HI ALL:
More on Mynas!

Ian Paulsen
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
ipaulsen at krl.org
A.K.A.: "Birdbooker"
"Rallidae all the way"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2002 19:18:40 -0400
From: Blake Maybank <maybank at NS.SYMPATICO.CA>
To: BIRDCHAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: [BIRDCHAT] FWD: article on Crested Myna

Hello Chatters;

I'm taking the liberty of forwarding a copy of the following article, which
appeared in the Globe and Mail today.

=====================

Myna's Swan Song Saddens Vancouver

By ROD MICKLEBURGH

Saturday, January 5, 2002 ?

Globe and Mail Print Edition, Page A2

VANCOUVER -- Amid the dumpsters, back-alley debris and old warehouses of a
tiny urban pocket of central Vancouver, one of the most remarkable birding
chapters in North America is coming to a gloomy end.

One day soon, after more than 100 years, the city's famed population of
crested mynas, which once blackened skies by the tens of thousands, will
almost certainly vanish for good.

The cheeky, starling look-a-like is already the rarest bird on the
continent. Forget the several hundred whooping cranes that still survive.
Vancouver's crested myna is down to five. Or is it two? Recent counts
are not reassuring.

"I give them two to three years," said birder Brian Seft, focusing his
powerful binoculars on a remaining myna as it hopped unconcernedly from
curb to gutter.

"Without a doubt, we are seeing the last days of the crested myna in North
America. It is very sad."

The demise has been sudden. Though the myna population peaked in the 1920s
and 1930s, hundreds of the birds still flourished throughout the city as
recently as 10 years ago.

Then, abruptly, these mynas, too, began to disappear, a victim of lost
habitat and an all-out push by starlings to take over their surviving
nesting sites.

Losing out to the aggressive, unloved starling -- let go in New York in
1890 as part of a misguided attempt to introduce birds mentioned in
Shakespeare to the United States -- is a bitter pill for the more laid-back
crested myna, since neither species is indigenous to North America.

A few years later, legend has it, either a careless sea captain or grumpy
customs officer released several crested mynas from their cages in
Vancouver, where the imported sub-tropical bird was a favourite pet of
Chinese labourers.

The birds initially flourished in the mild Pacific climate. Unlike the
starlings, however, they never really budged from their starting point.

Bird-book listings for the crested myna read like a Monty Python excerpt.
"Habitat: Laos, Hong Kong, southeast China and Vancouver, Canada," reads one.

Ever since word of the myna's last stand began to spread, birders from
around the world have been flocking to its chosen Alamo.
"We see them outside all the time, standing there in the street, cameras
ready," said Janet Racela, a receptionist at the Best Janitor four-storey
brick office building where the final few mynas reside.

Robert Schutsky leads annual bird-watching expeditions to the Pacific
Northwest all the way from Pennsylvania. He regularly includes an
overnight stop in Vancouver.

"People know this is the only place in North America for the crested myna,"
said Mr. Schutsky. "By the time they finally see it, their excitement has
built to a fever pitch."

Despite its rarity, the crested myna is not hard to find. An afternoon
visit to the Best Janitor building at the out-of-the-way corner of First
and Wylie usually pays off.

Properly known as Sturnus Cristatullus, the crested myna is a black,
robin-sized bird, with distinctive white patches on its wings clearly
visible when it flies. It has a yellow bill and a noticeable, punk-like
crest on top.

"Like a starling having a bad-hair day," Mr. Seft advised. "Look, there's
one now. Right on the window sill."

Sure enough. There it was. Spotted after only 15 minutes. The bird
quickly skipped onto an adjacent iron bar, posing and basking in the deep
sunshine. A moment later, it was off, first to the roof, then to a
telephone wire and finally, a frantic scoot down the lane in search of grub.

Trapped on distant shores an ocean away from the lush, sup-tropical
vegetation were it belongs, the crested myna attracted attention from the
moment it arrived.

U.S. agricultural experts worried that the bird would spread and wreak
havoc on grain production. Scholars have kept busy on the myna's many
mysteries: why only here and nowhere else, why did it do so well, why its
equally sudden decline, and should anyone care?

"I, for one, will miss it. The myna always makes me chuckle," said Mr.
Seft. "My wife remembers seeing two mynas disappearing into a dumpster,
each emerging with a cold, abandoned McDonald's french fry in their beak.
No wonder they're in trouble."

================================

Blake Maybank
maybank at birdingtheamericas.com

Birding the Americas - Trip Report & Planning Repository
http://www.birdingtheamericas.com

"The National Parks and Other Wild Places of Canada"
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/maybank/book.htm

White's Lake, Nova Scotia
CANADA

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