Hi Nadeen,
Our lab has conducted years of research on miners including translocations of
black-eared miners for conservation purposes. In that species we primarily
moved entire colonies because of their complex social behaviour. These have
been successful but several attempts to translocate single females (in miners
Manorina spp. this is the sex that disperses and joins other colonies at
breeding age) have not been successful. In theory any females amongst the four
noisy miners that you have may be accepted into a wild colony. However our
understanding of their social behaviour (based on studies in all four miner
species) suggests that females will only be accepted into colonies when a
vacancy (i.e. the death of a resident breeding female) occurs. Until that time
the female may hang around the periphery of a colony waiting for the chance to
join. In contrast, we don't have any information that suggests individual males
are ever accepted into established colonies...they just don't ever seem to move
from the colony in which they are raised.
Best chance for survival for all four birds may be to release them as a group
in the local area but at a site where miners don't already occur and 'hope'
they establish their own new colony.
As you briefly touched on when you said "I know they are a pest" the Noisy
Miner is a common and an aggressive colonizer of fragmented woodlands, actively
excludes most other bird species from the colony area and has been implicated
in decline in tree health in areas that they occupy. Given this, if your four
birds do establish a new colony the landholder and the other birds in the area
most certainly wont be thanking you.
Cheers
Rohan
Dr Rohan Clarke
Threatened Mallee Bird Project
Zoology Department
La Trobe University
Bundoora 3086
Ph: 03 9479 1672 Mobile 0408 947001
-----Original Message-----
From:
Behalf Of Nadeen
Thorsby
Sent: Monday, 13 December 2004 5:47 PM
To:
Subject: Help - re:release Noisey Minors
Hi there,
I am hoping u can help me. I have 4 noisey minor birds which i have had
since featherless chicks - I know they are a pest but i could not let them
die. They (at different times) fell out of their nests and after failing to
keep them in the wild (they where rejected) I had no choice but to adopt
them.
Now they are more than ready to be set free as I have had them since
september, and I have had a few failed releases. They want to go but their
wild peers will not except them, I have contacted National Parks and
wildlife and they said that I should wait till December & it should b ok.
Well its now December & I am still having problems. When they do have an
attempt at freedom they get bombed, picked and ganged up on not only by the
other minors but the butcher birds join in also, so I then run around my
property like a nutter and pick them up and put them back into their safe
house. I have attempted to release them at all different times of the day
and one has been out for 2 days now and every time she surfaces they gang up
on her.
Can u suggest a different approach? I am beside myself as I really want them
to be free and they should be. Do I just let them go and turn a blind eye to
what the other birds are doing and hope they survive or can I do something
to help them.
Will they eventually be excepted?
I keep them in a large green house where the other birds can see them, I go
tree hunting at 4.30am every morning for honey dew & bugs (im sure the
neighbors think im nuts) so that they get their tree environment and a
balanced diet with their meal worms etc.
Sorry I have rambled on, I wanted to give u the full story.
Thank u so much & I hope u can help
Kind regards
Nadeen Thorsby
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