Hoof: A bird with a sponge on its chest and “hooves” instead of paws. Lives in Asia, but sometimes paradoxically flies to Europe (8 photos)

The mottled bird is no larger than an ordinary pigeon, but how strange it is! Have you ever seen a bird with a sponge on its chest? Do they often have hooves instead of fingers? Or maybe one of the birds can boast that, living in Central Asia, it makes sudden tours from Ireland to the Far East? Kopytka is truly a paradoxical person!





By the way, we didn’t come up with the paradox. The bird's Latin name is syrrhaptes paradoxus.

This bird is known by various names: sajja - among the Chinese, bullderyuk - among the Kyrgyz. On the one hand, the bird is similar to its fellow Galliformes, but on the other hand, many features in its lifestyle bring it closer to pigeons. In order not to suffer, ornithologists decided to allocate the bird to a special order called hazel grouse, in which it forms a special genus - steppe chickens.



Steppe chickens have two distinctive features. Firstly, in their wing the first flight feather is strongly elongated at the end and pointed at the tip. Secondly, their legs are completely covered with short feathers. And there are not four toes on the furry legs, like most birds, but only three - there is simply no back one. All fingers are very wide; they are connected along their entire length by a membrane. So the foot, if viewed from below, represents one continuous sole, covered with horny warts - a “hoof”.





So that's what you are, bird's hoof!

Saji's main food is the seeds of camel grass, solyanka and kumarchik, also known as “Kyrgyz millet”. Birds literally harvest: they walk in groups, approach the bushes, rise from the ground and hit the plant with their wings, knocking the seeds to the ground. And in winter, the hoof grazes next to the ungulates. Livestock shovel snow while grazing, exposing seeds and food plants for the crafty birds.



2 females and 3 males, and together - a flock of hoofed hens!

If for some reason there is not enough food for the hooves, they gather in flocks of thousands and migrate to more nourishing regions. In general, Saja lives in Central Asia, in the east from the Caspian Sea to Dzungaria. These are the territories of Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and northern China.



But starved birds appear in Europe and Norway, and Asian populations reach Korea, Japan and Taiwan. The tour of Europe and Asia occurs approximately every 5 years and lasts two years, after which the birds return to their Central Asian homeland.



Hoofed birds nest up to twice a year: in early April and late May. Saji live in pairs, but settle close to their pack neighbors. There can be up to 20 birds in a group. Birds build their nests in the most remote, secluded and completely waterless corners of the steppe and desert. Well, like nests, rather, a bird’s house looks like a hole among bushes and dung. The female and male can safely leave the clutch - the eggs will be warmed by the sun.



The chicks hatch sighted and covered with thick patterned down. The kids feed themselves, but the parents have to give them water. There is no water in the places where the Sajis breed. Therefore, the hooves have to regularly fly kilometers from their brood to bodies of water. Instead of bottles, the sajya uses its feathers. On the chest they have a special structure - they absorb moisture like a sponge. Fortunately, you don’t have to rush around with the offspring for a long time: the chicks quickly become independent.



Since ancient times, Saja has been the object of commercial hunting, so in the 20th century the number of hoofs decreased significantly. But now the bird is listed in the Red Book and is under protection in most of its range.