Is a swan a migratory bird? Where the swan winters: interesting facts and features.

You cannot remain indifferent when you see a flock of swan flying high in the sky; it has some special appeal. These are very beautiful birds, and the red beak and black paws make them especially elegant, emphasizing the whiteness of the feathers. With such a bright appearance, it is not easy for them to hide from prying eyes. Yes, they don’t need that. It is not for nothing that the swan has been the most popular bird among artists, poets and singers since the time of mythology.

1. Flight
2. Brief description of nesting
3. Interesting facts

Swans (Latin name CYGNUS)

Family - Anatidae (ANATIDAE)

Order - Anseriformes

Migratory and non-migratory species. Where do swans winter?

During its life, a swan manages to fly around and see half the world, overcome enormous distances, but always returns to the same places of nesting, wintering and molting. Its distribution areas are in Eurasia, North and South America, Australia and Asia. In short, different species live almost all over the world.

There are 7 species in the world:

• Black swan (CYGNUS ATRATUS)

Range: Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand.

Not a migratory bird.

• Black-necked (CYGNUS MELANOCORYPHUS)

Range: South America.

Wintering areas: Paraguay and southeastern Brazil.

• Mute swan (CYGNUS OLOR)

Range: northern Europe and Asia, Australia and South Africa.

Wintering areas: northern Caspian Sea, Mediterranean, Africa, Asia Minor, Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, India and China.

• Trumpeter Swan (CYGNUS BUCCINATOR)

Habitat: tundra of North America, southern Alaska.

Wintering place: Pacific coast of Canada.

• American (CYGNUS COLUMBIANUS)

Habitat: forest-tundra of North America.

Wintering areas: California coast and Florida.

• Small (CYGNUS BEWICIKII)

Habitat: exclusively on the territory of Russia in the tundra of the European and Asian parts of the country.

Wintering place: they fly to the countries of north-western Europe (Great Britain, France and the Netherlands), as well as to the countries of southern and south-east Asia (China, Japan and Korea) for the winter.

• Whooper swan (CYGNUS CYGNUS) Range: Eurasia;

Wintering areas: in Central and South Asia (India, Caspian Sea) and in the south of the Mediterranean. Only a few of these birds do not fly south, but remain to winter in their homeland, and if they do, it is only if there is a sufficient amount of food and an unfrozen surface of the reservoir chosen for wintering. Winter finds such swans most often in reservoirs and warm water canals of power plants in large cities, where they flock from frozen ponds and rivers.

The main reason for the migration of this bird- lack of food supply in winter and severe frosts.

Swans, like geese and ducks, fly away to their wintering grounds in October–November, the last of the migratory ones, and delay their departure almost until the water bodies freeze completely, when the rivers are already covered with a crust of ice.

Gallery: types of swans (25 photos)

Flight

Swans fly away in flocks; during the flight they form a wedge, which sometimes consists of several hundred birds. On the way, they try to stay along the shore of the reservoir. Swans fly mainly in the morning and afternoon, at an altitude of 50–100 meters. From time to time, the flock makes stops at reservoirs to feed and rest. The swan is the largest flapping bird.

The weight of an adult bird is up to 12 kilograms; a significant weight load on the wing makes it difficult for the bird to take off, and it has to paw through the water for a long time, gaining height. Ornithologists have found that one flock of swan can travel about 3 thousand kilometers in 3 days, making only two stops along the way.

Brief description of nesting

Males and females practically do not differ in appearance, but their coloring is dazzling white, gray or black. Even their voices are the same: shrill, trumpet-like. When the bird is irritated or defending itself, it hisses menacingly at the enemy.

They settle in rivers, lakes, sea lagoons and estuaries heavily overgrown with coastal and aquatic vegetation.

Feeds various parts of aquatic plants (leaves, buds, bulbs, roots), obtaining them from the bottom in shallow water, as well as mollusks, worms, small crustaceans, insects, which are collected on the surface of the water. In terms of their method of obtaining food, swans are in many ways similar to a goose or duck: they lower their heads under the water and place their bodies vertically, so that only the back half of the body remains on the surface of the water.

The nest is built in shallow water in reed thickets of reed stems, with mandatory free access to clean water. This is a rather massive structure, up to 2 meters in diameter and with a tray on top. The inside of the nest, like that of a duck, is lined with grass and down.

• The oldest mute swan was discovered in Denmark; it lived for 40 years. The “long-living record holder” was ringed on February 21, 1970 in northern Germany.
• Bird ringing was invented by the Danes in 1899.
• In Denmark, ringing began in 1928, after the almost complete extermination of the population.
• The bird is the symbol of the state of Western Australia and is depicted on the coat of arms of the city of Canberra, the capital of Australia.
• In Finland it is the national bird.
• In England it was declared the royal bird 600 years ago.

Attention, TODAY only!

Pyroscape

Full of wild, menacing affection,

Mediterranean waves are hitting our ship.

