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Common Myna | Acridotheres tristis
Treurmaina | Miná común
The Common Myna is a bold, noisy myna that has spread from South and Central Asia across the world and is counted among the most invasive birds on earth. In this region it is common to abundant in the towns of the Gulf states and Israel and is still spreading.
Voice
Very varied and loud: a jumbled mix of whistles and clucking, gurgling and grating sounds, often with head-bobbing and fluffed-out feathers. Calls include a harsh kraa or chik-chik, and when alarmed a sharp kweeh. Communal roosts produce a deafening din at dusk.
Recording: David Darrell-Lambert — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
23–26 cm. Warm chocolate brown, with a glossy black head, neck and upper breast, bare yellow skin behind and below the eye and a yellow bill and legs. Belly and undertail coverts white; tail black with white tips. In flight a large white patch on the primaries. Juveniles are duller, with a browner head and a smaller yellow eye patch. Walks upright with a confident gait, often in pairs or small groups.
Confusion species
Bank Myna (Acridotheres ginginianus) is blue-grey, with a red eye patch, a tuft above the bill and a buff (not white) wing patch and tail tips. Burmese Myna (Acridotheres burmannicus) and Vinous-breasted Myna (Acridotheres leucocephalus), both rare introduced species in the Gulf states, have a whitish head with a dark eye mask and a vinous breast. Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) lacks the white wing patch and the yellow eye patch.
Habitat
Almost exclusively around people: towns, villages, parks, gardens, markets, rubbish dumps, farms and irrigated land. Nests in holes in buildings, walls, palms, trees and lamp posts; eats almost anything, from insects and fruit to refuse.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the habitats of North Africa and the Middle East.
Range and movements
Introduced; only in eastern Iraq may it also have arrived naturally from Iran. Abundant in the UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait and common in the towns of Saudi Arabia, including Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Province; in Iraq in Basra and Baghdad among other places. In Israel since 1997, after birds escaped from Park Hayarkon in Tel Aviv; by 2003 already widespread across much of the country, then in Samaria and Judea, reaching the Jordan Valley at Jericho. In Jordan first recorded in 2003–2004 and widespread by 2016; also in Lebanon. In Egypt first recorded in 1998 at Ain Sukhna, since 2008 in northern Sinai, with breeding at Zaranik since 2009. The natural range extends from Iran and Central Asia to India, Sri Lanka and Indochina; introduced elsewhere, including Australia, South Africa and many islands.
- Resident
- Summer visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Winter visitor (c. Oct–Mar)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In almost any town park in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Doha or Tel Aviv; the largest numbers at dusk at a communal roost in a group of trees or palms, where hundreds of birds gather.
Conservation status
Not globally threatened. Listed by the IUCN among the world's 100 worst invasive alien species. In this region an introduced species that is not native to the region itself; it competes with native hole-nesters and damages fruit crops, and in Israel it is locally controlled, for example in the Ramat Hanadiv nature park.
Scientific name
Acridotheres tristis | (Linnaeus, 1766)
Linnaeus described the species in 1766 as Paradisea tristis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Acridotheres was introduced in 1816 by Vieillot. Acridotheres is Greek, from akris, genitive akridos, 'locust', and thērēs, 'hunter'. tristis is Latin for 'sad' or 'gloomy'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Pondicherry, India.