Noisy Miner

Description:

Males slightly larger but sexes similar. Length 250 - 290mm. The black crown extends down over the ears, to sides of throat and chin. Hind-neck to rump is mid-grey, mottled dusky and flecked white on the nape. Wings are mid-grey, edged citrine. A dark grey tail, broadly tipped with white. Forehead is white-grey, lores whitish; a bare patch of yellow skin, behind eye. Underparts are white, mottled grey on throat and breast. Brown eye. Yellow bill. Feet brown to orange-yellow.

Habitat:

Bjelke-Petersen Dam.

Notes:

Family Meliphagidae - Honeyeaters. Described as such:- Aggressive, tiny/large tree-living nectar/insect/fruit eaters, either in dull grey, green brown and black plumage. Tapered to square-cut tails and rounded to pointed wings, with tenth outer primary usually well developed. Flight is swift and undulating. A long, slender, down-curved and unbristled but notched and often toothed bill. Long protrusible tongue, concavely channelled or grooved and split at tip, into four brush-tipped sections, for sweeping up nectar and pollen. Feet are sharp-clawed and strong, used for hopping about branches, not often the ground. Sexes are usually alike, often with bare coloured face skin. Solitary and opportunistically gregarious. Communal in small bands only in Miners and Melithreptine (other species) Honeyeaters. The female builds the nest and incubates. Male helps feed the young. Nest is cup shaped, perched or hanging in foliage. Buff or pink-white eggs marked red-brown or black. Noisy Miner:- Also called Mickey (bird); Noisy Mynah; Squeaker; Soldier-bird. They have a complex repertoire - - A rhythmic, repeated two or three syllable teu-teu-teu-teu, is a territorial call, uttered in short, undulating flight. The female may utter four or five throaty, chuckling notes, in sequence, pitch of the last rising questioningly. This is often in answer to territorial call of male. Produces a nasal whistle, to warn flying predators. In social and feeding groups there are soft twitters and whistled squeaking. Song is heard before sunrise, at the onset of or during nesting, pure whistles and antiphonal notes emitted in chorus. These are perhaps the best known Honeyeaters throughout eastern Australia and Tasmania. These garrulous Miners live in sedentary communes, in Eucalypt woodland and open forest, with clear understorey. Insects and other invertebrates become food for the Noisy Miner. They glean by hopping and fluttering about the mid-strata of the woodland, poking along branches, prising under bark and sometimes dropping to the ground-litter and working it over. Will harvest nectar from blossoms and other sugary products among foliage - such as lerps, manna and honeydew, from sap-sucking insects. They also take fruit and in drought conditions may destroy fruit in orchards, causing loss to the farmer. The commune social organisation is complex - - Territorial groups of six to thirty birds, joined in a loose colony of up to several hundred. More males than females. Noisy Miners will join forces to mob/gang up/ attack predators, or even just to drive out other bird species, that have entered into their territory. The Noisy Miner will also use the same threatening behaviour and displays with their own species. This is where the bare yellow skin eye patch comes into its own. The effective size of the patch can change by fluffing the feathers over its edge, or by sleeking them back. Can also look like two, large, intimidating eyes, when in a frontal stare. 'Corroborees' or boisterious social displays have many Noisy Miners coming together, greeting each other by opening their beaks, lifting their tongues, while slowly waving the wings. This is normally between same territory groups. Feeding, bathing and sleeping together are other communal activities. Before sunrise (May - January), for about 10 minutes, there is a communal song. Pure whistling, so different to the harsh squeaks and chatters that are heard in daily socialising. I find these birds delightful Can sure put on a show Aggressive, noisy sticky-beaks I find where e'er I go. Reference:- Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds.