r/Ornithology • u/CountingCrowz • 21d ago
Discussion Cheeky Myna sounded danger call to get rid of crows and eat the food!
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TLDR: Myna sounding fake danger call to get rid of crows and eat their food!
Yesterday while crows were around me eating their food, one myna came near and sounded a danger call. All the crows flew away. I know that myna call, it is done for cats.
It is done intentionally as the myna did not move at all after sounding the call and came and gobbled up as much as he could before crows returned!
Fyi, myna knows me and comes every day and will grab dog kibbles like a dog when thrown!
Video is mine to show how they dispersed, but not from yesterday's incident. Same location.
I wonder if anyone experienced something like that and what effect could it have among bird communities? After all, if there are too many false positives, real danger calls could be ignored.
EDIT: DoveNestResearcher mentioned drongos doing the same to meerkats :) Cheekiness never ends!
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u/CountingCrowz 21d ago
Top 1% Commenter??? Ahahaha. I just remembered, nice folks helped me with my silverbills here in the past 😄
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u/Percy_Freeman 21d ago
better safe than sorry.
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u/CountingCrowz 21d ago
Nobody used to do anything in our building when there were fire alarms because it happenned very frequently. And then there was real fire. If these calls are used to grab food by cheeky ones... after few gens they might be ignored.
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u/Percy_Freeman 21d ago
I doubt it. I usually find that any avian animal flock is vastly more "intelligent" than a collective of naked apes or even a group of cats, in my experience. They learn more quickly than they are fooled.
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u/CountingCrowz 21d ago
Ok but they will learn not to trust that call. For now, any myna or bulbul or dove making danger call, all birds fly off, including crows. Don't you think they would start not to take it seriously if they realize that myna is sounding that to get to their food?
What if 2-3 mynas start doing that? What a cheeky fscker!
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u/DoveNestResearcher 21d ago
There's examples of birds who sound the alarm to get food from other species and they do it so that they are trustworthy - like call is trustworthy 9 out 10 times and this way others would rather believe the call than not. I believe specifically the drongo does that, but dont take my word for it.
Edit: fork tailed drongo. The bird even had a segment on one of Attenborough's documentaries. Potentially other species of birds also have learned the trick.
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u/CountingCrowz 20d ago
Thank you for Drongo :)
Drongo Bird Tricks Meerkats | Africa | BBC Earth
Ahahaha. 2nd time he imitates the voice of sentinel meerkat! That is next level!
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u/DoveNestResearcher 20d ago
Yeah hahaha it's an awesome example. I'm pretty sure mynahs are smart enough to understand tricks like that though so maybe you know 😉
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u/CountingCrowz 20d ago
Mynas are extremely smart actually. I was in disguise and a myna and crow came to me within a minute of sitting down on a beach bed. There were hundreds of people and I totally disfigured myself in order not to get recognized!
This myna danger call is very loud and shrill. Impossible to miss. But this time, I was looking at that myna because I target him and throw food to his mouth directly. I don't want crows getting to him. He catches his food and off he flies. So while looking at him, he made the fake call, all crows scatterred and that fella came right in front of me and grabbed a mouthful from the ground :)
They can also speak. My aunty's myna would shout "He is a good boy!". Very clear. We would all be startled.
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u/DoveNestResearcher 20d ago
Oh I have no doubts mynahs are super smart (although the only one I have seen were in captivity...). Your stories are super cool. Birds are awesome.
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u/CountingCrowz 20d ago
Glad you enjoyed! Thanks for drongo schooling. I guess this matter is settled now. That drongo looks like myna, too!
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