Yes Belly, that is the little blighter.

The article is a shocker! It is pretty clearly written by someone who had no idea about mynas beforehand and did a bit of quick research, managing to collate the worst opinions of mynas and exaggerate heaps to make it sound even worse!

It is pretty clear that she wanted to write a piece condemning mynas, and was not open to the possibility that they really aren't so bad.

For one thing; the distribution map in the article is terribly wrong. It has mynas going as far north as about Bowen or Ayr, in a continuous band from about Melbourne.

But they are prolific a lot further north, from Townsville to the Daintree River north of Cairns. And they are absent south of Townsville for a long distance; in Ayr, Bowen, Mackay, Rockhampton, etc and pop up again in Childers and then there is another break before they pop up in far southeast Queensland.

Today in Mission Beach I observed lots of mynas. But all the native birds that you would expect are still around and in healthy numbers, in the built-up areas.

I’ve observed these birds for thirty years in north Queensland. Even when they do form large flocks, as they sometimes do in the Wet Tropics, I can’t see that they are a particularly bad feral species. They just seem to fit in pretty well, into a very highly altered landscape… and do not disadvantage native species to any significant extent.

LUDWIG, while the thread rests in peace.
While I am talking to myself
http://www.smh.com.au/national/pushy-myna-birds-a-major-nest-pest-20120812-242v2.html
Here in my view is all the evedence I need to say my fears are well based.

Thanks Belly for continuing the debate.

Again I have to disagree with the article that you have posted.

From the article:

< The myna bird … is squeezing out some of Australia's signature species including the laughing kookaburra, crimson rosella and sulphur-crested cockatoo >

Balls!

Here in Cairns, with a very large population of mynas, we have the endless raucous screeches of thousands of sulphur-crested cockatoos, and the ever-present dawn and dusk cacophonies of laughing kookaburras. They put on a wonderful display this morning at my campsite!

<< Eight smaller species including the grey fantail, magpie-lark, willie wagtail and silvereye also fared poorly. >>

This is ridiculous! Magpie larks and willie wagtails are abundant in just the same humanised landscapes as mynas, and silvereyes and grey fantails are common in adjacent bushland areas.

The author of this article is completely off the rails!!

Hi Belly. I’m sitting here at a café on the Cairns Esplanade, and guess what I’m doing – feeding myna birds!!

They just LUUUVE scrambled eggs!!

Hehehehe ( :>)

So we BOTH feed them lovely little feral featherfaces!