Indian myna's impressive tactics

[dichotomy]

A while back I observed a hawk with a Indian myna bird in it’s clutches. 3 more Indian myna birds appeared abruptly and started squawking and pecking at the hawk. This group harassment was effective enough after a few seconds (4 or 5) to make the Hawk, which was about twice their size, release the bird it had in its claws. As the Hawk flew away the Indian myna flew after it squawking and pecking as they went until the hawk completely left the scene. The Indian mynas appeared to aggressively defend their own kind in the face of a very capable opponent.

 

Is this a common occurrence with Indian myna? Or in fact any bird that is smaller than the bird of prey?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Myna

[Glider]

Mynas are members of the starling family and the behaviour you observed is called 'mobbing' and it is a behaviour common to many kinds of bird, especially those that roost in groups or colonies. It is particularly pronounced in corvids (crows, rooks, ravens, jackdaws, magpies etc.).

 

When presented with a threat, these 'social' birds will produce an alarm call that causes others in the area to come together and, as a group, mob the predator until it leaves the area. It doesn't matter what the threat is either. If you ever get too close to a nest in a jackdaw colony, they will mob you.

 

My cat was mobbed by a pair of crows once. He's never been quite the same since.

Edited October 8, 2008 by Glider

[dichotomy]

I could have believed what I saw if it was corvids. But the fact that there was such an obvious size difference amazed me. Tough little buggers.

 

A Magpie did swoop me from behind last spring, and it drew blood from my ear!

[Glider]

Yeah, I got mobbed by gulls on a beach in Wales once. I'd wandered around a cliff face and into a nesting colony. Gulls are a lot bigger than you think close-up, aren't they?

 

I found a good way to avoid getting hit though. It was a shingle beach and so each time they came around, I just threw a handful of shingle into the air over my head and the gulls would swerve to avoid it. It was very effective I'm glad to say. Apparently it's extremely painful when they hit you.

 

Starlings in general are tough little mobsters. I can imagine getting hit by a magpie would sting a bit too.

 

The thing that really annoys me about Australian magpies is that they have (to my ear) a really lovely song. But they're ugly, blotchy black/grey things. Magpies here are really attractive metallic blue/purple/black and white, but the noise they make just makes you want to throw stuff at them. Why can't our magpies sound like yours?

Edited October 9, 2008 by Glider

[dichotomy]

Yeah, I got mobbed by gulls on a beach in Wales once. I'd wandered around a cliff face and into a nesting colony. Gulls are a lot bigger than you think close-up, aren't they?

 

I found a good way to avoid getting hit though. It was a shingle beach and so each time they came around, I just threw a handful of shingle into the air over my head and the gulls would swerve to avoid it. It was very effective I'm glad to say. Apparently it's extremely painful when they hit you.

 

Starlings in general are tough little mobsters. I can imagine getting hit by a magpie would sting a bit too.

 

The thing that really annoys me about Australian magpies is that they have (to my ear) a really lovely song. But they're ugly, blotchy black/grey things. Magpies here are really attractive metallic blue/purple/black and white, but the noise they make just makes you want to throw stuff at them. Why can't our magpies sound like yours?

 

 

The magpie that injured my ear was an Australian magpie Gymnorhina tibicen. And yes, it stung for at least 30 minutes. I’m glad it didn’t target my eye . They are a local menace to posties and bike riders. But I respect their protective behaviours of their young. They are a strong black and white colour. You must have seen some young ones that are a mottled grey white black colour. About 30cm tall. They do have a nice call, and can be taught to mimic human words. I had a lost young one in my yard and it didn’t hesitate to run up to me squawking for food, so I obliged for 3 weeks. I now know they love tinned cat food and eat at a comical machine gun pace.

 

“The Injury Surveillance Information System (ISIS) is a national collection of hospital emergency department attendance records. Their data shows that of 59 magpie attacks, the eye was the birds’ most common target.”

 

http://www.abc.net.au/science/scribblygum/July2002/

 

[Glider]

You're right. I just used google images and the ones I saw whilst staying in Sydney were juveniles (scrawny, mottled things). The adults look a lot better. We used to hand feed the sulphur crested cockys as they dropped by in the mornings and evenings and a bunch of juvenile magpies would also come down. Never saw any adults though. I was there in mid-summer though. The juveniles didn't seem that agressive at all and took to hand-feeding too. Maybe with their excellent memory, my mate will be safe from future attack as they'll remember being fed.

 

Their call is one of my all-time favourite bird sounds. I wouldn't mind having a few around here. There are a lot of magpies here and with their call they always seem either to be mocking something or swearing at something.

 

It seems to be a thing with corvids, that they recognise the eyes in other species and will go for them when mobbing. Gulls, for example, will just whack you anywhere on the head, usually from behind (bastards).

[dichotomy]

The local Melbourne sea gulls don’t attack. Some will in fact hover beside the unwound window of a car when they suss–out that you have fish and chips in there. I’ve fed gulls like this, whilst they are hovering next to my open window, they snatch chips straight out of your fingers. Quite comical when they are flying against a strong southerly wind.