in our fauna), which are equal in size to the glaucous gull. In our fauna, the smallest representative of copepods is the small cormorant. Its weight is 800 g, body length reaches 550 mm, wing length - up to 200 mm. Males are larger than females, especially among pelicans.
Beaks various shapes: in some birds (pelicans) it is very long, 4-5 times the length of the head, strongly flattened, especially in the apical half, and ending in a sharply curved downward hook. Others (cormorants, frigate birds) have a long beak, but not exceeding twice the length of the head and not flat. The beak is concave in the middle part and ends, like in pelicans, with a sharply curved downward hook. The rest of the copepods - gannets, phaetons, darters - have a conical beak, slightly curved down in the apical half, but without an apical hook. The nostrils are not through (the exception is phaetons). In pelicans and phaetons, the external openings of the nostrils are developed normally; in cormorants and frigatebirds these openings are greatly reduced, and in gannets they are completely absent. The rhamphotheca is complex, consisting of several horny plates, but in older birds they usually merge into a monolithic horny cover. The nostrils are not through (with the exception of phaetons).
Plumage in copepods it is thick (with the exception of pelicans), hard and tight to the body. There is usually no side trunk of feathers (only frigate birds have a poorly developed side trunk). Down evenly covers the entire body, distributed throughout both pterilia and apteria. The apteria are poorly developed: the dorsal and ventral ones are represented by narrow stripes, with the exception of pelicans, in which one dorsal apteria is developed. The coccygeal gland is well developed and feathered. On the head, many species have elongated decorative feathers that form crests, which develop mainly during the mating season. They appear in December - January and disappear in June - July. Some birds, for example, the Dalmatian pelican, have elongated feathers not only on the head, but also along the upper side of the neck, forming a “mane,” and darters also have such feathers on the back. During the mating season, white lanceolate or teardrop-shaped feathers appear on the head, neck, and sometimes on the body of cormorants. The front parts are exposed to varying degrees and only in phaetons are fully feathered. There is a throat pouch, which is especially extensible and reaches enormous sizes in pelicans. This bag, with the exception of phaetons, is naked or partially feathered.
Coloring the plumage is usually dark, often black with a metallic sheen, or white with a pink or gray tinge. The primary flight feathers are always dark. Sexual dimorphism there is no plumage in color, with the exception of frigates; but there are large seasonal and age-related changes. Some species, for example, cormorants, wear their mating plumage for a very long time - up to six months or more. Young birds don full adult plumage only in the 3rd or 4th year of life. The downy plumage of the chick is dark in some species, and light in others. Adult birds usually have two moults a year: partial (prenuptial) and complete (postnuptial). The change of flight feathers occurs gradually, so that birds do not lose the ability to fly, with the exception of darters, in which all flight feathers immediately fall out, and the birds cannot fly for some time. There are 11 primaries, and only gannets have 10. The wing is aquintocubital. The wing formula is very diverse.
Tail consists of 12-24 tail feathers of different shapes and lengths. Pelicans have a short, rounded, soft tail and consist of 20-24 tail feathers; in cormorants and darters the tail is long, stepped and consists of 12-14 rigid tail feathers; in gannets it is long, wedge-shaped and formed from 12-18 rudders; in frigates it is forked, the outer pair of tail feathers is greatly elongated and has only 12 feathers; phaetons also have 12 steering wheels, but one middle pair is greatly lengthened.
The tarsus is short, especially in frigates and phaetons, and only in frigates is it feathered; in other representatives of the order it is bare, usually reticulated. The back toe is level with the other toes and points forward. All four fingers are connected by a swimming membrane.
The legs of species that dive and swim well (cormorants, darters) are shifted far back, as a result of which their torso occupies an almost vertical position when walking and sitting. In pelicans and gannets, the legs are located closer to the middle part of the body. The frigate's legs are so weak, short and with underdeveloped swimming membranes that it moves with difficulty on land and in water. Phaetons have weak and short legs, but with a full membrane; They have difficulty moving on land, but can swim.
Anatomical features. The skull is holorhinal, of a transitional type between schizognathic and desmognathic, with the exception of phaetons; basipterygoid processes are not developed. The vomer is present only in phaetons and frigates, while in other representatives of the order it is not developed. The skull is characterized by the strong development of ridges that serve to attach well-developed masticatory and cervical muscles. The number of cervical vertebrae varies among different representatives of the order. Frigates and phaetons have 14-15, gannets and pelicans - 16, cormorants - 12, darters - 19-20. The cervical vertebrae in most species (gannets, darters, cormorants, etc.) are adapted, due to the special structure of their articular surfaces, for a sharp push forward when grasping prey. So, the front part of the neck can only bend forward, the middle part can bend backward, and the last part can bend forward again. Thus, when the bird is in a calm state, the neck takes an S-shaped position.