Here the captain stood over the stern:

His whistle blew. Brotherhood with the steam,

It was not without reason that our sail sounded to the wind:

Foaming, the ocean took a deep breath!

We're rushing. Wheels of a mighty machine

They dig the wavy bosom of the abyss.

The sail inflated. The shore has disappeared.

We are alone with the sea waves;

A seagull has just hovered behind us

White, flying between the waters and heavens.

Only in the distance, the ocean dweller,

Like a seagull, its waters are a bird,

Having developed the sail like a large wing,

With the stormy elements in a languid dispute,

A fishing boat rocks in the sea -

The shore disappeared with the shore, gone!

I left many lands behind me;

I endured a lot with my troubled soul

False joys, true evils;

I have solved many rebellious issues,

Before the hands of the Marseilles sailors

Raised the anchor, a symbol of hope!

Since childhood, my heart has been drawn to anxiety

To the free region of the wet God;

I stretched out my greedy hands to her.

Today rewarding my dark passion,

The sickness of the sea meekly spares me:

The foam of health splashes over me!

There is no need, whether it is close or far to the shore!

There is bliss prepared for him in my heart.

I see Thetis: my lot is good

She takes it from an azure urn:

Tomorrow I will see the towers of Libourne,

Tomorrow I will see the earthly Elysium.

Mediterranean Sea, 1844

Evgeniy Abramovich Baratynsky(Boratynsky, 1800-1844) - poet, known primarily for philosophical lyrics. Comrade and interlocutor of Pushkin. The poem “Piroskaf” was written in May 1844 on a ship, on the way from Marseille to Livorno. The poet died in Naples on June 29/July 11, 1844. “Piroskaf” became his penultimate poem.

Notes

Pyroscape- (French pyroscaphe< греч. руr огонь + skaphos судно) - первоначальное название парохода.

Today- now, today.

Thetis- the most famous of the Nereids, sea goddesses, mother of Achilles.

Emlet- takes it out.

Livourna(Livorno) is a port city in the Italian province of Tuscany.

Elysium- in ancient mythology, part of the underworld, where eternal spring reigns; the habitat of heroes and the righteous.

XX All-Russian Olympiad for schoolchildren in literature. 2015

Final stage tasks

Class

I round

Conduct a holistic analysis of the text (prose or poetry - your choice)

Sigismund Krzhizhanovsky

Pen drawing

The director of the Pushkin office, Dolev, felt very tired that day. Four excursions, work with a typist, a response to thirteen urgent letters and, finally, this venerable Pushkin scholar, Professor Grotsyanovsky, plus what’s his name, oh yes, the poet Samoseisky.

The Pushkin scholar needed to collect material about whether Pushkin’s poems about the waters of the Phlegethon originated in the bathhouse or at the well. For a long time, the professor, without letting go of Dolev’s jacket, explained to him that in the wooden bathhouse in the village of Mikhailovskoye, the water could not “shine”, since the bathhouse was a steam room and there was no electric lighting in it; as for the surface of the water in the village well, which, as we reliably know, Alexander Sergeevich stopped several times, then a number of problems arise that require accurate documentation and analysis of materials.

Samoseisky expressed sad bewilderment at the fact that in the museum’s album, which collected literary statements about Pushkin, there is no his poem addressed to Pushkin, published in the newspaper such and such, there, then and precisely about that .

It was already dusk when Dolev heard the sound of a lock clicking downstairs and entered his director’s office, which suddenly became very quiet. Finally, you can get down to your work. Dolev sat for two minutes in silence, placing his hands on the handrails of the chair, then moved closer to the table. He had already been writing for the second week, scribbling and again starting to write an article about the Bronze Horseman. The pen ran along the line.

“...Taking into account the literary and extra-literary influences that pushed Pushkin’s hand during his work on The Bronze Horseman, we must not forget, as everyone usually does, about the possibility of the influence of mythological and heraldic images. Slavic mythology, as is known, became Christianized; The ancient Palaeologian coat of arms of the Russian state received, just in the time of Peter, a new image on its shield: St. George the Victorious on a horse trampling a snake. If you remove the spear, it turns out that the figure of Falconet’s Bronze Horseman and the heraldic figure of St. George the Victorious coincide. What does the pre-Christian myth about George tell us? In ancient times, human sacrifices were made on the altar to the “spirits of the waters.” They tried to appease the waves, threatening to swallow all living things, depicted both on the coat of arms and on the monument with the undulating, sinuous body of a serpent, by throwing people into the sea. But George the Warrior came, trampled the waves, and - as the myth says - human sacrifices were canceled. Thus, if...”

The telephone on the wall rang.

"...in a way, if we take into account that..."

The phone rang again.

"...despite, I would like to say..."

The phone reminded me of itself again. Dolev threw away the pen and went to the receiver: “How, oh yes, yes, yes, I know. An article about Pushkin's drawings? You see, I have my own here scientific work. But, of course, on the other hand, I understand. Um, okay. Five pages on a typewriter? Perhaps. Drawings? I’ll pick this up.”

