JANUARY BIRD OF THE MONTH

                                                                          COMMON MYNA - Acridotheres tristis
 

The Common Myna, also called the Indian Myna was first brought to Victoria Australia in 1863 to help control insects in Melbourne market gardens. This was unsuccessful, but it was still introduced to Queensland to try to control grasshoppers and cane beetles.

This bird is very easily to identify as it walks rather than hops and, in flight, has a large white patch on rounded black wings. It is a medium size sturdy cocoa brown bird with a bright yellow bill and yellow legs, a very visible bare yellow skin patch behind the eye and a glossy black head and throat. Its alarm call is a noisy harsh repeated “scairr” but you may also be awoken by its contact calls which are a combination of creaks, growls and rattles with a mellower liquid note in flight.

The Myna is omnivorous. It eats small inserts, lizards, reptiles, mammals, worms, seeds grains and fruit. It has also adopted to eating food scraps thrown away by humans.

In the evening, large groups (100s or even 1000s) of Common Mynas gather in communal roosts, mainly in the non-breeding season, in roof voids (for example at shopping centres such as Strathpine Shopping Centre), bridges, and large trees, and numbers can reach up to several thousands.

It can sometimes be confused with the slightly larger (24 cm - 29 cm) Noisy Miner, Manorina melanocephala. Although both species have similar common names and both have yellow bills, legs and bare eye skin, the Noisy Miner is actually a native honeyeater. The Noisy Miner is predominantly grey/green and doesn’t walk and does not have large white wing patches.

Common Mynas mate for life. During the breeding season violent battles often erupt between occupants of nesting sites and the couple that wish to evict them. Each partner grapples with its opposite number and contestants drop to the ground secured in each other's claws. Bills are jabbed ruthlessly at the opponent. Finally, the defeated couple leaves to search for another site.

The Myna has adapted well to the Australian environment, spreading rapidly throughout the eastern states and increasingly common in urban areas, country towns and pastoral/agricultural districts near these towns. In fact its range is increasing at such a rapid rate that in 2000 the IUCN Species Survival Commission declared it one of the world's most invasive species and one of only three birds in the top 100 invasive species. Mynas are considered a native pest and believed to threaten native biodiversity due to their territorial behaviours and nest cavity competition.They are an aggressive hollow-nesting bird that displace our less aggressive Ozzie local birds and small mammals from their traditional nesting hollows. By doing so the native Ozzie animals may not be able to raise their young. These behaviours are reflected in its nicknames of the “flying rat” or the “cane toad of the skies”. Nest boxes can be fixed with a simple device which shields the entrance hole to the nest box, and prevents Common Mynas from entering (they always fly directly to the entrance of the nest hollow), while allowing access to rosellas and other parrots, which usually climb up to the entrance of their nesting hollow, and so are able to climb between the baffle and the nest box.

Interestingly in its home patch in southern Asia Common Mynas are popular birds and are valued as crop pest control agents and as symbols of undying love associated with their habit of pairing for life.

Luckily it is not a common bird at the Kumbartcho Sanctuary and has only been included in the survey once in the last two years when a single pair were observed.

Sources:

Birdlife Australia http://www.birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/common-myna and https://birdlife.org.au/images/uploads/education_sheets/INFO-Nestbox-technical.pdf

Trishan’s Ozhttps://panique.com.au/trishansoz/animals/myna-bird-australia.html

Pestsmart https://www.pestsmart.org.au/pestsmart-common-indian-myna/

Prepared by Andy Sides  -  South Pine River survey volunteer team member (photo by Andy)