Hello everyone,
I want to help reduce the local population of the Indian/Common Mynas around my area (Holroyd, NSW). At the moment I can help put financially by donating money.
Does anyone know of any charities or organisations that would benefit from my donation in helping reduce the Myna problem?
I know my council (Holroyd council) has a trapping program of sorts but I don't know if they are still very active. We also have community gardens and of course parks run by the council.
I was thinking of contacting our local Landcare group.
Would appreciate your ideas.
Thanks.
They are a big problem just about everywhere in Sydney now. There is a huge roost of hundreds of them under the Meadowbank loop at Ryde Bridge near the river. Likewise hundreds roost in the big tree near Harvey Norman/Domayne store on Epping Road at North Ryde, should hear the cackle at sunrise!
They are not a popular little bird, but I kind of like them as they are very cocky and quite intelligent, not their fault that they were introduced to Australia. There are none in my backyard, I have a way of eradicating them quickly without a cruel death.
Many Sydney councils have erradication programmes for these birds, also just type Indian Mynah or Common Mynah into Google where there is a wealth of information and networks.
The myna issue is such a hotly contested one! I totally agree that they are a species that is doing too well in Australia and there needs to be efforts made to limit their spread. There was a paper out of Canberra very recently on the impact they seem to have had there (its a really interesting and detailed paper that I am yet to fully get my head around) - in Sydney we see a slightly different story in some respects. The sort of research that has been done out of Canberra is great and we need to see more of it all over the place. The author of the paper also made some really interesting comments here: we love to hate the common myna.
Regardless of whether myna trapping works or not (I have had some councils say they have had success, others haven't) - we can't forget the bigger picture. Myna's do well because we have created great habitat for them. Lots of buildings and open lawn space with some trees. In order to increase the diversity of birds in our parks and gardens, we need to remember that we not only trap these birds, but we replace the habitat - just removing myna numbers will not solve the issues that our urban birds face (in Sydney and much of the east coast we also have the Noisy Miner problem in conjunction with our habitat problems). If the birds don't have habitat to use, then they have no hope of survival, regardless of what other impacts there are.
Unfortunately the environment, even that right outside our front doors, is a really complex place. Its difficult for researchers to get their heads around what is going on and then, we also need to communicate what we are finding to the public. That communication is really important.
Dysfunction, I believe Holly has hit on one of the major approaches to the myna problem: replace the exotic habitat with natural habitat. Everywhere I look in urban areas & small towns native vegetation is being replaced by exotics. Is it little wonder that pests like Mynas flourish in Australia? If we could provide the conditions for our native wildlife to flourish rather than fail then there would be a lot more competition for feral species like the Common Myna & out-of-control species like Noisy Miners. Such an approach may not see the end of Mynas but I'm confident it would be an important step.
Your idea of contacting your local landcare group is a good one. If the group can't help you directly it may be able to point you in the direction of groups that can. As Raven has suggested Googling "Common Myna eradication" or something similar may throw up a variety of ideas.
Good luck with your search for a place in which to invest your, no doubt, hard-earned money - to the detriment of the Common Myna.
Along those lines Woko - dysfunction just be careful about where you donate your money. There is A LOT of misinformation out there about Common Mynas - businesses who sell the traps are going to say they are the devil. The worst one I heard said that, second to habitat loss, Common Mynas were the biggest threat to all native wildlife throughout Australia. That is simply not true.
Make sure you look at the source of the information - even some local councils don't. They have to respond to pressure from the public, read some information on a website, and then repeat that on their own sites. I am not saying that is all councils, but some certainly do.
I would be looking to donate to a program that is providing a holistic approach to restoring habitat for birds - if they are trapping, ensure that they are also replacing habitat (and to hit the jackpot, that they are monitoring before and after to see how the bird community responds).
Thank you all for your fantastic and informative comments.
You see, I had failed to take that perspective into consideration that it's not just about the numbers. I guess that would have been the easy way out for me think I could make some difference. Trap a myna here (no guarantee of course), gas it out, rinse and repeat. However, I'd be out there with my smug face in the park not realising that hey, only 2 out of 10 plants in my backyard (lucky I even have one) are native while the others are mostly rubbish.
So, I guess I need a major rethink. Holly, thank you for that different perspective and Woko thanks for wishing me luck finding something that can contribute to putting a dent in the myna problem which of course is tied to all the other environmental problems that my local environment faces (habitat, pests, human activity, and carelessness etc).
PS: Here are some of my observations from the many years I have been interested in them: they love to eat rice grains, they take the distress call seriously and perhaps if one recorded a distressed myna on a recorder and played it back they would back off, they are sometimes dirty little things, for about 2 or 3 weeks I would run out in my backyard and scare them away everytime I saw one and they decreased their vists a lot! I forgot about it a while and they eventually came back.
edit: I emailed Birdlife in an effort to see if they trapped Myna birds and got the reply that they don't due to limited resources (I can understand). Just emailed my local Bushcare group. Need to search more about what my council is doing (Elections are coming up soon as well [muhaha]).
You made me smile dysfunction
I love that you have taken other opinions on board and weighed them up to - please keep doing some reading and ask questions whereever you can.
Very interesting observations too btw - they really are intelligent birds. We are hopefully going to have a survey up and running on here soon to help a phd student who is looking at Common Myna behaviour and our attitudes to them.
Hi dysfunction,
i also live in Holroyd. These birds are taking over my yard. They are scared enough of me but I have to work etc. and these pests have my dogs petrified. They chase my large dogs off their food and have them so scared to even go outside. Last year we had one small colony of mynas nearby - and plenty of natives - this year there are significantly more mynas. There are 8 to 10 terrorizing them at the moment. I'm in a rental and cannot afford the traps etc. Do you have any advice on what to do. Will council help?
You need to contact your council for advice. Some councils in Sydney offer free traps to ratepayers and will "dispose" of the birds for you. By removing temptation for them to hang around your residence is a good starting point too.
Never leave pet food unattended outdoors as this is sending an open invitation for them to loiter in your area as a "free feed" is always on the agenda. By removing a key food source the Indian Mynah will quickly move on.
Mynah nest destruction & the blocking of holes in buildings is helpful. Also, contact your council to see if they have mynah traps. Enlist the support of neighbors,too, in doing what you're doing.