Before returning to the table, Dolev went into the next hall of the museum. Now, next to the inkwell and a stack of white paper, lay two thick folders with the poet’s numbered drawings.

The clock behind the wall struck seven, then eight, and Dolev was still sitting over the sheets of his favorite folders. They passed in front of him, these careless ink drawings pressed to the edge of the handwritten margins, wanderings of the pen. Here is a lopsided cross and several stems bent around the title “Wanderer”; here is a strange procession, as if made from ink blots by a pen, in the cleft of which a tiny thread was stuck: a drawing for “The Undertaker” - with a long coffin raised upward on the elastic springs of a hearse, with a long whip of the driver and short figures of those seeing off the hearse; and here is a cheerful stroke, torn away from the poet’s signature and suddenly spreading inky wings in steep spirals, turning the stroke into a bird.

But the author of the future article lingered especially long on a mysterious drawing that had attracted his attention many times before: it was an image of a horse raising its front hooves over the edge of a cliff; two hind legs and a tail, like Falconet’s, rested on a stone mortar of the rock; like Falconet, a trampled snake writhed under the horse; as in “The Bronze Horseman”... but there was no Horseman. The poet seemed to emphasize this absence by drawing some semblance of a saddle to the horse’s back, to the yellowish outline of its rearing figure, with ink of a darker shade. Where was the horseman, where did his copper tread sound, and why was the saddle in figure No. 411 empty?

Dolev, concentrating on one thought or another, had the habit of closing his eyes. So it is now. The eyelids were strangely heavy, as if they were pressing on the pupils like lead. He made an effort to open his eyes. What a curiosity? The horse, as before, stood on the profile of a block of stone, but its long muzzle, foreshortened, was turned towards Dolev and the inky dots-eyes were moving. I had to shake off the illusion and rub my eyes, but my hands grew like cast-iron railings into the armrests of the chair, and Dolev could only do one thing: watch.

The horse made a light jump and moved forward at a wide trot. The flat expanse of paper rushed ahead of him like an unfolding scroll. The wavy reptile, freed from under the hooves, grabbed the end of the long ponytail with its mouth, making it seem three times longer. The lynx moved into the quarry. A second - and the horse, like an elastic ball, pushed off from the ground, took off, hit the ground with its hooves again - and then light wings began to quickly grow from its moving shoulder blades, unscrewing from its flat body with inky strokes. The third pair of legs, the air one, came to the aid of the two pairs of legs, and the horse was now rushing high above the lower edge of the sheet, diving into the clouds and emerging from them. Dolev (his pulse pounding more and more often in his temples) could barely keep up with the flight with his eyes.

But then the horse pressed its wings to its heaving sides and slid down. His hooves sharply clicked on the rocky ground, and from under them, a sparkling ray splashed out like a transparent stream. "Hippocrene!" - flashed through Dolev’s mind. The horse, resting, calmly nibbled at the inky black streaks of grass growing from the bottom edge of the scroll. The area stretched into the depths of soft hills, behind the contours of which the top of some mountain could be seen, dressed in light strokes of clouds.

The saddle attached to the horse's back still had no rider.

And then suddenly Dolev felt that he was not alone. To the right and left of his petrified hands were another pair of eyes. One belonged, as he saw it, with a sideways glance, to the out of breath Samoseikin, the other belonged to the venerable Pushkin scholar, Professor Grotsyanovsky. In a moment, both of them found themselves in the drawing, so that they did not have to turn their heads to the shoulder to see them. Both of them were covered in inky spatters of dust; Samoseikin’s tie had slid almost down his back, and his bare, worn, calloused elbows protruded from the torn elbows of the professor’s black frock coat. Now both of them were approaching, the professor from the side of the bridle, the poet from the side of the tail, to the horse, which was peacefully nibbling on the grass. He moved his pointed ears and, raising his narrow head, looked at them with a cheerful, humorous eye. The professor stretched out his hand to the bridle, the poet - to the tail, but at the same moment the horse sharply raised its head and lashed with its quadruple tail. The professor flew up and immediately fell to the ground; the poet, having received a sweeping blow from the tail of a snake that had attached itself to the horse’s tail, flew far back. Both of them stood up and looked with fear at the restive four-hoofed creature.

