Mynas and Starlings: Birds With Attitude

One characteristic that most of the 20 species of mynas and starlings share is a fiery attitude. They are all highly gregarious, love chattering, have a swagger, and are fiercely competitive about property — often usurping choice nesting sites from their rightful owners and even each other. Most mynas prefer nesting in holes and crevices and furnishing them suitably; many are city savvy. They are omnivorous and enjoy fruit, berries, insects (grasshoppers and locusts especially), small mammals and reptiles. They roost communally with their own kind and with other species, creating a huge ruckus as they exchange news before suddenly falling asleep. Though they are native to Southeast Asia, they have travelled around the world and are giving many ex-colonialists a dose of their own medicine. They’ve been declared an “invasive species” in some places, perhaps because they’ve fared better than others.

Indian myna

Best-known among the clan are common mynas or Indian mynas (Acridotheres tristis). These medium-sized (25 cm) coffee-brown birds have black heads, white decals on their wings, yellow beaks, and face make-up. They strut confidently, inches away from humans, to pick up insects or breadcrumbs. Their wide repertoire of calls reflect their mood: contentment, humour, affection, inquiry, anger, and alarm. Like most city-dwellers, they are fiercely territorial. One early morning at the swimming pool, I was taken by surprise when a pair of mynas suddenly seemed to fall from the skies. They were tangled together, claws enmeshed, lying on the grass face-to-face, glaring at one another and stabbing away with their beaks, shrieking insults. To my astonishment, another pair then fell from the heavens doing exactly the same thing. And then, they disengaged and flew off with friendly “see-ya” chirrups. I don’t know whether they were fighting over property or if that was just a friendly good-morning bout. On another occasion, while a pair tumbled and wrestled in a field of pink bougainvillaea blooms (the result of an overnight storm), onlooker-mynas gathered around, laying bets no doubt and egging their favourites on. The Indian myna has travelled the globe and been such a successful immigrant that it is now regarded as a major pest in the UK and Australia.

Bank myna

Bank mynas (Acridotheres ginginanus) are a little smaller (23 cm), slate-grey overall, with brick-red around the eye. They are found in the northern South Asia. Traditionally they nested in tunnels excavated in the sandy banks of rivers, but many have now moved to the drain holes along the walls of buildings, bridges and flyovers in big cities. I still remember the clamour made by an enormous roosting flock as they “rose and shone” at dawn in Chandigarh Railway Station — where they had been roosting in the loco sheds.

Brahminy myna

My personal favourite has got to be the Brahminy starling/myna (Sturnus pagodarum). Measuring 21 cm, this bird is dressed in raffish russets and browns and sports a hilarious “shendi” or occipital crest, which it erects when excited or lovelorn. I came across one such smitten troubadour in the Delhi Zoo. He was perched on a fence, head thrown back, plumage frowzled and untidy (rather like Boris Johnson), crest erect, singing his heart out to an unseen lady.

Pied mynas

Pied mynas or starlings (Sturnus contra) are medium-sized (23 cm) black and white, goofy-looking birds with red around their eyes and yellow bills. They have close-set eyes, giving them binocular vision — useful for snapping up insects from the ground and probing the muck (and, on one occasion, I noticed, human dung) for breakfast. But they are mellifluously voiced chatterboxes and usually build huge dome-shaped nests in the forks of branches (in one case on an electricity pylon) out of straw and scraps.

Black hill myna

The black hill myna (Gracula religiosa) or common hill myna is around 25-29 cm long, has striking yellow-orange face make-up and wattles, and is glossy green. It is a great favourite as a caged bird because of its talent as a mimic (especially of humans), which has put it in some peril. Its given name, “religosia”, stems from the fact that these birds were taught to recite prayers. These arboreal birds are found in the Himalayan foothills (like Kumaon) and east India. They prefer hopping sideways rather than strutting around the ground like landlords – as most of their clan does.

Jungle myna

In its dark grey plumage, the 23-cm-long jungle myna (Acridotheres fuscus) is rather like a rural cousin of the common myna. It sports a tuft of feathers on its forehead, which serves as a pollen brush as it probes blooms for nectar. Like the common myna, it has white decals on its wings and a white-edged tail. It stays away from arid and semi-arid areas — and is a successful migrant.

Common and rosy starlings

While all the above are resident birds, the common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) and the rosy starling nee pastor (Sturnus roseus), both 21 cm long, are winter migrants to the Indian subcontinent. The common starling wears a silken green-purple outfit studded with what looks like sesame seeds (called the “tilyar” myna in Hindi). In Pakistan and Northern India, it is considered a great delicacy and shot en masse. Huge flocks nevertheless make the yearly journey to-and-fro from their residence in Siberia.

Rosy starlings dress in pale candy-pink and black and sport a crest. Though they are also migrants, they spend more time in India (arriving in July and departing only by March-April the following year). They are unique east-west migrants, breeding in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, though some are known to fly from as far away as Ireland to winter here. They visit Delhi twice every season, in September-October on their way south and March-April on their way back home. Highly gregarious, they seem to love city life and throng the trees in Connaught Place and India Gate, chattering raucously. Rosy pastors are known to breed en masse when populations of grasshoppers and locusts explode, on which they gorge themselves and stuff their progeny.

Both these starlings are known for their “murmurations”, where enormous flocks fly in great swirling swathes of black (alternating with pink in the case of the pastors) that look like clouds of smoke.

Mynas are certainly farmers’ friends ridding fields of agricultural pests, though they do charge a fee, in the form of grain, fruit, and berries. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.