08 April 2008

Three incidents I witnessed..
1. A few days back, I heard noisy screams coming from the wooded area behind the house and increasing in volume. The whole thing sounded quite desperate. Thinking that maybe a mongoose or even a crow had got hold of a smaller bird I ran out to help the victim. Aggressors--2 mynah birds, victim--one woodpecker! The pair would not let the woody go till I made a big noise.

2. On Sunday we were out near the backwaters. As I watched I saw a mynah bird with, of all things, a crow quill feather in it's beak. It looked really funny. Along came another one to try and snatch the feather. After much tugging, the feather fell down to the ground. The first mynah waited a bit till mynah no.2 decided to abandon the feather and then came down and flew off triumphantly with it.

3. Yesterday afternoon hearing a lot of noise at the front of the house I went to the window. 2 males/females were attacking each other with great vigour and one had the other pinned to the ground. So I went out to break it up. By the time I got out the mates of both got into the act and they started attacking each other, with the decibel climbing quite high. The 2 pairs of fighters were so engrossed in their fight and their screaming, that I had to go close to get them to leave each other and move off. Finally one pair flew off and the other pair walked around down. I swear I could hear muttering and cursing! The fighters--again mynah birds.
It's nesting season people!



Picture from wikimedia

9 comments:

  1. hey, we have a budding ornithologist here!

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  2. that's a very good analogy Onedia :)

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  3. Sounds like something some humans do-fight.

    Pretty bird, though. I liked the detailing on the wings.

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  4. Came here through your comment on ofthisandthat. I enjoyed reading about the mynahs near your place. Mynahs are noisy, assertive birds, at my place they frighten my cat if he goes near the window to look at an old bird house there, or even if they spot him anywhere inside the house though the windows.

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  5. Those mynah birds have a bad name here too. I'm not sure if they are an introduced bird or found their own way here. I know they are not native to Australia. They apparently foul nesting hollows and boxes :(

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  6. I didn't realize how aggressive the mynah birds were. nice photo!
    Shell

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  7. mynahs are quarrelsome birds if they are nesting. not otherwise. They are native to the Indian subcontinent I think.

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  8. We don`t have mynah birds here, They sound like the loud noisy black birds we do have, I try to keep them away from my bird feeders because they attack and drive all the smaller birds away.

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  9. mynahs are pretty small birds actually--probably little bigger than a starling type bird; much smaller than a crow. That's why it's funny to see them fighting much bigger birds!

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