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Interesting animal species
Charadriiformes Charadrii
The suborder embraces birds which are distinguished by their interesting feeding habits - they use their long bills to probe muddy bottoms of water bodies in search of invertebrates; or they run fast, collecting food from the ground surface. The first way of obtaining food is used by the Scolopacidae, which include e.g. Gallinago gallinago the Common Snipe, the Ruff and Sandpipers. These species possess long legs and bills, which enable them to wade in shallow water and extract food from the muddy bottom. These birds have an innervated bill tip - plunging the bill into the mud they use the sense of touch to find food. The other way of obtaining food is characteristic for birds from the family Charadriidae which includes e.g. the Little Ringed Plover, Pluvialis squatarola the Grey Plover, Pluvialis apricaria the Eurasian Golden Plover and the Northern Lapwing. These species have shorter bills than the Scolopacidae and they collect food mainly from the ground surface. Both bird groups are most often seen during their autumn and sping migration, when they gather in numerous flocks in drained fish ponds. A lot of species of Charadriiformes cover yearly even several thousand kilometres between the breeding grounds situated in northern Europe, and the wintering grounds in Asia or Africa.
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