Chapter 193 Northern Long-tailed Tit
“Chirp!”
The first fat chick stopped on a branch diagonally in front of the nest, acting vigilantly as a sentinel to prevent other birds from approaching the soft nest.
"Chirp!" The second fat little bird held the insect in its mouth, flapped its wings and flew back to the nest to feed Yu Yiyun who was hatching eggs.
In the soft nest built with lichen, bark and moss, six eggs lie quietly, waiting to hatch.
These bird eggs...none of them are Yu Yiyun’s own.
On a branch not far away, two birds that were so fat that they had no necks were perched side by side. They shook their fluffy feathers, lifted their long tails, and used their beaks to groom each other, looking very affectionate.
They are the real parents of the bird eggs, but they entrust the nest to their own kind. The couple takes time out of their busy schedule to talk about love.
It was a beautiful spring day, but Yu Yiyun was trapped in her nest, burying six eggs, no bigger than soybeans, in her belly feathers.
This time, it wasn't that he liked hatching eggs, so he drove away the owner of the nest, and insisted on being an automatic incubator.
In their little fat chick family, it is normal for birds that do not participate in breeding to help incubate eggs, keep watch, and deliver food.
The full name of the little fat tit is the Northern Long-tailed Tit, and it has a small and light body.
Including the tail feathers, the body length is 13-14 cm, but the weight is only 8 grams, and the tail feathers account for half of the body.
Their head feathers and belly feathers are white. When they curl up into a ball, they are round and look like a glutinous rice dumpling, which is very cute.
The little fat chick is a gregarious bird, often forming large groups of more than 100 individuals, helping each other and being very united.
It is spring now, the breeding season for little chicks, and there are many birds helping to hatch the eggs.
The little fat couple had had enough of it, and their conscience, which weighed less than 1 gram in total, finally got a chance and went back to the nest to replace Yu Yiyun who was incubating the eggs.
Yu Yiyun propped up her thin legs that were about to become stiff from sitting, and shook her fluffy feathers.
After having worked with so many animals, my body has never felt so light.
Of course, 'lightness' is mainly relative to himself.
Looking at the entire group, Yu Yiyun has the roundest body shape, like a solid glutinous rice ball.
Yu Yiyun flapped her wings and flew towards the small tree where the chirpers lived.
Many little fat birds that do not participate in reproduction and have nothing to do for the time being gather there in a group, rubbing against each other.
The little fat bird is a very gregarious bird, especially in winter.
The metabolic rate of most animals is inversely proportional to their body mass.
Simply put, the larger the animal, the slower its metabolism, and the calories provided by the food can last longer.
The average weight of the little fat chicks is only 8 grams. They eat little and have a fast metabolism. In winter, they rely on huddling together to keep warm.
When Yu Yiyun flew over, his companions were happily playing games, jumping from one branch to another.
"Chirp!" Here I come!
"Chirp!" Fat chirp!
"Chirp!" The fat guy chirps!
The birds on the branches all greeted their chubby companion in the flock.
Yu Yiyun was a little injured and forgot to fold his wings, so he flew over their heads.
To be honest, my weight is only ten grams rounded up, which has nothing to do with "fat" from any angle.
In our Northern Long-tailed Tit family, where are the skinny birds?!
Yu Yiyun secretly complained, "You are also fat birds," and circled around to prepare to fly back.
Suddenly, I saw a crow quietly perched in the shadows deep in the leaves next to me.
The crow's fur is completely black, blending in with the shadows of the leaves, making it difficult to distinguish.
The little tits were playing and frolicking happily, completely unaware that danger was behind them.
Crows weigh about three pounds and are strictly speaking medium-sized birds.
But in front of the northern long-tailed tit, which weighs only 8 grams on average, it is definitely a huge monster. The size difference is hundreds of times, just like a domestic cat encountering a yak.
Most of the time, crows choose to be 'opportunists', feeding mainly on plants, mice, and carrion.
In fact, corvids, as birds with relatively high IQs, are fully capable of hunting.
During the spring breeding season, crows will also prey on bird eggs or chicks of other birds.
Birds like the Northern Long-tailed Tit, which are slow, have little attack power, and like to gather in groups, are like a buffet in the eyes of crows, with large portions and plenty of food to satisfy your hunger.
Yu Yiyun made eye contact with the crow without making any sound.
He knew that the crows had set their sights on the group of birds and their hatching eggs.
Once the flock of birds is alarmed, the crow will definitely take action, using its sharp beak and high-speed flight to start a hearty aerial hunt.
The little fat bird has small claws and a short beak, and is unable to fight back against the powerful crow.
The best option at the moment is to drive the crows away.
The fat little bird has a round body and is not intimidating at all, so it is difficult to scare away the crows with its aura.
Yu Yiyun stared at the scary and dangerous crow, wondering if there was any way to make it give up hunting.
“Chirp!”
“Chirp, chirp!”
The little friend didn't notice the crow and was still happily greeting the fat little bird, inviting him to join the game.
Yu Yiyun had no way to deal with these little idiots.
After all, their bodies are so small, how big can you expect their brains to be?
When a group of birds are ignorant enough, they will have no fear of the world.
The crow just met the little fat bird's eyes and knew that the bird had discovered him.
It prepared to take off, waiting for the bird to whistle to alert its companions, and then fly over and bite a few birds to death in the chaos.
