BirdingNZ.net

Re both Mynas & Bulbul - let us not forget we live in a now rapidly changing world.
What is innocuous or barely maintaining a foothold now may be a major issue in a warming NZ.

For how many years were ship rats virtually a non-issue in Beech forests in NZ .... a slight warming and a change in Beech masting and now..!!

While you could say that these species are the least of our native & endemics worries there is also the straw that breaks the camels back.

cheers
Jim

https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.gov ... oses-2019/

The Mynas and Bulbul will love this - happy people and muffins

SomesBirder wrote:

Neil Fitzgerald wrote:

SomesBirder wrote:The elimination of mynas probably needs to be taken seriously.

Based on..? Without evidence, it could just be a big distraction.

Surprisingly, this seems to be the only peer-reviewed article about the benefits of eradicating mynas in New Zealand:

http://www.publish.csiro.au/?paper=PC070202

Formal research isn't always required to assess the impacts of invasive species, though. We don't need to release stoats onto Mana Island to inform their impact on the mainland, for instance.

Yes, that is the only published NZ study I'm aware of, and it is completely confounded by the removal of rats (Norway and ship) from the island at the same time. Rat removal could easily explain all of the observed increases.

We don't need to put stoats on Mana because we have truck loads of data from the rest of the country.

Mynas are also on other islands like Hauturu, in very small numbers. They just don't seem to get a foot in. Same for Tiri, they can't compete. Kakariki appear to be establishing nicely into established myna populations at Tawharanui and Shakespear.

That's good to hear, Colin. Common Mynas are certainly very numerous on the adjacent Northland coast where some Kakariki move in winter. I've seen a pair of Kakariki at a local site there in summer which has baited traps that target terrestrial mammal pests, so I wonder if the large local population of Common Mynas prevent Kakariki from the Poor Knights re-establishing on the mainland there.

I think it is clear that there is a lack of research around Myna impacts - and any impact is potentially distorted by other well researched impacts from introduced mammals and habitat changes.
I think it is reasonable to suspect that on a largely unmodified environment such as LB - Myna would find it difficult to out compete natives - but most of NZ is not like LB.
In the "typical" NZ that now exists of farmland interspersed with pockets of vegetation I would hope that in the absence of mammalian predators a number of NZ natives and endemics could and would adapt to this environment.
The question is in this sort of environment can these birds hold their own against the likes of myna, rosella, magpie, cockatoo etc.
Until I see flocks of kakariki flying over the fields I'm not convinced.
Cheers Jim

That's a good point about more modified environments, Jim. Efforts to control mammalian predators in those sorts of places has probably outpaced what we know about how and if native species can use it, and what other potential limiting factors remain.

Yes, I agree. This thread and the related one on the current Red-vented Bulbul eradication programme have made me wonder what NZ research has been published on the combined impacts of invasive pest bird species on NZ native bird species, habitats and ecosystems. The NZ invasive species list is already quite long: Australian Magpie, Canada Goose, Common Myna, Mallard, Rook, Greenfinch, Common Redpoll, Yellowhammer, Cirl Bunting, European Goldfinch, Common Starling, Dunnock, House Sparrow -- not to mention Eastern Rosella, Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, Rainbow Lorikeet and Ring-necked Parakeet which are listed as unwanted pest species in various NZ official documents:
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/protection-and- ... ing-pests/