The Common Myna - the most hateful bird you’ve ever come across

            Although Taiwan is a great place for bird watching due to the large number of endemic species that can be found, birds seem to be more common in Thailand. My camera, bought in 2007, isn’t the best at capturing small moving objects far away, and I’m probably not good enough of a photographer to make the best of its limited capabilities. Yet that is actually part of the fun. I have to get real close to the birds to get a good shot, so even the common birds are a challenge.
            The most difficult bird was the Common Myna. Not because of its rarity, as its name implies it is quite common, but because they are simply dicks. They are tricksters and cheats! For some reason, they are camera shy. They are afraid of humans, which is a problem when you need to get within 10 feet to take a good picture, but they actually fear cameras in particular. As soon as they see a camera they flee, which made it really hard to get a good shot. But that doesn’t make them dicks. They are dicks because they would seem to flaunt their presence, only to fly away a fraction of a second before my camera focused and snapped a picture. That left me with a bunch of blurry pics of their rear-ends, the arrogant bastards. They often sashayed across our path only to hide when my camera was ready. They would sing loudly to draw attention, then fly away once we’d located them. But the frustration only added to the fun of the chase, and I finally managed to snap a couple of pictures I was happy with.
It started innocently enough, two birds (they are almost always in pairs because they mate for life) on top of some ruins in Lopburi.

They were everywhere!

 













          In Chiang Khan I thought I had tricked one, coming around a corner by surprise, but my camera focused on the leaves…  

Wow! Such pretty leaves!

It was only in Sukhothai that I got my first good shot, after multiple failed attempts.

Then, I successfully hid from one common Myna in Chiang Mai, and got close enough for another picture.

             The Common Myna has actually been declared a pest because its adaptation to urban landscapes has been so successful that it poses a threat to biodiversity. Why? Well for one they invade nests of other species, throw out the hatchlings using their beaks, and then sometimes they don’t even use the nest. They were doing it just for the kicks. I told you they were dicks.
             They live the good life, keeping a year round home roost to brood and incubate, and a summer cottage roost to breed. As if being infanticidal thieves wasn’t dickish enough, they are also racist. They kick out all other birds from the neighborhoods of both their homes. They are racist infanticidal thieves. I'll let that sink in for a moment. I'm sure they are also big fans of Hitler and Nickleback. The daytime activity-time budget of Common Myna has been recorded to comprise the following: nesting activity (42%), scanning the environment (28%), locomotion (12%), feeding (4%), vocalisation (7%), preening-related activities, interactions and other activities (7%), and being dicks (100%).  Originating from India, they have a place in Sanskrit and Prakrit literature, where they are sometimes called kalahapriya, which means "one who is fond of arguments". It just goes to show, they’ve been dicks for thousands of years.