Great Myna (Acridotheres grandis)

Great Myna

Description

The great myna (Acridotheres grandis), also known as the white-vented myna, is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is found in Northeast India, through Bangladesh to Southeast Asia. It is black with elongated forehead feathers, forming a frontal crest that may curl backwards. Its beak and feet are yellow. It has white from the vent to the tip of the tail and a white wing patch.

Distribution And Habitat

The Great Myna occurs from Nagaland through Bangladesh and Manipur to Burma, as well as through Southeast Asia and in southern China (Craig and Feare 1998). Its native habitat includes mostly cultivated areas and other open habitats including grasslands and marshes, as well as parks, gardens, and golf courses (Craig and Feare 1998). The myna has been introduced via the pet trade to Puerto Rico where it has been found breeding only in the north and east coasts in open woodlands (Raffaele 1989a). An escaped cage bird was the only myna record noted for Vieques by Raffaele (1989b) and Gemmill (2015) but with no evidence for breeding. The atlas fieldwork yielded a total of two records within two hexagons or 0.4 percent of the 479 total hexagons (see map). Of the two hexagons where this species was found, observations in one hexagon met the atlas definition of probable breeding, while the species was observed in the other hexagon but without evidence of breeding (see map). Great Myna distribution. The map shows the highest breeding code by hexagon and overlaying the ecological life zones in Puerto Rico. Note: percentages may not total 100 due to rounding. 223Great Myna/Miná Grande

Breeding Habits

Previously published reports indicate that the Great Myna normally breeds between April and July, and it usually nests in tree holes and roofs of houses (Deignan 1945). Only one probable breeding record was found during the atlas surveys, and the record occurred in the subtropical moist forest life zone in the month of February (see chart, map, and table). The two records for the myna indicated that the species appears to have shown no shift in range from its north and east coast range initially described by Raffaele (1989b).

Conservation

The global population size of the Great Myna has not been quantified or assessed, but the species is described as common throughout its native distributional range (Craig and Feare 1998). This species is currently listed as a species of least concern by the IUCN (BirdLife International 2016). Locally, this species is not listed in any of the threatened categories of PRDNER and USFWS. In Puerto Rico, the Great Myna has a protected habitat in land of about 23 percent (11 km2) of the total area covered by the hexagon where evidence of breeding was found for this species (48 km2).