Birds that are like locusts destroying farm crops (8 photos)

Meet the most numerous wild bird in the world - the red-billed weaver. The appetite of these birds is so great that they are known as feathered locusts.





The population of this bird is estimated by ornithologists at 1.5 billion souls! To put it simply, there is one red-billed weaver for every person in China.

But the red-billed weaver lives not in Asia, but in Africa. Externally, the bird is very similar to a sparrow, only slightly tinted. The summer outfit of males and females is almost the same - beige. Only in the mating season do the boys transform: the beak becomes scarlet, and the feathers on the head and chest acquire reddish-red shades.



When you're so small, it's very difficult to protect yourself from predators on the savannah. Therefore, birds live in huge flocks - up to 40 million birds. But this is not the limit - the feathered crowd unites with representatives of other species: Sudanese golden sparrows, astrilds and barn swallows. Sociable guys - you can't say anything.





But even so, red-billed weavers are hunted by all and sundry - other birds, snakes, cats, jackals, people - the list can be endless. At this point, you may have quoted the Soviet classic - “sorry for the bird”! But save your tears for the poor African farmers.



If the expression “eat like a bird” were written from red-billed weaver birds, it would mean eating by the carload! The basis of the birds' diet is seeds. Hungry hordes of birds attack human crops with impunity. Namibian scientists have calculated that a flock of 5 million adult birds and 5 million chicks destroys up to 1000 tons of seeds during the entire breeding season! With such appetites, it is not surprising that the birds were nicknamed feathered locusts.



Farmers shoot 100 million birds every year. But even despite this, the number of red-billed weavers remains stable.

In the intervals between destruction and robbery, the birds love each other. The mating season occurs at the height of the rainy season. Males change their modest plumage to a flashy outfit and tint their lips. More precisely, the beak. The brighter it is, the higher the status of the bird in the group, and the more desirable the male is for a partner.



Romance is unknown to weavers. This is understandable: birds live 2-3 years - not until the candy-bouquet period! Therefore, instead of movies and restaurants, males immediately take the young lady to see the family nest. The groom's task: to present the frame of the future home. If the female likes the project she started, the couple completes the nest. The final version looks like a grass ball suspended from a tree.



And there can be up to 6,000 such “balls” on one tree! The colony turns the plant into a hostel, where every centimeter is huddled with a neighbor. With such close contact, eggs often fall into other people's nests. That's for sure, who doesn't have other people's children.



The clutch of weavers consists of 4 eggs. Parents will hatch and raise their babies together. Fortunately, they won’t have to bother for long: the development cycle of chicks in red-billed weavers is one of the shortest among all known bird species, only 12 days. And by the year the young weavers are ready to make their own weavers to join the multimillion-dollar horde!