The shape of the thoracic vertebrae is different: in cormorants and gannets it is opisthocoelous, in phaetons and frigatebirds it is heterocoelous. The sternum of cormorants, pelicans, and frigatebirds is wide, almost square. Pelicans are slightly wider than they are long; in gannets it is rather narrow and very elongated. In birds that dive well, for example, cormorants, gannets and others, the angle of connection of the ribs with the sternum is sharper than in non-diving or poor diving birds. This connection of the ribs to the sternum allows good diving birds to breathe more freely under water. The connection of the sternum with the fork is different: in pelicans and frigatebirds, complete fusion occurs between these bones, and in frigatebirds the fork is immovably fused with the coracoid bones. Other species have a movable connection between the clavicle and the sternum using connective tissue ligaments. The pelvis of species that dive well, for example, gannets, is highly elongated; in pelicans, frigate birds and phaetons it is short and wide; in cormorants it is of medium length.
Skeleton pneumatic, the pneumaticity of the skeleton is especially developed in pelicans, gannets and frigate birds, in which air cavities are present in almost all bones. In cormorants and other species that dive and swim under water, the pneumaticity of the skeleton is weakly expressed: air cavities are present only in a few bones. Pelicans, gannets and phaetons have a well-developed network of subcutaneous branches of the air sacs, which form an air-bearing layer, especially pronounced on the ventral surface of the body.
The nasal glands are poorly developed, and the salivary glands are completely absent. The language is rudimentary. The esophagus, glandular and muscular stomach are easily stretched, which allows the bird to swallow large prey. The glandular stomach contains a very large number of digestive glands, as well as the pyloric region. The intestine is long, the cecum is usually rudimentary, only in pelicans they reach 50 mm in length. Digestion and absorption of food occurs quickly.
The carotid artery in cormorants, frigatebirds and phaetons is paired, in pelicans and darters there is only one left one; in gannets it is the right one. The abductor muscle is present in cormorants, gannets and frigate birds; it is absent in pelicans and phaetons. The pectoralis major muscle usually consists of two layers. The exceptions are cormorants and phaetons, in which this muscle consists of only one layer. Body temperature from 39.7° to 42.2°.
Lifestyle. Copepods are diurnal birds, closely associated with water, mainly with seas and oceans, and to a lesser extent with inland bodies of water. They settle mainly on coasts: either rocky or covered with trees or reeds.
Most species are excellent fliers, and some are able to soar (pelicans, gannets, frigate birds); Phaetons and cormorants have an active, rowing flight. All of them swim well, with the exception of the frigate. Some species are good at diving and swimming underwater, such as cormorants. Gannets, chaises and brown pelican P. Occident alts diving into the water from a flying start; Pelicans and frigates do not dive at all and have difficulty rising into the air from a flat surface.
I'm eating Copepods are mainly fish; Anhingas also feed on aquatic invertebrates. The methods of obtaining food are very diverse: pelicans, with the exception of the brown pelican, capture fish with their beaks, like a scoop, swimming in shallow water; cormorants - diving from the surface of the water and swimming underwater; gannets, chaises and brown pelicans - rushing from the fly into the water and plunging at the same time to a fairly large depth. Frigates grab fish swimming close to the surface of the water or flying fish; sometimes they take prey from other birds. Pelicans and cormorants often fish in schools, sometimes independently, and sometimes joining together in common schools.
Copepods usually nest in colonies and even outside the breeding season they often live in flocks. Colonies are always located near water. Nests are made in trees, on bushes, on rocks, on the ground among reed thickets, on floating islands, etc. Even within the same species, there is great diversity in the location of nests. Birds occupy the same nests for a number of years. The breeding period - incubation and feeding of chicks - is long and takes 3-4 months.
Socket device very simple. The building material is twigs, branches, algae, reeds, etc. The nest is shallow, with a small amount of soft lining in the tray. Some species of gannets and phaetons do not build nests at all, but lay eggs directly on the ground without bedding. Large amounts of bird droppings accumulate in areas where copepod nests are located. Drying on the surface, the droppings cement the nests.
Eggs in clutch pelicans usually have 2-4, cormorants and darters 3-6, frigatebirds and phaetons 1, and gannets 1-2. The eggs, relative to the size of the birds, are small, uniformly bluish or greenish, covered with a thick calcareous layer. Phaetons have colorful eggs. Both parents participate in the construction of the nest, incubation and feeding of the chicks.
