Invasive 'flying rats" ! - "நாகணவாய்ப்புள்’ என்றால் என்ன

Have been seeing them nearer home, but not in such great numbers !  there are some views that   birders should not watch birds too keenly, lest they traumatise them and make them do such hideous things as desert their chicks.   Whether they like it or not, birds are stared at    through binoculars and zoom lenses of dslrs  by a bunch of shabbily dressed people who capture their movements and record their presence, giving them newer names !!    However for many birds, it is but common as they have adapted themselves to living in concrete jungles feeding on leftovers and what humans feed them !!  

We see them often, but never knew that they are  described as "flying rats", or the "cane toads of the sky", the ______   is considered one of world's 100 most invasive species.  நாகணவாய்ப்புள்’  என்றால் என்ன தெரியுமா??.   Invasive species are organisms which are not native to a particular area that may reproduce and expand demographically and spatially and potentially cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health  -  it is the Common Myna! 

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the common myna in his Ornithologie based on a specimen that he mistakenly believed had been collected in the Philippines. He used the French name Le merle des Philippines and the Latin Merula Philippensis.  Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binominal system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.  When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.  One of these was the common myna. 

The myna  is a bird of the starling family (Sturnidae). This is a group of passerine birds which are native to southern Asia, especially India, Pakistan & Bangladesh. They have been introduced into many countries and in Australia,  the common myna which is  regarded as an invasive species.   An omnivorous open woodland bird with a strong territorial instinct, the myna has adapted extremely well to urban environments. 

Common mynas are believed to pair for life. They breed through much of the year depending on the location, building their nest in a hole in a tree or wall. They breed from sea-level to 3000 m in the Himalayas. 

Down under, a  surge in detections of the Indian myna, or common myna, has raised concerns that one of the world's most invasive birds is expanding its territory in Australia. The bird, not to be confused with the Australian noisy miner, has been spotted moving further inland, prompting concern from the Invasive Species Council.  When Indian mynas move into an area they force native birds out of their wood hollows and even kill their chicks, leading to a decline in native bird numbers. 

The Mynah Birds was a Canadian R&B band formed in Toronto, Ontario, that was active from 1964 to 1967.  Although the band never released an album, it is notable as featuring a number of musicians, such as Rick James and Neil Young, who went on to have successful careers in rock, folk rock and funk. Over its short lifespan, the group featured many members in its many different configurations.   

Read somewhere that the group of mynahs, the collective noun of Myna birds is : Bazaar, fragrance, local and .. .. statutory of Mynahs.

 

Interesting !
 
With regards – S Sampathkumar
9.6.2024