At the same time, in the depths of the drawing, two human outlines appeared, initially unclear to the eye. They came closer and closer. A minute later it was already possible to discern that one was dressed in a white pleated toga, the other in a black, like a blot, frock coat narrow at the waist and wide bells diverging downwards. The contours followed a serpentine, winding path among laurel bushes and fantastic flourishes of ground cracks. White, now it could be seen, was holding waxed tablets in his left hand, and a steel stylus was gleaming in his right; the black one was waving a whip curved like a comma in the air. The white one sometimes drew something in his tablets, the black one, exposing his white teeth, the color of the paper, with a smile, wrote his thoughts with the sharp tip of a whip directly into the air. And from this, like a black flying cobweb, lines appeared on the white space of the sheet, the lines grew into stanzas and floated between the grasses and the sky, slightly swayed by a weak breath of wind. These were some new poems by the poet, never read by anyone. Grotsyanovsky and Samoseikin first opened their mouths, then rushed headlong towards the lines sliding in the air. But due to the sudden movement of air, these lines lost their contour and blurred, like smoke disturbed by breathing. However, the explorer and poet continued to pursue them. Stumbling over stones, they fell and rose again. Grotsyanovsky, breathing heavily, rummaged in his pockets, looking for a notebook. But she obviously got lost. Samoseikin, taking out the eternal pen, carefully twirled it and, imitating the man in the black frock coat, tried to write his notes in the air. It did not lose its smooth whiteness. Samoseikin’s movements became more feverish and uncoordinated with each passing moment. He looked for the reason for the failure in the simple mechanism of the perpetual pen, shook it, tried to write on his palm: the palm was submissive to his will, but the paper air persisted.

However, soon both of them, carried away by the chase, disappeared behind the inky line of the hill.

Then the horse, which until then had stood almost motionless, lifted its hooves from the ground and, running its legs in circles, approached those two, black and white.

The man in the toga affectionately patted his outstretched neck. The horse, expressing joy, nervously trimmed the air with its ears. Then he walked up to the man in black and laid his head on his shoulder. He, throwing aside the thick stick on which he was leaning, gently hugged the horse’s neck. They stood like that, silently, for a minute, and only by the joyfully burning eyes of the man and by the trembling of the skin on the horse’s neck could their feelings be guessed.

At this time, Samoseikin and Grotsyanovsky appeared again from behind the hill line. They were completely exhausted. Sweat poured from their foreheads. Instead of a frock coat, some scattered black blots hung from the professor’s shoulders. One could remember Samoseikin’s pants “with gratitude: they were.”

Alexander Sergeevich,” the Pushkin scholar groaned in a breathless voice, “a small piece of information, just one piece of information...

Samoseikin was holding a volume in his outstretched hand, probably of his own poems: his gaze silently begged for an autograph.

Alexander Sergeevich, do not refuse, let God pray for you, enrich us with a date, one tiny date: on the night of what date (we know the year), from what day did you deign to write your “It’s time, my friend, it’s time!” uh cetera?!

The man in black smiled. Then he touched the horse's reins and raised his foot into the stirrup. Already sitting in the saddle, he bowed his head to his chest. And his voice, so infinitely dear to the heart and familiar to everyone’s imagination, sounded:

Yes, it's time.

Silence lasted for several seconds. And again his voice:

At night. But I forgot what date it was. Right.

And the last thing Samoseikin, Grotsyanovsky and Dolev saw on his face: a polite, embarrassed smile. The horse flashed its black four hooves - and the vision disappeared.

A persistent knock on the door forced Dolev to wake up. The sun was looking out the window. The clock dial showed the opening hour of the museum. Dolev stood up and cast a quick glance at the drawing of a horse without a rider, lying in the same place, and at the stack of writing paper, untouched by the pen. Having made the necessary orders, the director of Pushkin’s office returned to the stack of paper. He asked not to disturb him until noon. At ten minutes to twelve, a call to the editor informed that instead of an article about Pushkin’s drawings, a fantastic story had turned out. How will the respected editors react to this? The respected editors, represented by the manager, shrugged their shoulders in bewilderment.

Sigismund Dominikovich Krzhizhanovsky(1887-1950) - prose writer, almost all of whose works were published many years after the author’s death (the most complete edition: Collected Works: In 6 volumes. St. Petersburg, 2001-2013). Krzhizhanovsky's experimental prose is compared with the works of romantic writers (E. Poe, E. T. A. Hoffmann), A. Green, H. L. Borges. In the 1920-1930s, he was forced to study literary criticism (articles about Shakespeare, Pushkin, Chekhov).

Notes

Phlegethon - a river of fire in the Underworld, where murderers suffer eternal torment; mentioned by Plato and Dante.

Palaiologists- the last dynasty of Byzantine emperors (1261-1453), borrowed from Byzantium the “ancient Palaeologian coat of arms” - a double-headed eagle, at the end of the 17th century. was combined with the coat of arms of the Moscow kingdom: a horseman killing a snake.

Picture No. 411- this numbering is arbitrary. However, all the drawings described by Krzhizhanovsky are actually in Pushkin’s workbooks.

Hippocrene(gr. Ἵππου κρήνης - horse spring) - in ancient Greek mythology, a magical spring on Mount Helikon, which gushed from the blow of the horse Pegasus’s hoof; source of inspiration for poets.

Stylos(stylo) - V Ancient Greece bronze pointed writing rod on a waxed tablet.