Hatching period for cormorants it is 28-30 days, for pelicans it is 33-40 days. The chicks hatch completely helpless - naked and blind. The eyes open on the 3-5th day, on the 5-8th day down begins to appear, which after a few days thickly covers the entire body of the chick. At first, the parents feed the chicks with semi-digested food, which they regurgitate directly into their mouths. The water brought by the parents is also poured into the chick's mouth. The chicks feed 2-3 times a day, quickly gain weight and usually by the end of feeding they reach the weight of their parents and even exceed it. Breastfeeding period for cormorants it lasts 40-45 days, for pelicans and gannets - 50-60 days. By this time, the chicks have almost completely put on their first outfit and are able to fly. Some species, for example, gannets, stop feeding their chicks long before they fledgling.
After the end of the nesting period, young and old birds gather together and migrate, sometimes moving long distances from the nesting site. But only pelicans can be considered real migratory birds. Cormorants partially fly away and partially migrate from their nesting sites to areas of non-freezing waters where fishing is possible. Northern species of gannets, like cormorants, are semi-migratory, semi-nomadic birds. Most species of copepods are sedentary.
Geographical distribution. Copepods inhabit sea and ocean coasts and islands of all parts of the world; A small number of species live in inland freshwater reservoirs and rivers. The largest number of species is found in the subtropics and tropics, only individual species— in the Arctic and Antarctic. Among copepods there are a large number of species with a narrow distribution. Species with a wide distribution usually have huge gaps in their range.
Of the 54 species of copepods, 11 are found in the CIS, of which 8 are nesting and 3 are occasional migrants, a total of 20.4%. Our nesting species belong to the pelican family (2 species) and the cormorant family (6 species); and vagrants - 2 to the gannet family (northern gannet and red-footed booby) and 1 to the frigate family (great frigatebird). The Phaeton family is not represented at all in our fauna.
The distribution of copepods for nesting in our country is as follows: I - Arctic zone, coastal subzone - Phalacrocorax pelagicus, Phalacrocorax aristotelis aristotelis, Phalacrocoraxcarbo carbon, Phalacrocorax urile extends beyond the subzone (Commander Islands); II - zone of open dry spaces, steppe subzone (lake part of Western Siberia and Kazakhstan) and semi-desert and desert subzone (reservoirs) - Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis, Phalacrocorax pygmaeus, Phalacrocorax aristotelis desmarestii, Pelecanus crispus and Pelecanus onocrotalus and III - mountain zone, high-mountain boreoalpine subzone - Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis.
Practical significance. In some places, copepods cause harm to fisheries by eating commercially important fish, mainly of medium size. Birds inhabiting freshwater bodies are especially harmful. Fresh copepod meat is not tasty, but canned meat is quite suitable for consumption. Their skins are tanned and sent to the market as “bird fur”, suitable for small warm clothes (collars, caps, hats, etc.).
Large concentrations of birds on land during the breeding season in dry climates contribute to the accumulation of guano, which is of great importance as a fertilizer. Huge accumulations of guano are located on the coast of Peru between 5° and 19° south. sh., in Patagonia, along the shores of the Caribbean Sea and on the islands off the western coast of South Africa. The guano accumulations belong predominantly to the American brown pelican Pelecanus occidentalis, cormorant Phalacrocorax bougainvillei and booby Sula variegata.
Fossils(47 species are known) copepods are found in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Australia and on the islands of Sumatra and Mascarene. Species close to modern pelicans are described from the Upper Oligocene of France, the Eocene of England, and the Cretaceous and Eocene of Yugoslavia. An extinct pelican was described in the CIS from the vicinity of Odessa from the Lower Pliocene Pelecanus odessanus. Representatives of phaetons, frigatebirds, gannets, darters and cormorants, already close to modern species, are known from the Pleistocene. The gannet genus emerged in the Oligocene and is most richly represented in the Miocene of South America. The genus of cormorants has been known since the beginning of the Pliocene. The darter was found in fossil form in the Pliocene of Hungary - Anchinga pannonica.
The genus is described from the CIS Pliocarbo, close to cormorants, found in excavations near Odessa in the Pontic limestones of the Lower Pliocene. In the middle of the last century, the Steller's cormorant became extinct Phalacrocorax perspicillatus, who lived sedentary on the island. Bering. In 1741, according to the description of Steller, who first discovered this cormorant, it was numerous on the island, but in 1883 there was no longer a single bird here. Probably, extermination by humans, as well as, possibly, the occurrence of a severe epizootic, caused the death of these birds. The Steller's cormorant SPAL is much larger than the great cormorant: the length of the beak reached 95 mm, the size of the short, poorly developed wings did not exceed 360 mm. The latter circumstance makes it possible to assume that the Steller's cormorant flew worse than living cormorants.

