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Indian Mynah control

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Subject: Indian Mynah control
From: Penny Brockman <>
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2020 17:06:41 +1100
 A far greater threat to our small birds are cats and no ground cover for the little birds. And people keeping their gardens far too tidy - no undergrowth, no insects.

I agree that Common Mynas show a worrying increase and are very efficient parents defending their youngs against most native birds, and I certianly don't want to see them in the numbers I saw them in Maui - truly 1,000s gathering in a farm yard and then roosting at night in trees behind the hotel I was staying in.

Numbers are increasing in Gloucester, slowly but surely.  Property owners used to shoot them when they appeared in spring on their barns and sheds to breed but with the increase in townspeople buying up small properties in this area, this doesn't seem to be happening and the birds can breed in peace.

During a 3 year period (1914-1917) when I was helping a Newcastle student conduct surveys into mynas in Newcastle, Gloucester and Krambach, she noted that Crimson Rosellas and Rainbow Lorikeets could successfully keep mynas from boxes but that Eastern Rosellas were more likely to be evicted. She also noted that they were much better parents than the rosellas, keeping sharp eyes on their nestlings and attacking viciously any birds that came near.

We caught about 200 mynas in all (not a serious catching program), most of which were euthanased, but that made little difference.  I hated having to keep the captured birds in the bags until I could take them to the vet to be slaughtered. It would have been much kinder to do it when first catching them. One time I found attached to the side of the trap, the remains of a myna, chest eaten out and head missing - presumably a sparrowhawk had caught it through the wire.

So please by all means target mynas but cats are worse, and people who spend all their spare time mowing grass, and spraying weeds with nasty chemicals. I expect I'll get some feed back on this!

Penny in Gloucester

On 16/11/2020 2:54 PM, Nevil Lazarus wrote:
Michael

I agree totally.

The decrease in bird species is alarming - and if one of the reasons is flying rats 
🐀- then this needs to be addressed.

Best wishes,  Nevil


On 16 Nov 2020, at 2:43 pm, Michael Hunter <> wrote:

Indian Mynahs are a pestilence on much of Sydney's suburbia.

They can be virtually totally eliminated by blocking  their nesting cavities, 
which are invariably under the eaves of houses, often via gutters.

Trapping and wringing their necks ("euthanising") is never ending, stopping 
them from breeding is permanent.

In Suburbia it would be a big deal for all houses to block off, but should be a 
program instituted by all the relevant Councils.

Education pamphlets distributed to all households, possibly the provision of mobile teams of ladder 
men with a supply of old ("nylon") socks or wire netting would get completely rid of 
these "flying rats".

Hopefully  the return of many small native bird spp. to suitable areas would 
follow. Particularly areas without uncontrolled cat populations .

I can personally vouch for this. The only Indian Mynah nest in a tree cavity 
that I have seen was short lived thanks to either goannas or other hole nesting 
birds . Not applicable in most of infested Suburbia.

              Yours Very Sincerely

                  Michael Hunter.


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