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Whatsapp The range and density of the noisy miner population is increasing

The noisy miner is an incredibly destructive species—but they're natives, protected by legislation. That doesn't matter, Sue Taylor argues. They should be culled.

One morning last year on my daily walk, I encountered two young mothers in the local park, each pushing a stroller. It was August and the noisy miners were nesting.

'Watch out!' said one young mum to the other. 'They usually attack me around here.'

There are simply too many miners. Something should be done.

She seemed quite nervous. 'They think you're invading their territory,' I said. 'Look. The nest is just there.'

I pointed to a nest above us in a gum tree.

'Just give the tree a wide berth,' I suggested helpfully.

The two young women looked at me doubtfully and hurried away. The miners bombed them and me indiscriminately.

This is the problem: these birds are becoming more and more aggressive, turning what should be an enjoyable walk in the park into a very uncomfortable battleground. There are simply too many miners. Something should be done.

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Whatsapp Noisy miners are currently protected by law

But what are noisy miners?

Australia has four species of miners, belonging to the genus Manorina, all of which are technically miners.

There's quite a lot of variance between them: from the bell miners that live along creeks and have a pretty tinkling, to the rare black-eared miner, and the yellow-throated miner with it interbreeds.

The bad guy of our story is the fourth member of the family: the noisy miner, Manorina melanocephala, now found regularly in urban Sydney and Melbourne.

Often confused for the introduced Indian mynah bird, the noisy miner is increasing its range and its density.

Here's the problem: noisy miners are unpleasantly aggressive to all other creatures: other miners, other birds, other animals and people—including young mothers with strollers.

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Whatsapp Though they are native, noisy miners are well known for being loud and aggressive

How dangerous is the noisy miner?

Noisy miners mob birds of all sizes, not just potential predators.

They mob waterbirds—fish eaters that are not competing for the miners' food. They attack seed-eating crested pigeons. Small birds that do not take the hint quickly and leave the area are killed.

Such constant violent behaviour between species is very rare in birds.

Not far from where I live, in a nearby suburb, there is a beautiful native garden. It is an oasis of flowering plants within suburbia, a retreat from the hurly burly of city life.

In the past I used to see superb fairy-wrens here. I would regularly see New Holland honeyeaters, eastern spinebills and silvereyes. Not any more. Noisy miners have taken over. There are no small birds at all.

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Whatsapp A noisy miner chick

The ecological impact of the noisy miner

Small insectivorous birds play an important role in the environment, consuming insects that otherwise defoliate trees.

When noisy miners cause the eradication of these small birds, trees suffer more leaf damage. In this way, noisy miners assist dieback.

Small insectivorous birds are already endangered because of habitat loss.

Climate change isn't helping. The last thing they need is to be evicted from suitable habitat by a despotic bully.

I spoke to the gardeners at the native garden about the obvious overabundance of noisy miners. They all agreed that there were too many miners, but they shrugged their shoulders in resignation.

'You can't cull a native species,' they said.

They were correct: noisy miners are protected by law. It is illegal to cull them unless you have a permit from the State wildlife authority.

But that attitude misses the point: overabundant native species can be just as damaging as their exotic counterparts when it comes to upsetting the natural balance.

So what can be done?

The facts are these: noisy miners have proliferated. They dominate the environment. Their aggression leads to the eradication of small birds.

They can change species composition, spread infectious diseases, reduce natural diversity and cause local extinctions.

Experiments have demonstrated that when noisy miners are removed from an area, the number of species of birds can increase tenfold, and the number of individual birds can increase 40 times.

Noisy miners are an irritant in city parks. However, a far bigger problem is what noisy miners are doing in bushland.

In southern Queensland, noisy miners are abundant in areas of hundreds of thousands of hectares which should be providing habitat for small birds.

In Wimmera, restoration of degraded buloke woodlands by planting fast-growing eucalypts has encouraged noisy miners and not provided the desired protection for small birds.

Up to 90 per cent of Victoria's box-ironbark woodland has been cleared, providing the habitat that noisy miners enjoy.

In summary, noisy miners are increasing in abundance and extending their range. They are extremely aggressive to all other creatures.

They eradicate small insectivorous birds. This results in a monoculture and is detrimental to the environment.

Noisy miners should be removed, and dense, complex understoreys should be planted to encourage the re-establishment of small insectivorous birds.

This is an edited extract of a talk first delivered on Ockham's Razor.

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Hear the full talk Should we eliminate this native bird?



