Common Myna distribution - any change

[Ken George]

According to what I've read, the distribution of Myna in the northern two thirds of the North Island has contracted over the years. I remember while playing schoolboy rugby on the playing fields at Waiwhetu in the Hutt Valley in the early 1960's, seeing small flocks of them on the fields there. In the Atlas of Bird Distribution 1999-2004, on the Myna page 292 is the line 'Unlike most other introduced taxa, the Myna continues to exhibit reductions in its distribution from a previously common distribution in the Wairarapa, Wellington, and the Volcanic Plateau areas.' It will be interesting to see, when the current Atlas program comes to an end and the latest distribution data analysed, whether the impact of the warming climate has stopped or reversed the distribution of Myna in the North Island. Have they started to move south again with the warmer weather, or has climate got nothing to do with their range reduction?

[philbattley]

Hi Ken, mynas are certainly expanding south from Hawkes Bay currently. It used to be that you would encounter them only north of Tikokino but now they are resident and becoming common in Dannevirke. There are a few records from Woodville, but they are maybe not resident there yet.

[Michael Szabo]

There are several threads about Common Myna sightings in the Lower North Island and upper South Island:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=10537&p=47195&hilit=Myna#p47195

They have also been reported in Masterton as recently as 2021 and a dead one was reportedly found at Wellington airport on 8th January 2020: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9700&p=43434&hilit=Myna#p43434

Here's a 2020 sighting from Marlborough:
https://ebird.org/atlasnz/checklist/S65 ... ynD0NRDLn8

And another report from Christchurch from 2018 to 2021:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7691&hilit=Myna

There is also this thread discussing Common Myna as an invasive species:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8893&hilit=Myna

[Paul Shortis]

As a Wairarapa resident I can report:
1. There has been a small population at the Masterton dump for many years, possibly even going back to the original releases. I've read somewhere that Masterton was one of the original release sites.
2. There have been several sightings north of Pirinoa over the last three or four years. I've seen single birds beside the road doing the usual Myna dodging act but you may see a couple then nothing for months.
3. In the last year I have sighted single birds beside the road on SH2 just north of the Tauherenikau Racecourse. Once again, you only ever see single birds but I have sighted 2 birds on the same stretch of road within 400 metres of each other.
I don't know the size of a Myna's territory, which may be bigger if the population is sparse, but the distance between the Pirinoa sightings and the SH2 sightings is about 15 Kms and includes the northern end of Lake Wairarapa. Given the speed with which they originally spread north the migration south seems much slower. To date there is no evidence the South Wairarapa population is expanding.
The Masterton dump population always look scruffy and not particularly healthy which makes me wonder if that's a symptom of scavenging at a dump of signs of a small gene pool.
The short answer to Ken's question is sughtings are on the increase down here but difficult to tell how significant that is at this stage.

[Michael Szabo]

Thanks for those comments Paul and good on you for posting your 2018 sighting near Tauherenikau race course to eBird with detailed notes:
https://ebird.org/newzealand/checklist/S50519968

Looking at lower North Island Common Myna records on eBird over the past ten years it's notable that none south of Foxton or Masterton are accompanied by photos. I wonder how many of them were actually Common Starlings?

If anyone sees a Common Myna south of Foxton or Masterton it would be very useful to report it via eBird with a photo to verify the ID.

[Paul Shortis]

Sometime since this discussion had any input. I have diligently carried a camera whenever I have driven through South Wairarapa as per Michael's advice. Of course, I cleaned car out at Christmas and saw two birds just north of the Tauherenikau Racecourse on Tuesday - no camera! I was probably sensitised to Myna spotting as I saw 3 the day before while walking through the Henley Lake wetland on the eastern side of Masterton (5MBC entered in e-Bird). I walk there regularly and never see anything of great interest and this is the first time I have seen Mynas in Masterton anywhere other than the municipal dump. My guess is these were visitors from the dump although they looked a lot better kempt than their dump cousins! If I had to guess, with climate change, we are likely to see more rather than less of these resilient birds!

[Jake]

As far as Tararua/Wairarapa goes:

I've seen/heard them regularly in Woodville. I saw up to 4 on Saturday on the main drag, but more typically see them near the railroad headed south.

In Masterton, I've heard them calling first thing in the morning in Landsdown (suburb north of the town), seen many around Grant Cres (where there's a lot of statehousing-looking homes) and I've seen at least one at the old Taratahi Campus

We had one a few years ago take up a summer residence in Eketahuna, and was here for a couple of months before disappearing