Literature: G. P. Dementyev, N. A. Gladkov, E. S. Ptushenko, E. P. Pangenberg, A. M. Sudilovskaya. Birds of the Soviet Union. Volume I, Moscow, 1951

Cormorant - order Copepods, family Cormorantidae

Great cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus). Habitat - North America Wingspan 1.3 m Weight - 1.2-2.5 kg

There are more than twenty species of cormorants. The English name for the cormorant is “cormorant”, meaning “greedy”, “glutton”. Although the daily norm for a great cormorant is only 300-400 grams of small fish, such an unseemly name is obviously explained by the fervor with which a flock of cormorants pursues prey.

White-tailed chaise

Phaeton - detachment Copepods, family Phaetons

White-tailed phaethon (Phaethon lepturus). Habitat - Tropics of the Pacific and Indian Oceans Wingspan 0.9-1 m Weight 0.3-0.4 kg.

In Greek mythology, Phaeton is the son of Helios, the sun god. These birds are also children of the sun: they are common only in tropical latitudes and spend most of their lives above the waves of the ocean. Phaetons fly well without resting for a long time.

Darter

Anhinga - order Copepods, family Anhingas

American Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga). Habitat: North and Central America. Wingspan 1.17 m Weight 1.4 kg

The long necks of darters really look like snakes. There are only four such types of birds. All are dimly colored. The plumage is decorated only with white streaks on the back and on the upper part of the wings.

Gannet

Gannet - order Copepods, family Gannets

Northern gannet (Sula bassana). Habitat - North Atlantic Wingspan 1.5 m Weight 3-3.5 kg

Gannets are excellent fishermen. They can live in the open sea for months. The instinct of reproduction forces them to return to the shore.

Pelican - order Copepods, family Pelicanidae

Red-billed pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos). Habitat - North America Wingspan 2.5-3 m Weight 4.5-9 kg

They live in shallow waters, where it is easier for them to get food - fish. Many species hunt collectively, driving prey aground, deftly picking it up with a net-like beak and placing it in the throat pouches.

The beaks of copepods are varied. They are either straight, almost conical, sharp, or with a hook at the end, or, finally, wide, flattened, with a highly extensible, non-feathered skin throat sac. The tails of copepods are also varied. Pelicans have a short, rounded, soft tail, cormorants and darters have a long, stepped, hard tail, gannets have a long, wedge-shaped tail, frigates have a forked tail, with greatly elongated outer tails, and finally, phaetons have a long, stepped, with elongated middle tails.

The plumage is dense, rigid and (with the exception of pelicans) fits tightly to the body. Down grows on both pterilia and apteria; apteria are narrow.

In those species that cannot dive, the skeleton is highly pneumatic; air cavities are present in almost all bones. There is also a good network of subcutaneous air sacs.
Copepods have a very small, vestigial tongue. Their esophagus and stomach are highly extensible, which allows them to swallow large prey.

All copepods are monogamous birds, settling in colonies, often very large, sometimes together with other birds, such as herons. Colonies are located near water, but in a wide variety of conditions. Nests are made in trees, bushes, rocks, reed thickets or directly on the ground. Both the male and the female build them, incubate the eggs and feed the chicks.
Eggs different types in a full clutch there are from 1 to 6. The chicks hatch naked, blind and helpless. After a few days, their eyes open and thick fluff appears. Parents feed the chicks with semi-digested food. To produce burps, chicks insert their beaks and heads into their parents' mouths.

