While I was in school, there was a small wetland near my building in Andheri where I’d be able to spot waterbirds such as the White-breasted Waterhen, Black-winged Stilts and the occasional Snipe
While I was in school, there was a small wetland near my building in Andheri where I’d be able to spot waterbirds such as the White-breasted Waterhen, Black-winged Stilts and the occasional Snipe. Soon, I could differentiate many of these avian neighbours just by their calls. The noisiest and gawkiest among them were the Mynas. Earlier, ornithologists had clumped most Mynas along with their smaller cousins, the Starlings. But, even with little observation you are bound to distinguish starlings and mynas from their physical features, nesting behaviour, calls or songs and maybe even their colours.
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The Asian Pied Myna
Our common Mynas are the local brown dons among birds with a jelled look on their crown feathers, complimented by a boisterous demeanour. In comparison, their close cousins, the Pied mynas or what are now christened the Asian Pied starlings (Gracupica contra) are a melodious and happy lot. I can recollect my exhilaration on seeing Pied starlings (Mynas) twitter and fly around the wetland, way back in 1986. I watched their flocks dwindle into loose pairs engaged in courtship activities such as calling, fluffing of feathers and head-bobbing. Their loose, grass-ball nest with a lateral entrance, on an Indian Coral tree, next to the lake, had a stench that could repel even the most ardent mammalian predator. Favoured nesting trees include banyan, mango, jackfruit, rosewood, Bhend and Pangara or the occasional man-made tower.
Asian Pied starlings, found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, have a contrasting black and white plumage with a red-based yellowish bill and a red bare skin-patch besides the eye. They are gregarious birds, mainly distributed from the Indo-Gangetic region extending south to the Krishna River, occurring in plains and low foothills with access to open water. However, accidental cage escapees have been possibly responsible for their historical range extension and establishment of populations in Pakistan, Rajkot and since 1953, in Mumbai. Although naturalised birds in Amchi Mumbai, their highly muscular preying apparatus allows them to part a mat of grass while their eyes are positioned to obtain a binocular view of the space between the parted beaks. It’s no wonder then that we find them foraging on our sports fields, garden lawns and in mangroves feeding on grains, fruits, insects and earthworms.
As pied starlings are a highly social, group members call frequently with a wide repertoire that includes whistles, trills, buzzes, clicks, and warbling calls. Their outstanding ability to mimic human speech and imitate songs of other birds had young birds taken into captivity or trained for performances. The metallic calls they emitted while scavenging in the lakeside grassland were reminiscent of a bunch of giggling school girls.
With dwindling grasslands, wetlands and even indigenous tree cover, it’s becoming a rare phenomenon to find pied starling parents bustling around to raise their single brood of six. Sadly, unless you live around areas with wetlands such as the Aarey Milk Colony, IIT Powai, parts of Mulund, Vasai, Panvel or the Race Course, it is becoming increasingly unlikely to sight these Pied Pipers of our Urban Kingdom. So, revive your old ponds with grassy edges on mud embankments and watch these singing starlings happily re-colonise your silent lawns.
Write in to Anand at sproutsenvttrust@gmail.com
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