It is said that the native noisy miner is breeding up out of proportion to the general bird population and is taking over gardens with its aggressive territorial behaviour, forcing out other native birds such as honeyeaters, wrens, silvereyes, etc. Has this been the experience of BIBY members? Are the native birds you once regularly hosted in your garden disappearing and being replaced by noisy miners? And what of the unrelated introduced indian myna? Has anyone seen the result of a skirmish between our native miner and the indian myna? Which one wins the war?
From my observations, Night Parrot, the noisy miner is advantaged by the clearing of understorey & the fellling of some trees so that bush landscapes become open woodlands. Adelaide's parklands are a typical example of this & there the noisy miner thrives. I've also seen habitat in western NSW where there was little else but trees & the only bird species I saw there was the noisy miner. So if people are noticing a domination by noisy miners it's likely that there's little understorey. To encourage the smaller birds to return the original (not introduced) understorey species need to be restored.
We have a village green which is a similar size to a sport field with grass in the middle with various large eucalpts and Lagunaria patersonia (itchy powder tree) around the perimeter. These trees have nesting noisy miners, magpies, brush tailed possums and lorikeets species (while trees are in flower) plus welcome swallows patrol the grass.
Immediately adjacent is a BBQ are of about 1/3 the size with some grass and play equipment but the perimeter is extended and has been revegetated by the local native plant group complete with diverse understorey plants and grasses, dense spiky and non spiky shrubs (acacias and leptospermum mainly but others too), smaller trees including more acacia, allocasurinas and a few small eucalpts. There are many species including wrens, silvereyes, small honeyeaters, some larger honeyeaters, an ocasional White faced heron, a tiny (20mm in size) bird I don't know what it is, ring tailed possums, lots of dragonflies and insects, occasional blackbirds and magpies but NO moisy miners and no indian mynahs either. It is a joy to walk through.
Alison
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"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."
It sounds like a nice piece of ecological restoration going on there, qyn. It really doesn't take a lot of effort. Planting species local to the area after good rain means little maintenance is required. And look at the results!!
Yes Woko it doesn't really take much - this group of people did it a little at a time but over a year or so four times a month they transforned what was a group of tennis courts (and you can imagine how barren that was) into this lovely area and it is vitually no maintenance other than the grass being mowed and occasional weeding.
Alison
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"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."
On our place about 8 years ago I came across a small stand of native grasses. So I started using the Bradly method of bush regeneration with the aim of restoring some of the original habitat. After about 5 years the area I was working on had increased in size by about 20 times, which wasn't all that big given the small area I'd started with. However, after 8 years the size of the area is going ballistically bananas due to the exponential effect. At a rough estimate I'd say it's 10,000% bigger than what I started with. And there are outlier patches of native grasses & shrubs which have regenerated some distance from my original patch. I do very little now. It just looks after itself, mostly. I'm wondering if the mowing & weeding that "your" group does could eventually be reduced by broadcasting some local grass seeds around, assuming there are seeds available.
That is a very successful effort Woko. You have done very well showing that the Bradley method does work - kind of a process of osmosis by stealth.
In my area, the council acquired this piece of land (I think by donation) and this group took on the regeneration with the council's permission but with the condition that only the perimeter was allocated and the rest available for public use which is where the BBQ, play equipment and also the lawn mowing part comes in. But the perimeter is reasonably extensive and there are plenty of representatives of lomandra, dianella, austrostipa, ect genera (some more successful and some less) among the other plants. This is a coastal location and this group have been given other locations to also regenerate. Unfortunately, this group meets on the days I work so they are not "my group" although I have spoken to them when I walked our dog prior to work.
Sorry to hjack your thread, Night Parrot.
Alison
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"the earth is not only for humans, but for all animals and living things."
Regarding noisy miners taking over, our experience has been the opposite. We live on a semi-bush block in the Hawkesbury area. When we first installed our birdbath under a couple of grevilleas near the house, the area was dominated by noisy miners - whenever an eastern spinebill or yellow-faced honeyeater came along it would be chased away! Interestingly, they only chased honeyeaters away - not the wrens or red-browed firetails. We then planted a patch of grevilleas about 40 metres away, and the noisy miners seem to have claimed this patch and left the birdbath area to other birds. We are now seeing many different species of smaller birds hanging around the birdbath, including Lewin's honeyeaters, white-naped honeyeaters, rufous and golden whistlers, silvereyes, fantails and just lately spotted pardalotes - sometimes 5-6 species at once.
Sometimes the noisy miners arrive in force to have a bath, and everything else leaves, but after 10 minutes the calm is restored. The other bossy birds are little wattlebirds, who dominate the area for a short while each year when they are feeding their young (or that is how it appears, anyway).
There are Indian mynahs living about 150 metres away from our place, but they don't venture down from the road. We've always assumed that the noisy miners stop them from coming closer.
So my message here is we think that planting different areas around our block with honey producing flowers allows the noisy miners to have an area for themselves, and leaves some areas for others. But that's just a theory!
It seems that the bossy nature of noisy miners is not such a big problem if the proper habitat is provided, including understorey and separate areas. The place I am in at the moment has good tree cover but virtually no understorey and precious few native flowering shrubs. The area is jealously guarded by noisy miners but I have never seen them actually peck a "trespasser". It seems to be all bluff, although admittedly the trespassers here are mainly butcher birds, magpies and kookaburras. To these birds, the miners seem to be an annoyance but they are tolerated especially if the purpose of the trespass is to partake of a few meat scraps. Interesting that Ken suspects that his miners are keeping away the indian mynahs. For that reason alone they are good to have around. Has anyone actually seen a miner "see off" an indian mynah?
Well, these “bird problems” (if they are problems?), come and go. In my paradise ,I have noticed over the years, that one year one species of bird is causing the “problem”, but the next year might be completely different. For example, last spring I had lots of Wattlebirds nesting and bringing up their young, that caused major problems for the Honey Eaters. But after the Wattlebirds left, the HE made up the numbers by breeding a few times.But this year I haven’t seen a single Wattlebird in my garden.
Last year I had about 20 Bronzewings (including young), this year only one lonely female. Last year only a few Yellow Robins, this year I have to be careful not to step on them. I think you get my drift?
If you have diversity in your garden, admittedly I have a lot of dense understorey and native grasses, it will regulate itself. Just like us “humans”, if you don’t force birds to compete for breeding space, they will get along.
Birds are used to be chassed by the more dominant and aggressive breeds,it's all part of their lives.
M-L
Very interesting observations, Ken & Night Parrot.
I don't know what species of Grevillea you've planted 40 metres from your bird bath, Ken, but if they're the large-flowered hybrid types they're likely to attract the larger, more aggressive honeyeaters such as noisy miners & wattle birds. (See the movie clip on the Birds in Backyards home page.) It seems you've created a niche for the miners which doesn't intersect a lot with the niche provided the other birds around the bird bath.
The probable reason the noisy miners didn't attack the wrens & fire-tails is because these species don't compete with the miners for food. But your notion that the miners are keeping the mynas at bay may well be on the money. I understand that mynas are very aggressive so it's interesting to contemplate that the miners may be out-aggressing the mynas. It's also interesting to note that an attempt some years ago by mynas to become established in Adelaide failed. I'm not sure why. However, they have been seen again more recently.
Night Parrot, your miners have good reason to be all bluff if the majority of other species are magpies, kookaburras & butcherbirds. A similar situation exists in Adelaide's parklands where the miners share territory with larger birds such as magpies but there are few smaller birds (perhaps a party of yellow-rumped thornbills occasionally). This may change with the maturing of Adelaide City Council's shrub plantings.
People who are keen to see fewer miners in their gardens could do worse than research the natural vegetation structure that once existed & try to replicate that.
This site might interest those who are keen to combat Indian mynas: http://www.indianmynaproject.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=2
Yes, there are all sort of factors at play, Araminta. Watching what's going on over the years & contemplating the reasons for the changes is one of the great joys of bird watching in my opinion.
I think you're right to question whether some of the things that happen are actually problems. In many cases they're part of the ebb & flow of the environment. A lot of people get upset when they see a wattlebird chasing a honeyeater. But who knows? The honeyeater may well be practicing for the goshawks v. honeyeaters championship.
However, when the natural environment is so drastically altered by the introduction of pests such as Indian mynas & the vandalism of bushland by developers then I think there's an obligation on us to respond & try to restore the original conditions as best we can. Otherwise we lose lots &, in the long run, this endangers us as a species so there's some self interest involved.
Yes, no problem unless the birds involved are introduced pests or unless it is a result of something we are doing wrong (or not doing right). Miners "out-aggressing" the mynas. I like that description.