May 03, 2009: This bird appeared in our location in 2009. Among familiar bird chirrups we suddenly heard sharp crying, as if someone had his leg being crashed or maybe another torture applied. One fine morning I went to sort out what's happening. Well, the reason was banal: bird's male, spring. Birds' testes size increases dramatically in spring, creating some pressure… that's why they are singing so loudly :). I believe in this male the pressure is especially high ;). Well, of course we already guessed that these were birds' mating cries; and now we knew who is it — a wryneck.

When I was a child, in books about nature I read many times why this bird is called a wryneck (in Russian it has similar name — ~twistneck). When an enemy finds this bird in it's nest, the wrynevk starts to twist her neck and hiss, pretending to be an angry snake. The books told nothing about mating cries.

The male wryneck sits near a chosen hole in a wood, pecks it and cries, pecks and cries. The female wryneck sits down near the male, looks as if it was the very very most strict acceptance inspection and scrutinizes the hole, the male and his efforts, twisting her neck in every direction. Such a mating ritual they have.

species Eurasian wryneck Jynx torquilla