E cetera (lat. et cetera) - and so on.

Vladimir Shchirovsky

For the swans to depart

Once powerful, clear and rich,

The current brisk speed is far away,

Merchants and aristocrats

They built durable mansions.

Hellenism of the hut! Sodomy of the capital!

Nonsense of masquerade unexpected meetings!

Emancipated prison

Vaguely burry Gallic speech!

Liszt in St. Petersburg and Glinka in Madrid,

Pushkin. Construction railways;

But they are still chasing the demon - go away;

But the heraldry department is strict.

After - herds of hairy students

And shakers of different rafters,

Narodnaya Volya divertissements

And Captain Lebyadkin’s ardor...

There was a century - an external student, a rogue, a cripple;

But it appeared in the lap of centuries

Subtle childhood of the twentieth century:

Scriabin, Einstein, Picasso, Gumilev.

Was it worth it, having mastered the stunted eternity,

Singing Dionysus at the pig troughs?

And the students were waiting for heroes

And “Varshavyanka” was squealed loudly.

Today it’s different: it’s hot, the five-year plan

Yes urban southern Russian landscape:

Tubercular acacia branch,

The sun is over the square... But the boredom is still the same.

Ancient boredom leads to the graves,

Wraps your heart in your sheepskin.

Time to say goodbye to the star helm

Under the Apollo flight of swans.

The Apollo flock seems like a dream,

The zenith is hospitable to swans.

The last swan melted away at its zenith,

A passing maiden looks at the sky.

Girl, ah! You are looking at a cloud.

Listen to the bird... I am captivated by you.

Provincial girl! Nice hand

Give the poet a nightmarish time.

Everything would be much more beautiful with you.

I would have grown rich... And in old age, suddenly,

I would burst into song and song

About Sulamith of Russian Kalugas.

July 1931, Kharkov

Vladimir Evgenievich Shchirovsky(1909-1941) - Russian poet, who in the Soviet era was guided by the traditions of the Silver Age. Died in the first months of the Great Patriotic War. During his lifetime he did not publish a single poem. The few surviving works were published in the collection “Dance of the Soul. Poems and poems" (M., 2008).

Notes

Liszt Ferenc(1811-1886) - Hungarian composer, was in St. Petersburg in 1842, 1843 and 1847.

Glinka Mikhail Ivanovich(1804-1857) - composer, considered the founder of the Russian school of composition. In 1844-1847 lived in Spain, wrote the orchestral plays “Aragonese Jota” (1845) and “Night in Madrid” (1851).

Skryabin Alexander Nikolaevich(1872-1915) - Russian composer, considered one of the significant figures in the culture of the Silver Age.

Shulamith(Sulamite) - the beloved of King Solomon, to whom, according to legend, the Old Testament “Song of Songs” (IX-III centuries BC) is dedicated; A. I. Kuprin used the biblical plot in the story “Shulamith” (1908).

[*] Literally: for the heir to the throne (lat.), here: for children's reading.

The flight of a flock of swans high in the sky always attracts our attention. These graceful and majestic birds, which everyone loves to watch in park ponds, often give inspiration to poets and artists. In this article we will talk about where swans winter. And where do they fly away when we follow the swan wedge with our eyes. And not only that. You will find out what species of these beautiful birds winter in Russia.

But first you need to find out what varieties of these beauties exist and what features they have.

Types of swans

Today on our planet there are seven species of these birds, including the black swan, which is listed in the Red Book. More about them below.

Black swan

This is the only species of swans that live in Australia. In addition, magnificent black birds are found naturally in New Zealand and Tasmania. The length of the male ranges from one hundred ten to one hundred and forty centimeters. The wingspan is about two meters, and the weight is about six kilograms.

Ornithologists believe that the black swan can live in different conditions. He adapts very well. If climatic conditions allow, the bird winters where it settled in the summer. Unfortunately, there are very few of these amazing representatives of birds left: in Australia, for example, their population has been destroyed by two-thirds. Since now the black swan is found only in countries with warm climates, it is not migratory bird.

Black-necked swan

This is very As can be understood from the name, it is called so because of the black coloration of the head and neck. All other plumage is snow-white. This is not the most large bird in her family: her weight does not exceed five kilograms. The birds float beautifully on the water, arching their graceful necks.

Today these can be seen in the Moscow Zoo on the ponds of the old territory. Visitors often believe that the black-necked swan is a hybrid of a white and black bird, but this is a misconception. The unusual color is a distinctive feature of this species. Under natural conditions, the bird is found only in South America.

With the arrival of cold weather, she flies to Paraguay or southeastern Brazil, where the black-necked swan winters.

mute swan

When swimming, this graceful bird effectively bends its neck, while keeping its beak and head inclined towards the water. The mute mute's neck is quite thick, and therefore at some distance it appears shorter than that of other species. In flight, the mute bird does not make loud trumpet sounds, and with each flap of its wings you can hear a characteristic creaking sound made by large flight feathers.

