I too have been led to understand that noisy miners indicate environment
degradation, and have watched with some sadness that only noisy miners
frequent the grevilleas planted in the new garden close to my house.
However, not more than 20 meters behind my house is a mixture of camphor
laurel and regenerating native forest (far north coast NSW) in a far from
natural state. Although this particular area is less than 1 ha in size it
supports a range of visiting native bird species, but not noisy miners. In
fact I have identified 77 species of native bird along a 25 minute circuit
walk around the vicinity of my home. (There are many more I've not
identified.) Vegetation ranges from totally cleared grazing paddocks to
patches and narrow bands of mixed introduced and endemic plants along
creek beds, Everywhere the environment is degraded to some extent and weed
infested. Noisy miners are in some places and not others, but certainly
not to the exclusion of other native bird species. In fact, the most
modified and eroded areas seem to support birds other than noisy miners,
(wrens, fig birds, rainbow bee eaters .....) I wonder just how "degraded"
an environment has to be to support only noisy miners? As degraded as my
new garden?
Regards
Faye Hill
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