Scientific name:
Turdus pilaris

Natural spread:
Europe, Asia

the juniper-throttle or the junk-mead-bird (junk-mead = junipers) is a typical brood-bird of the Taiga. The original brood-areas therefore lie in the north of Europe and Asia; since however, a spread took place the last Vereisung westward. Since the 19. Century in the east German settlement-areas known, it is in a large part of Germany until brood-bird regular to Holland today; some birds even turned verdriftet 1937 as far as after Greenland.

Characteristics The juniper-throttle (22,5 cm of length) is to be recognized easily by its colorful plumage. Opposite the blue-dreads head and neck-plumage waiter-backs and shoulders are colored gloomily chestnut-red with the male. Also the black tail and the brown-yellow one, triangular drawn front-breast, are typical. In the flight, the wing-undersides shine knows on. The coloring of the females is less varied and generally gray.

Brood The brood-biotopes in the high north, densely at the border of the tree-growth, don't admit any election. Here, bush-good birch-forests, conifers and juniper-bushes must offer brood and food-possibilities. Just as denser forest-continuances, preferably in water-proximity, become further in the south and assumed even parks and gardens to increasing extents as brood-precincts. Many small animals, who live on the earth or in the grass, stand on the menu like tree-fruits and berries as well.

The juniper-throttles like to brood in smaller or bigger colonies. While hardly more than 10 brood-pairs brood together in the northeastern Europe, the colonies count 100 pairs in Siberia and more. The nests are found usually high in the trees, but at also many other places and sometimes even at the ground. they are built only by the females and construct brushwood and roots a rather big, disorderly bowl from grass, moss, everything together with much clay becomes stiff. As well, the female incubates the 5-6 eggs for 11-14 days alone. However, the boys are provided with food by both alto-birds. Often, 2 yearly-broods are reared.

The social behavior of the birds is showy at the hatchery. With a disturbance, an indescribable noise originates in a well-cast colony. Opposite nest-robbers, it is defended together; even at consecrations and buzzards, downright attacks take place.

Hikes Most of the brood-populations of the juniper-throttle behave as migratory birds. The hikes are included irregularly and from the weather dependent, so that the birds linger already in Scandinavia in mild winters. The birds immigrated into Greenland are stand-birds in principle. Otherwise, the typical winter-quarters lie in west and Central Europe, in the southern Russia, in Turkestan and Transkaspien; more rarely, they advance as far as to the Mediterranean or to southeast-Asia.

The junk-mead-birds were caught in large number at its train earlier and were acted as delicacy. Particularly in the eastern German settlement-areas, so-called Dohnen were set up as catch-appliance. These consisted of a clip, that was bent from branches and served as mounting for horsehair-loops. Bird-berries (fruits of the boar-ash) were fortified behind it as baits. Often, the Dohnen hung extremely densely to both sides of a forest-aisle and formed the "Dohnenstieg." Countless native birds perished in these traps; so, the catch was prohibited already 1908 by the German Federal-bird-protection-law.