As a result, the bird was unusually calm, as if it didn't take the ferocious corvids seriously, and it was jumping and playing with its companions.
The crow missed the opportunity to move its claws and folded its wings again.
It was much smarter than the Northern Long-tailed Tit and realized that the whole thing was not normal, so it decided to observe for a while.
Yu Yiyun played with her friends while thinking about how to deal with the crows.
There is no chance of success if you rely on your own strength.
Use food to drive away crows?
At best, I can only catch small insects. I am helpless when facing mice, not even enough to fill the teeth of crows.
The fat little boy felt more and more powerless the more he thought about it, and even began to miss the days when he was a fool.
Wait, sand sculpture!
Yu Yiyun's eyes lit up.
If you can't claw at the lower level of the food chain, you can claw at the upper level of the food chain~
Crows are relatively fast flyers with sharp claws, which enable them to hunt small birds.
However, its flying speed and claws are not enough in the eyes of larger birds of prey.
Yu Yiyun came up with a new tactic and flapped his wings and flew away.
When the crow saw the little fat bird running away, he felt full of disdain.
Haha, you scumbag.
It turned out that when I let my guard down, he ran away alone, leaving his companions behind.
Even though the method was rubbish, at least now I am safe.
The crow watched the little fat chick disappear, then spread its wings with ease, intending to catch all those stupid fat chicks who had no sense of crisis.
Just at this moment, it heard a familiar high-pitched cry from a little fat bird in the sky in the distance.
"Chirp!" Is there an eagle?
"Chirp!" The crow said, you eagles are all brainless losers!
"Chirp, chirp!" If you have the guts, fight with our noble crow boss!
Friends who often observe birds know that the calls of small birds and large birds are very similar.
The difference is that small birds have high-pitched voices, while large birds have low-pitched voices that can be heard over a wide range.
Small birds have more complex calls due to their body structure.
Larks, canaries and nightingales, which are praised as musicians by humans, are all small birds.
Some smaller parrots can be trained to speak human language fluently.
Yu Yiyun had been a hawk and was well versed in the communication methods of hawks. She knew what calls would best anger birds of prey.
Not long after, three goshawks flapped their wings and flew over, flying around Yu Yiyun without even looking away.
Accipitridae are all large birds and would not take the mere 8-gram northern long-tailed tit seriously at all.
That amount of meat is not enough to fill the crop, and after catching it from morning to night every day, I end up owed 500 calories.
The eagle leader spread his wings that covered the sky and flew straight to the tree full of little fat chicks, looking for the enemy bird that had just provoked him.
The crow relied on its camouflage color and tried to pretend to be dead to get away with it.
Unfortunately, it provoked the wrong bird and was doomed to die.
From the side, a giant owl with amazing night vision suddenly appeared and locked onto the crow with its large aperture eyes that became more sensitive the darker it got.
"Bluff?" Were you the one who lured those eagles to my territory?
The owl family and the eagle family have always been incompatible. When the owl saw three enemy birds flying over, he was so angry that he couldn't sleep!
The crow was completely panicked.
It’s not a big deal to provoke an eagle. They have small brains and everything will be fine as long as you find a way to shake them off.
But all owls of prey are vengeful. Once you are marked by them, you will be killed in the second if you show your head.
The crow was so frightened that it dared not stay. It flapped its wings and ran away, not even daring to say "I will be back" before leaving.
Watching the three eagles chasing the crow away, the crisis was over and the fat little bird looked stiffly at the owl.
It's really difficult to survive at the bottom of the food chain. If I remember correctly, the northern long-tailed tit is also on the diet of the big owl.
The owl used his eyes with built-in apertures to scan the group of chirping glutinous rice balls, then slowly crawled back into his nest to continue sleeping.
It does catch Northern Long-tailed Tits, but only when food is scarce.
Now that spring has arrived and flowers are blooming, there are mice everywhere waiting to be caught, so it is unwilling to go through all the trouble for such a small amount of meat.
Animals at the bottom of the food chain have their own survival wisdom.
This family of little fat chirps chose to breed in the territory of the owl, not only because both birds like broad-leaved forests and mixed forests, but also because the nocturnal owl can help them indirectly drive away egg thieves.
Even though there was a risk of being hunted by the owl, they decided to reproduce here.
“Chirp.”
Looking at the big birds flying away or returning to their nests, the little fat chick dared to quietly show its head.
"Chirp." The eagle is so big!
"Chirp." The owl is so big!
"Chirp, chirp!" The little old man lived another day, how great!
"Chirp~" Let's go catch some bugs~
The optimistic and united little fat birds didn't take the danger seriously at all. They happily formed a team to catch small insects and feed them to their companions who were hatching eggs.
Outside the cave, a new group of chicks were standing guard. The fat chicks shook their fur and rubbed against each other affectionately.
Eagles and owls are indeed huge, with fighting power and flying speeds that they cannot match, and can fight against natural enemies and harsh weather with their own strength.
The little fat birds are not envious, they have the cutest companions and the warmest family.
Birds’ lives are small, but equally brilliant.
Just like all the thriving life in nature.
Not long after Yu Yiyun sat in the nest, he heard a slight cracking sound.
He flapped his wings and cried excitedly.
"Chirp!" The shell breaks!
"Chirp, chirp~" Little Chirp, welcome to this beautiful world~
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