Scientific publications

The present work is based on a relatively new technology in the investigation of the bird biology, thermography and thermal imaging, and aimed at analyzing of heat losses and energy efficiency of cavity nests as well as to assess the possibility of using the thermal imaging equipment in the process of finding nests. Beside that, because the specifics of location of the cavity nests and their potential re-use, often it does not allow obtaining data on the spatial and dimensional characteristics of the nest chambers without the violation of the integrity of the construction. On this account, the additional task was to investigate the possibility of studying the spatial structure of nest chambers of cavity-nesting birds without destroying the trunk of the tree. We developed models of the cavity nests using the serial shots of the surface of the tree trunk with the thermo imager at the stage of feeding the nestlings. A series of infrared images obtained from various angles at a constant distance from the observer to the object covered the entire surface of the trunk in the area of the nest chamber. We have made the thermo pictures of 8 nests; identified and compared the temperature profile performed along the line of the horizontal section of the tree trunk in the middle part of the nest chamber. This temperature profile can be an indicator of the magnitude of heat losses. On the basis of a set of thermo images the theoretical three-dimensional models of the nest chambers were constructed.