The hissing sound, for which the swan got its name, it makes in moments of irritation. Up close, this bird can be easily distinguished from its relatives by the large growth on its forehead. Mute is distributed in southern Europe and Asia from the southern regions of Sweden, Poland, Denmark in the west to China and Mongolia in the east. But even in these territories, the mute bird is quite rare. Where does the mute swan winter? He goes to the north of the Caspian Sea, to the Mediterranean, Africa, Arabia and Iran, India and China, to Afghanistan.

Trumpeter Swan

This is the largest waterfowl. The body length of an adult male ranges from 140 to 165 cm. Its weight can reach 13.5 kg. Having spread his snow-white wings to the sides, he seems like a real giant: their span is 2.5 meters. A distinctive feature of the trumpeter swan is its powerful black beak. The short (relative to the body) legs are also painted black.

The trumpeter gets its name from the characteristic sounds it makes when communicating. They can be heard at quite a distance. This species is common in southern Alaska and North America. Ornithologists have found out where the trumpeter swan winters - this is Canada, more precisely, its Pacific coast.

American swan

This species was once widespread in North America but is now very rare. Surviving individuals can be seen along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of North America, where American swans spend the winter. Representatives of this species are also found in Russia: in Anadyr, Chukotka.

Tundra (small) swan

This swan, as the name suggests, makes its home in the tundra, from Kolyma in the east to the Kola Peninsula in the west, capturing the islands of the Arctic Ocean. This species differs from its closest relatives in having a more sonorous voice. This bird weighs about six kilograms. In mid-November, swans leave their nesting sites and go to northwestern Europe: France, the Netherlands and Great Britain, as well as to southern and southeastern Asia (Japan, Korea, China), where tundra swans spend the winter.

Whooper swan

The most numerous species that nests in the northern regions of Eurasia, from Iceland to Sakhalin, and in the south from northern Japan to the Mongolian steppes. The plumage of the male and female is snow-white. The weight of a male can reach 13 kg. A swimming whooper holds its neck strictly vertically, its wings are pressed tightly to its body, its head is raised and looks straight. Central and South Asia (Caspian Sea, India), the south of the Mediterranean, where the whooper swan winters, is not visited by all individuals: few birds do not go south, but spend the winter in their homeland (if there is a sufficient amount of food and an ice-free reservoir). Their winter, as a rule, finds them in reservoirs and warm water supply systems of power plants.

Where do swans winter in Russia?

There are 4 types of swans in our country:

• Tundra swan. It settles in the tundra and forest-tundra zones, preferring reservoirs from the Kolyma River to the Kola Peninsula. Found in the northern islands.
• Whooper swan. It prefers forest taiga, tundra and forest-tundra, choosing the reservoirs of Kamchatka, and is found in the Baikal region, in the lower reaches of the Volga, and in the northern regions of Kazakhstan.
• Mute swan. It is found from the Far East to Europe, in the Baltic countries, in Transbaikalia.
• American swan. Nesting sites have been recorded in the Far East.

For the winter, most birds migrate to warm regions. The luckiest people in our country are the residents Altai Territory, where swans winter and you can admire their exquisite beauty throughout the year. In the seventies of the last century, a swan reserve was created on two lakes of the Altai Territory - Lebediny and Svetly. It is located near the city of Biysk.

Swans arrive here at the end of November and fly to their permanent nesting sites in early April. In Altai, whooper swans are most often found. During the winter, they feed on plant foods that grow in the lake. In frosty winters, it is usually not enough, so the birds are fed in the reserve. The wintering of graceful birds on the lakes of Altai is supported by the Swan Nature Reserve. Its employees protect the birds, keep records of them, and feed them with grain.

Flight

Swans fly in flocks for the winter; during the migration they form a wedge, which often consists of several hundred birds. On the way, they stay along the shore of the reservoir. Birds fly in the morning and afternoon, at an altitude of about 100 meters. From time to time the flock stops at reservoirs to rest and feed. Ornithologists were able to find out that a flock of swan is capable of covering a distance of more than three thousand kilometers in three days, making only two stops along the way.

In early spring, when ice still covers the water bodies, you can see swans returning from their wintering grounds to their homeland. These birds arrive in the southern regions already in mid-March, and at the end of May swans arrive, which prefer a colder climate. Birds fly to nesting sites in already formed pairs, which are created in wintering grounds; old, pre-existing families are preserved for many years.

After arrival, the pair occupies a fairly large territory, where they obtain food and build a nest. Birds do not like the presence of neighbors in the selected area: on this basis, sometimes clashes between pairs occur. The birds collide with their chests, fiercely beat each other with their wings, rising above the water and accompanying the fight with loud screams.

After about two weeks, the female builds a fairly large nest of branches, reeds, tree branches, grass and other material. The bottom of the nest is lined with dry grass, feathers, down and moss, which the female plucks from the chest and abdomen while laying eggs. The nest is usually located among reeds or reeds, in a dry place, much less often in shallow water.

