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25/06/2017

Common Myna

MYNA

Of all the birds that visit my garden, the mynas are one of the most common.
 
Whilst the various field guides I have call this bird the Common Myna, as children we always called them Indian Mynas. My reading tells me they are native to Asia. I imagine that includes India.

Now I know they are not native to this country. I know they can drive away less aggressive natives. I know they can kill and eat the young of other birds in the nest. They might also eat small indigenous animals. I know they make a mess around my house, scratching leaves and compost all over my just swept paths. They also dig up many of my vegetable seedlings.





 
The "Birds In Backyards" website says this about mynas......

"The Common Myna's success is mostly
a result of its opportunistic behaviour and aggressiveness towards other species, bullying them around food sources and out competing them for nesting sites."

But they are a major part of my garden life so here they are.

Acridotheres tristis have been part of the Melbourne landscape since about 1850. Their name Acridotheres is from the Greek akridothera, loosely meaning locust hunter and tristis is a Latin word meaning "sad" or "foul smelling. What a lovely name! 

The Common Myna was introduced into the cane fields of north-eastern Queensland in 1883, to combat insect pests, particularly plague locusts and cane beetles. There you go!






Did you know?
A pair of Common Mynas (Acridotheres tristis) was first recorded at Ankara, Turkey, on 12.5.1996, and later proved to breed there successfully. This is the first documented record for Turkey.


 

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