#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The Taimyr is inhabited by unique birds listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation. For example, in areas of the tundra along the coastline near fresh and salt water, a white-billed (white-nosed) polar loon lives. And in the southern part of the Arctic tundra, the red-breasted goose settled. Back in the middle of the 20th century, it was on the verge of extinction: its population was 6.5 thousand, but after being included in the Red Book, the population increased to 35 thousand individuals.
The tundra is also inhabited by the largest of the Palaearctic peregrine falcon species – the tundra, or barnacle falcon. Its flight speed reaches 322 kilometers per hour, or 90 meters per second: it is not for nothing that this bird has earned the title of the fastest living organism in the world.
One of the little-studied Red Book birds is the Ross’s gull. On Taimyr, only one nesting colony of these birds of 45-50 pairs is known. It has long been believed among the peoples of the North that meeting a Ross’s gull brings good luck and happiness.
Among the birds living on the peninsula, there is also the ivory gull, which, with the onset of winter, does not fly south, but remains within the Arctic ocean area all year round.
One of the four large representatives of birds of prey living on Taimyr is the white-tailed eagle. In the middle of the last century, people began to shoot the population, deciding that the birds were consuming too much fish. In 2013, the Russian Bird Conservation Union chose the white-tailed eagle as the bird of the year and drew people’s attention to the problems of preserving this predator.
The listed birds are only a small part of those that live in the tundra. By the way, there is a theory that birds originated from reptiles. The hypothesis was put forward after the discovery of the fossilized remains of Archeopteryx in 1860 in what is now Germany.
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Text: Ekaterina Elkanova, Photo: open sources