In mid-summer, swans give birth to offspring, which from the first days of life are able to independently obtain food. The chicks stay together and most often head off to the winter in their entirety. If you accidentally discover a nest with swan chicks, try to leave unnoticed: a swan is a strong and brave bird that desperately protects its offspring, using its wings and beak “in battle.” With a blow from her wing, a female swan can break a person's arm.

We told you what white swans eat and where they winter. These birds are very interesting to watch. And if you are interested in the life and habits of birds, go to the Swan Nature Reserve in the Altai Territory.

The largest waterfowl are swans. People wonder: is it a migratory bird or not and where do the birds fly? Most white individuals are migratory birds. Due to their strong build and wide wings, they do not experience difficulties during long flights to warm countries. They fly away for the winter in a wedge, at the head of which is the strongest individual. In winter, white birds fly to the warm south. They usually spend the winter in the Mediterranean, the Caspian Sea and the South Asian coasts, where other migratory birds tend to go.

Swans are migratory birds

General description of white birds

White swans belong to the duck family, the goose subfamily; their closest relatives are the goose and goose. Most individuals have white feathers. Black and Australian swans have black feathers. The South American bird has almost the entire neck and head black, and the body and base of the neck are white. The wingspan is up to 200 cm. The maximum weight of the bird is about 19-21 kg. The smallest individual weighs -7 kg. The male and female are practically indistinguishable in external characteristics. By species, birds differ in feather color and size.

An interesting feature of white individuals is that they exist as a married couple. The couple is located on some site. The territory where birds settle en masse is no longer as protected by individuals as in a certain area.

In large settlements, handsome whites treat other individuals favorably and calmly. The bird itself is quite patient and balanced. In a comfortable and safe environment, birds swim slowly and are silent. Only in case of danger and conflict do they bite, scream, flap their wings, and strongly stretch their necks. If a white bird hits its wing with maximum force, then as a result, a person’s arm may be broken.

Swans form permanent mating pairs

Swan habitat

White individuals prefer to settle in areas where the climate is temperate and in tropical areas. They belong to waterfowl, and therefore live mainly in various types of water bodies. They feed there, in shallow water, on various mollusks, small crustaceans, fish and vegetation. Most bird species live in the northern hemisphere, the black species lives in Australia and New Zealand. The black-necked swan, or as it is otherwise called the South American swan, is found in fresh waters in the south of South America, where it nested.

Black-necked birds do not live in the following countries:

• Asia;
• Central America;
• Northern regions of South America;
• Africa.

Zoologists note that the whooper species lives on the Eurasian continent, mainly in its northern part. In countries such as: Iceland, Scotland, a number of Scandinavian countries, also in the territory from Kamchatka to eastern Sakhalin, on the Black, White and Baltic seas. The whooper occupies territory mainly on the water. Prefers large lakes that are overgrown with grass, reeds and reeds along the edges of the banks, or on remote lakes in the forest. It happens that they are located on the sea coast in areas overgrown with reeds.

They settle in bodies of water near places where people live. If swans live close to people, they should not be disturbed.

The mute lives further south than the whooper swan. Occupies the southern and central European zone, as well as most of Asia. Mute swans, like other types of swans, are located in remote estuaries and overgrown lakes. Swans are also spotted in the swamps.

Black-necked swan breeds in South America

Is the swan a migratory bird?

The white swan is a frost-resistant bird. If the white individual has not flown away to spend the winter somewhere warm, then the main thing for it is to find a body of water that does not freeze, then it will easily overwinter in a cold area. In an unfrozen pond white swan feed itself. Conventionally, swans are divided into migratory, partially migratory and non-migratory individuals. Zoologists include the trumpeter swan, small swan, and white whooper swan as migratory birds. They fly away for the winter on the northern coast of the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas, as well as in southern and south-eastern Asian countries. If the whooper has conveniently camped at the nesting site and the pond does not freeze in cold weather, then the white swan remains and does not go south.

Little swan chicks appear in July, and at the turn of August-September they already begin to fly, that is, they are capable of flights. And tundra swans go to winter in South and Southeast Asia.

Tundra swan flies to Asia for the winter

The tundra white swan flies to Western European countries. The white bird, which migrates to warm countries, travels both short distances and thousands of kilometers. To the south, where most birds go, white swans usually fly away in the autumn months, like September or October. They return back in early spring, often in April.

The American swan is similar to the white whooper and tundra swans. Zoologists say that the American species has become rare. Individuals live in tundra forests in Canada and areas of Alaska. In winter, they fly to the shores of the Pacific Ocean; they have been seen from Alaska to Vancouver itself. The black-necked swan is located in the southern part of Argentina and Chile. Due to climatic conditions, namely the close location of Antarctica, winter is very frosty. Black-necked individuals fly to places where the climate is mild and temperate weather conditions and where you can get to. In areas of Paraguay, Uruguay, southern Brazil.

