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Some consider the Noisy Miner bird a
badly-behaved backyard bully ? an avian aggressor that moves into the
neighbourhood and quickly takes over.
Others, like Macquarie University PhD student Danielle Sulikowski who
has been researching the foraging behaviour and memory abilities of the
Noisy Miner, have developed an admiration for these feisty, feathered bad
boys of the backyard.
Sulikowski, who works in the University?s Department of Brain,
Behaviour, and Evolution, said Noisy Miners may be getting a bad rap
because they are not only adaptable, but smart.
?They are generalists rather than specialists, feeding on a bunch of
different food sources, and in the animal kingdom being a generalist makes
you flexible and clever. So when humans come along and interfere with the
environment, we change the rules of survival. But Noisy Miners adapt and
learn the new rules,? she said.
Sulikowski describes Noisy Miners as brave and aggressive
birds. When teamed with smart, that means that other more specialised
birds just can?t compete, she said.
They are native to Australia but are not related to another
similarly-named and vocal neighbour, the introduced Indian Mynah [Common
Myna] bird. With mostly grey bodies and black crowns and cheeks, Noisy
Miners live in groups and, are strongly territorial excluding other,
mostly smaller birds.
Until people came along their aggressiveness wasn?t such a problem
because they thrive in an edge habitat ? at the edge of areas of bush. Now
that humans have fragmented the bush in urban areas, Noisy Miners are
moving in and taking over, attracted to the diverse array of
large-flowered plants with abundant nectar found in many suburban
backyards.
In studying the foraging behaviour and memory of the miner birds,
Sulikowski found the birds changed their behaviour, and what they
remembered, depending on the type of food they were looking for.
?With insects, their searching is based on movement patterns, whereas
with nectar from flowers there?s no overall pattern to their movement, but
they still know exactly which flowers they?ve been to and which ones they
haven?t,? she said.
Sulikowski notes that the Noisy Miner?s brain has evolved to deal with
some diverse foraging problems which require them to process the same
information in very different ways, depending on what food they?re
searching for. Understanding how their brains achieve this
flexibility is important for understanding how intelligence, generally,
evolves, she said.
"I think it?s great that this innocuous little garden bird is teaching
us about the evolution of the brain,? she said.
Sulikowski, who recently presented her findings on the Noisy Miner at
the General Meeting of the Royal Society of NSW, also received a
scholarship from the group which will help her to continue research into
the Noisy Miner.
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