The postembryonic period is quite long - in pelicans, for example, 50-60 days. They begin nesting at the 3-4th year of life.

Most copepods fly well. Many people use soaring and gliding flight. Some copepods cannot dive, and sometimes even swim. Other species swim and dive well. Phaetons, gannets and frigate birds live exclusively on the seas and oceans. The rest of the copepods live both in the seas and in inland fresh water bodies.

Consumption by cormorants, pelicans and other copepods large quantity fish have always attracted human attention. Fishermen in many areas of the world consider them their competitors. However, special studies using fish tagging have shown that these birds primarily catch sick and dead fish. Therefore, nothing can replace these birds as a natural regulator and health improver of the fish stock. In addition, in some areas, the value of the guano produced by copepods is many times higher than the value of the fish they consume.

On secluded sea islands, millions of cormorants, gannets and pelicans produce huge amounts of droppings that accumulate in layers of many meters. This is the famous guano, which for many years served as the main nitrogenous fertilizer for the land. Western Europe and North America. The use of guano has dramatically increased crop yields.

On small islands near Peru, for example, where the total number of nesting copepods is now estimated at approximately 35 million, guano deposits reached a thickness of 30 m. Even the ancient Incas knew well the value of this treasure. They used guano to fertilize their fields. The nesting places of copepods were carefully guarded, and for visiting them during prohibited times, the violator was subjected to death penalty. Subsequently, after the destruction of the Inca culture by the Spaniards, the guano was forgotten. Only at the beginning of the last century the famous Alexander Humboldt discovered it to the rest of the world. Guano is 33 times more effective than manure. The plunder of guano reserves began, accompanied by the destruction of the nesting colonies of guano-forming birds on an exceptional scale. Flotilla after flotilla went to the islands from Europe and the USA, and at the beginning of this century it was discovered that the nesting sites had been cleared, one might say, to a stone.

In 1909, a semi-public, semi-private society was organized in Peru, which took upon itself the care of the bird islands. No one dared to appear on them without the permission of the society. Nothing should have interfered with the birds' nesting. Airplanes were prohibited from flying over the islands at an altitude below 500 m. Fishing was prohibited near the islands. Ships were not allowed to sound their horns near the islands. Some peninsulas in quiet parts of the coast of Peru and Chile were turned into islands, and new colonies were formed. A real master's concern for the lost treasure began, which fully justified itself. Bird colonies began harvesting guano every two years between April and August, when the chicks had already left the nests.

Mainly 3 species of copepods create guano deposits off the South American islands. These are the Peruvian cormorant, or guanai, the Peruvian gannet and the brown pelican. In 1950, the islands produced almost a quarter of a million tons of guano, not a single kilogram of which was exported. Thanks to this fertilizer, the thin soils of Peru now produce a cotton yield of over 320 kg per hectare, while, for example, in Louisiana (USA) the cotton yield is 55 kg per hectare, in Egypt a little more than 70 kg per hectare.

A lot of guano is also mined off the coast of South Africa, where its main producers are two species of copepods - the Cape cormorant, the Cape gannet, and the spectacled penguin. Special platforms have been built there for nesting of the Cape cormorant for more than 50 years. The total number of nesting Cape cormorants in the late 70s. amounted to about half a million individuals. Moreover, this species is endemic to southern Africa.

The order Copepods as a whole has a cosmopolitan distribution. It includes 56 species of birds belonging to 6 families: phaeton(Phaethontidae), pelicans(Pelecanidae), gannets(Sulidae), cormorants(Phalacrocoracidae), Serpentine(Anhingidae) and frigates(Fregatidae).

Extinct genera of the modern families of frigateidae, phaetonidae, pelicanidae, and darteridae have been known since the Lower Oligocene. True gannets appear from the Oligocene, cormorants - from the Lower Miocene. The order Copepods includes 2 more peculiar extinct families. Family false teeth(Odontopterygidae) were giant gliding birds with a wingspan of 4-6 m. They had teeth on their jaws formed by bony outgrowths. They were widespread throughout the world, from Antarctica to Great Britain and Transcaucasia, from the lower Eocene to the Pliocene. To the family flatwing(Plotopteridae) also included large sea, but flightless birds. They dived well, and their wing turned into a kind of flipper. They lived on both sides of the Pacific Ocean in the northern hemisphere in the Upper Oligocene - Middle Miocene.
The closest related order of copepods are the tubenoses.

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