The mute swan is a partially migratory bird. Almost all the time, individuals live in northern Europe and a number of Asian countries. The Australian black swan is not a migratory species. Lives permanently on the Australian continent and Tasmania.

On March 28, 2015, the opening of the final stage of the All-Russian Olympiad for schoolchildren in literature took place in the cinema hall of the Voronovo sanatorium near Moscow.

The Olympics were held under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Science Russian Federation, and for the fourth time in a row the competition was organized by the Higher School of Economics.

This year, 259 participants in 57 delegations arrived at the final stage. The Republic of Crimea was represented at the Olympics by Natalya Antonenko, an 11th grade student at the Perovskaya School-Gymnasium in the Simferopol region.

At the opening of the Olympiad, parting words were heard from employees of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, members of the jury and the Organizing Committee of the Olympiad.

The Olympics consisted of three rounds. In the first round, participants performed a holistic analysis of the text (prose or poetic to choose from). The writers of the assignments asked the ninth grade children to analyze either Andrei Stepanov’s story “Guide to Observing Cumulus Clouds” or Bella Akhmadulina’s poem “Games and Pranks.” Tenth graders chose between Vladimir Nabokov’s story “The Passenger” and Evgeny Baratynsky’s poem “Piroskaf”. Eleventh graders received the story “Pen Drawing” by Sigismund Krzhizhanovsky and the poem “On the Flight of the Swans” by Vladimir Shchirovsky.

The second round is creative. This year the participants had to complete two tasks. The task writers invited them to take on the role of writers electronic library olympiad participant, make a list of books, resources, articles, biographies useful for preparation, and then write a review of one material from this library. The second task is to write a literary portrait of him, based on poems dedicated to the poet (they were in the text of the assignments). Ninth graders worked with Alexander Pushkin, tenth graders - with Mikhail Lermontov, eleventh graders - with Anna Akhmatova. The maximum score for the first part of the second round is 25, for the second - 40.

The third round is an oral public presentation. Preparation for the oral presentation lasted an hour. There were two topics to choose from. In 9th grade - “What do the titles of the books say?” and “Which literary character would you like to talk to, argue with, and about what?”; in 10th grade - “The city that I learned about from books” and the quote from Umberto Eco “Entering a novel is like participating in a climb”; in 11th grade - “Why do you need philology?” and "Which literary project could you suggest to your school or city?” A participant who finished his work earlier could start a conversation with the jury members ahead of schedule. The jury members asked the participant two additional questions, turning the performance from a monologue into a dialogue.

In three rounds, a maximum of 150 points could be obtained: 70 for the first round, 65 for the second, 15 for the third, oral round.

Besides competitive program Various educational events were organized and held for the participants of the Olympiad, and a cultural and entertainment program was prepared.

On March 29, an evening of poetry and prose reading by students of the Boris Shchukin Theater Institute took place in Voronovo. Works of predominantly Russian literature were heard from the stage: “The Gypsies” by David Samoilov, Alexander Pushkin, the story “The Caucasian” by Viktor Astafiev, “The Joke” by Anton Chekhov, as well as a fragment from “Vanity Fair” by William Thackeray.

On March 30, at the All-Russian Olympiad in Literature, a round table “How to prepare not only schoolchildren, but also teachers” for writing was held. It discussed issues related to the introduction of a final essay on literature into the Unified State Examination system.

On the same day, Natalia Solzhenitsyna came to visit the Olympiad participants. For almost two hours she talked about the fate of Alexander Isaevich, showed a presentation with rare photographs, for example, Solzhenitsyn himself in childhood, his parents, friends, children. And at the end of the meeting, the guys watched a video clip of the writer’s Nobel speech.

On March 31, the participants spent the day in Moscow, they had a cultural program that was already traditional for the All-Russian Olympiad. The Olympians visited the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Pushkin Museum, walked along Lubyanka, Nikolskaya Street and Red Square, theater center“On Strastnoy” we watched the play “Feast of Predators”.

On April 1, Igor Sukhikh gave a lecture “Professional reading: options and versions.” What texts should you not read? What specializations are there in philology? How was Chekhov faked? The poet German Lukomnikov read his poems to the Olympiad participants, answered questions from the audience and simply charmed everyone. We also talked with him about poetry, about the work of compiling an anthology and about the happiness of the poet.

On the last day of Vseros, April 2, Olympiad participants read their favorite poems for three hours. Almost 70 people took part in the traditional reading competition for the Literature Olympiad.

The award ceremony for the winners and runners-up took place on the evening of April 2 at the Voronovo sanatorium. 22 people became winners, 66 people became prize-winners.

At the closing of the Olympiad, the participants were congratulated by Sergei Volkov, Chairman of the Central Subject Methodology Commission, Natalya Tretyak, First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Vyacheslav Bashev, Vice-Rector of the Higher School of Economics.