Common Myna Interesting Facts: Balcony Birding in Lockdown

Birding during lockdown is a de-stressing experience for me. Watching their freedom, their flights and manoeuvres is so soul satisfying. I have been chasing a few bird species from my balcony. This post is on the Common Mynas.

Common Myna Interesting Facts

Origin of Name – Myna

Myna is also spelt Mynah. It is a mix of Hindi and Sanskrit words: maina and madana, meaning delightful and fun loving. Common Mynah, has a dark-brown body with a black head and throat. Their striking yellow colored beak and feet give away their presence.

Common Myna in Flight

Other names for Myna

In various Indian works of literature this Myna bird has been named as per its physical characteristics. Here are some:

• kalahapriya (one who is fond of arguments)
• chitranetra (picturesque eyes)
• peetanetra (one with yellow eyes)
• peetapaad (one with yellow legs)

Mynas, a Blessing

This is particularly true for those who own gardens and fields and desperately fighting away pests like flies, grasshoppers, locusts, caterpillars and beetles. Myna birds feast on them and also enjoy flowers and their nectar.

Common Mynah drinking nectar from Silver Oak flowers

Mynas, a Nuisance

How much ever they may fascinate the poets and writers they are infamous as invasive bird species. They are shunned and shooed away even by bird lovers because these birds are territorial in nature and deplete the food supply of other birds.

Population of Common Myna bird is increasing at a super fast rate. In 2000 IUCN Species Survival Commission declared Common Mynah as one of the world’s most invasive species. It is listed as one of only three birds among 100 of the World’s Worst Invasive Species that pose a threat to biodiversity, agriculture and human interests.

Common Indian Myna bird can mimic the human voice. They can learn tricks and have memory of 100 words; by repeating words to them you can teach Mynahs to speak. When 5 or 6 of them get together, usually in the afternoons, they can drive you crazy with their shrill screeching sounds.

Common Mynah preening

Myna Myth

In India, sighting of single mynas is a sign of bad luck and sighting of 2 mynas a sign of good luck. I laugh at myself for having believed this during my school days. But now I desperately wait for them, even one myna is most welcome! Their preening activities are a joy to watch.

Quoting few lines from Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s works:

When Rabindranath Tagore was in Sriniketan, during one of his walks, he saw a myna hobbling alone in his garden. Every morning, after that, he marked it hopping and ferreting insects all alone away from its flock that are piping and scampering in the veranda nearby.

He depicted it in his work Punascha under the title The Myna as:

What’s with the myna I wonder why from the flock is it apart? When first I saw him under, the silk-cotton tree in my garden, it appeared he was hobbling.

Tagore took pity on that lonely bird and thought what had made it undergo this plight.

Why has it exiled itself from its flock? But, why this plight? What sanctions of the flock have exiled him? What tyranny of mynadom has caused this sight!

Tagore wondered what has wounded its life. But it is not sore with anyone. There was no prideful disdain in his gait or fiery anger in his eyes, nor were there any complaints from the myna, but Tagore felt sad about its state and he compares it to the evening star which is also alone,

“I remain sleepless, watching / The lone evening star / Through a cleft of the tree”

Common Myna Interesting Facts

Battle for Nests

Common Mynas mate for life, one of the few species in avian world to do so. And that is why in India they are symbols of undying love!

Couple mynas are very aggressive about their nests. There is a violent fight if one couple tries to forcefully occupy another couple’s nest. You can witness a full fledged kushti (form of wrestling), with the mightier one pinning down the other constantly jabbing at it with beak.

I have seen them chasing away squirrels too; this is such a contrast to the friendly peacocks I saw on Rajasthan.

Common Myna – Chasing squirrel

Myna Nests

The breeding season is October to March. During these months with the slightest effort you can spot Myna bird’s nests. They build nests almost anywhere and everywhere. A pair of Myna birds nested in the exhaust pipes of DG room of my apartment complex Salarpuria Silverwoods. Leaves, grasses, feathers and assorted items of rubbish are the common materials these birds use for making their nests.

Common Mynah gathering nesting material

Rabindranath Tagore’s Interpretation of Myna Conversations:

When Tagore was in the new building of Sriniketan, every year he used to gaze at a pair of myna birds building their nest in the holes where the constructors have left gaps for some purpose.

These birds built their beautiful home with grass, twigs and leaves and at night the male and the female birds used to dance and sing. Their song echoes the whole building and Tagore was much pleased with it.

By seeing the members in the room, the female bird whispers to her husband and the male bird seem smirk and remarks something on them.

Common Myna Interesting Facts – with nesting material

It is impossible for man to interpret the bird’s language, but Tagore felt that the two myna birds might definitely converse like this:

Female Bird: How did these people come here dear?
Male Bird: Oh! Let them be here. What are they going to do us?
Female Bird: But they must know that it is our private home. Why are they interested in watching our privacy? Will they encourage if anyone do such things to them? Don’t they have manners?
Male Bird: They are humans. But they don’t have such sense.
Female Bird: Ok! Leave it, dear.
Male Bird: Then what?

Interested in Bird Watching?

If you are interested in studying birds then Common Mynas are the best to start with. As the name suggests they are indeed found in plenty around us. And if you have found one be assured the other ones around too.

Common Myna Image on Postage Stamps

The following countries have issued postage stamps with image of Common Myna bird.

Aitutaki 1981, 1984, 1988
Ascension 1976, 1996,
Bangladesh 2010
Bhutan 1998
British Indian Ocean Territory 1990, 2004
Kazakhstan 2011
Laos 1995
Maldive Islands 2014
Mauritius 2006
St Helena 1993

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