A Myna Problem
By Mike • October 9, 2007 • 8 commentsHere in North America, we contend unendingly with invasive birds like the European Starling, Mute Swan, and House Sparrow. In Australia, they are grappling with the threat of the Common Indian Myna. The Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis), also called Indian Myna and House Myna, ranges naturally from Afghanistan to Indochina, but has been introduced into tropical and subtropical oceanic habitats around the world. As anyone with knowledge of how alien species can destabilize even robust ecosystems might surmise, the Myna is causing major problems.
Give credit where credit is due. The Indian Myna is a good looking bird. Chocolate brown with a black head, the myna makes a bold statement with its brilliant yellow beak, eye patch, and legs. It also walks rather than hops, just like its rapacious relative, the starling.
Beautiful and belligerent, the Indian Myna is one of the world’s most successful bird species. They are super-competitors, one of only three birds on the list of One Hundred of the World’s Worst Invasive Alien Species. The Common Indian Myna website is quite voluble on the length and breadth of this bird’s depredations: they damage fruit and grain crops, their noise and smell can be annoying where they are in large numbers, they spread mites and disease to people and domestic animals, and they sometimes snatch food off people’s plates in outdoor eating areas. There are even a few rare records of mynas attacking people.
The myna’s worst offense is its own success, as it thrives at the expense of native species. In Australia, Common Mynas reduce biodiversity by fighting for hollows with native birds, destroying their eggs and chicks and stopping them from breeding. They also evict small mammals, like Sugar Gliders from hollows, which are in short supply over much of Australia because of clearing for agriculture. When a single myna is too weak to dislodge a competitor, a group of them will form a mob. Behavior like that doesn’t exactly endear a foreign species to its hosts; the myna beat out stiff competition like the Cane Toad and Cockroach for the coveted 2007 Pest of Australia Award.
The scope of the myna invasion is daunting to say the least. Even if there was a way to diminish, say, the North American population of House Sparrows, who could afford such a vast initiative? If anger is impetus enough, the Australian people will win this war. However, a long history of adaptable invasive avifauna assures us that it takes more than just elaborate cages, multi-sound traps, and wrath to deter robust ruffians like these. In the meantime, perhaps they can take solace in the fact that the Common Myna is being outcompeted in its own turf by its own cousin, the Javan Myna. This invader, first detected in Singapore in the 1920s is now the most common bird in the country. Turnabout is fair play, right?
An Invasive Trifecta
Photos by the inimitable Charlie Moores
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The Common Myna is apparently doing rather well in the Miami area, could be we have to deal with it ourselves soon…
It’s one of the most noticeable birds in urban parts of South Africa too - you can’t go to Johanesburg/Pretoria without tripping over them. Introduced birds - not a good idea eh?
I can imagine how Aussies must be feeling. I can’t even put out bulk seed in the feeder anymore because so many house sparrows take it over, making a mess, and generally swarming the feeder to the point of pushing away finches, chickadees, and other small birds that might like some seed.
The European Starlings are just everywhere, too. Huge flocks. Although they don’t pose a problem at the feeder, they must be causing problems, as all of those birds need to eat and nest.
Hopefully someone contains the Myna in Miami before it spreads throughout the US. Invasive species are nice, if they would stay balanced, like the local species. But, inevitably, they turn out to be better adapted and more aggressive and end up becoming so numerous that the locals can’t win. Too bad.
lovin this website for some reason <(:)
Im from Australia and believe when I say that they are so much more annoying then what this website claims. for exapmle one day when i was eating some fish and chips one of those little buggers came and swiped a bit of fish from from right infront of me. i was like omfg wtf?!? Then it came back but there was two of them this time so i had to get up and move to a different place because they kept trying to snatch my food
They must be stopped!
I am reporting from Brisbane, Australia. This morning May ‘08 I was returning from a car trip and saw a Common Mynah pecking at an intact Common Mynah laying in the road. The pecking bird flew onto an above branch as I stopped to see if the injured bird needed my aid but it appeared lifeless and dead. Approx 2hs later when taking the dog for a walk the bird in the road had been dragged to the kerb and had it’s tail feathers pecked away revealing a bloodied patch of bare skin and also the feathers on the back of the head were pecked off. I don’t believe it was interfered with by a cat after I initally saw it due to the aggressive behaviour of the attacking Mynor. Has anyone else witnessed a one on one attack like this?
They are all over Hawaii, too — one of the most common birds there, from downtown Honolulu, to the farmlands of central Oahu, out into the forests of Waianae. In Hawaii, unless you go WAY up into the mountrains, every bird you see will be an introduced species.
We need to train birds of prey to hunt down these invaders. This a natural method without reverting to other methods (chemical etc), which have an impact on bird and animal species. It is annoying to wake up in the morning and hearing this bird competing in song with other birds found in the bushveldt in South Africa.