Count Your Blessings!

With love and passion, everyone can have a nice garden...Elaine Yim

Count Your Blessings!
Count The Garden By The Flowers, Never By The Leaves That Fall.
Count Your Life With Smiles And Not The Tears That Roll.
..... Author unknown.

Knowing me, Knowing you..... Aha.....!

Notice Board

Malaysian Flora USDA Zone 11
Welcome to our exotic world of everlasting summers and tropical rainforests!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

A Myna Encounter

The Common Myna (acridotheres tritis) is a member of the starling family and is native to Asia. It is also referred to as the Indian Myna or Mynah. In malay language, it is known as the "burung tiong gembala kerbau" meaning buffalo shepherd. In the countryside, we can see these birds perched on buffaloes, pecking and feeding on the insects on the buffaloes' backs.

I was walking around my garden, trying to take some snapshots of a beautiful butterfly when I spotted this bird perch on top of my neighbour's longan tree. You see, longan fruits are very sweet and tasty, that's why this bird was there. It was staring greedily at the bunch of juicy fruits and didn't even noticed me when I snapped this photo.

The common myna can be easily identified by its black head and dark brown body, yellow beak, yellow legs and a yellow patch behind the eyes. There is also a white patch on their wings and tail. They walk on the ground rather than hop. They actually look quite beautiful and cute. The myna or talking bird can be trained to whistle, sing and talk, making them popular as caged birds for show. On 17 Jun 2009, China Daily reported that in Hubei Province, China, a 73 year old man had used a recorder to teach his myna to sing songs and recite ancient poems. If you visit You Tube, you can find some videos of mynas that can sing and speak foreign languages!

I love birds too but I must beware of this one. The common myna can be found almost anywhere; in the outskirts as well as urban areas. Like us humans, the myna has adapted well to city living. They are omnivorous and scavengers that feed on insects (e.g. grasshoppers), fruits and leftover food from our dustbins. Therefore, mynas may carry diseases. They usually live in holes in trees and walls. If they decide to live with us and build nests in the walls and ceilings of our homes, this may cause damage to the gutters and drainpipes. They use grass, dry twigs, feathers, leaves and sometimes even rubbish material to build their nests. Hence, they may become a nuisance.

Mynas can be very noisy and annoying too. At night, large groups may gather on a big tree and chirp their heart out. They also make a lot of noise when they fight. I used to enjoy their singing, but one day, I personally had a fearful experience. I saw that a baby bird or nestling had fallen to the ground. It was making a lot of noise, chirping loudly; looking for its mother. It seemed injured and looked very pathetic, so I tried to save it from being eaten by the cat. You see, a neighbour's fat white cat like to visit my garden occassionally to poop or pee. As I got near to catch the nestling, a few mynas came circling in the sky above. They were making a lot of very loud, threatening noises. Whenever I got near the baby, the noises peaked. So, I quickly dashed into my home to seek shelter, just in case there was a misunderstanding and they wanted to attack me for preying on their baby. Wow! What a scary encounter.

Finally, it may be interesting to note that the common myna has been 'awarded' as one of the "100 Of The Worl'd's Most Invasive Alien Species", according to the International Species Specialist Group (ISSG) and IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). It has become quite a serious problem (as pests) in some countries like Australia. Over here in my country, I guess it is not that serious a problem yet. Anyway, I don't usually see them everyday.

For further details, please refer to: http://www.issg.org/database/species/search.asp?st=100ss&fr=1&sts .

9 comments:

  1. The myna is common indeed . Really they make up the majority of the birs in my garden besides the eurasian sparrow.
    I've just bought 2 coconut bird nests hoping the birds will nest there. The other birds that visit are the orioles, yellow vented bulbuls, starlings and the different varieties of sunbirds.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Here our problem is with Starlings which were introduced to the US from Europe and are a horrible nuisance. They have invaded our home through the attic or down the chimney, are bullies at our bird feeders, and fly in huge squawking flocks. Enjoyed seeing your site.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have seen this kind of bird around here too (my house). Yes they are loud ;-) Sometimes I spot one or two behind my house kitchen looking for food from the floor of the lane as well. Happy bird watching!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sunshine girl, happy bird watching! Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  5. John, Cheryl and family, thank you for visiting my blog. Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Stephanie, yes, hopefully this time they sing rather than fight.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi,
    Thank You for stopping by my blog today! I hope you have a great day!!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for the introduction and warning about the Myna! Too bad they did not understand you were trying to help their baby... such is bird life ... they never seem to appreciate our assistance. Thanks too for visiting my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi, Cindee, Carol, thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your comments very much.

    ReplyDelete

Words are like the voice of the heart... Confucius

Note: If you are unable to comment on my latest post, click on the post title to reopen the post and try writing your comments again. Comments under "Anonymous" will be automatically treated as spam if no name is included.

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin