This bird is black and shiny.
It has bright yellow skin on its head. It can learn to talk like us. These birds live in warm forests. They eat fruit and bugs. Do you want to hear them sing?
The hill myna is a black bird.
Its feathers are shiny and look green. It has bright yellow skin on its head.
It also has a yellow beak and yellow legs. This bird lives in the hills of Asia. It likes to stay high in the trees.
The myna eats fruit, nectar, and bugs. It can even learn to copy the human voice! It is a very special bird to hear.
The common hill myna is a dark bird.
Its feathers are black with a green shine. It has bright yellow skin on its head. These parts are called wattles.
The bird also has a yellow beak and yellow legs. It is about 29 cm long. This makes it bigger than some other mynas.
These birds live in the hills of South and Southeast Asia. They like to live high in the trees.
They move in noisy groups. Most of the time, they eat fruit, nectar, and insects. They build their nests in holes in trees.
One of the most fun things about this bird is its voice.
They make many loud calls. These can sound like whistles or even human voices. In the wild, they do not copy other birds. But as pets, they are great mimics. This means they can copy sounds very well. They can even learn to whistle tunes with great skill.
The common hill myna is a special kind of starling.
These birds live in the hills of South and Southeast Asia. They are very famous because they can talk. People often keep them as pets because they are such good mimics. A mimic is something that copies sounds very well. This bird can copy the human voice or even whistled tunes. It does this with great clarity and accuracy. This makes them one of the most popular birds in the world of bird lovers.
This bird has a very striking look. It is a stocky bird with jet-black feathers. These feathers often have a green or purple shine.
You can easily see large white patches on its wings when it flies. When it sits, these patches are mostly hidden. The bird has bright yellow legs and a bright yellow bill. It also has fleshy yellow skin on its head called wattles. These wattles go from the eye to the back of the head. The bird is about 29 cm long. This makes it larger than the common myna.
Scientists have studied these birds for a long time. A Swedish naturalist named Carl Linnaeus first described them in 1758. He wrote about them in his book called Systema Naturae. The scientific name for the bird is Gracula religiosa. The word "religiosa" comes from a Latin word meaning "sacred." This might be because people once taught them to repeat sacred prayers. The type location where the bird was first studied is the island of Java. Today, we know there are nine different subspecies of this bird. Some live on islands like Sumatra or the Philippines.
Common hill mynas spend most of their time high in the trees. They are almost entirely arboreal, which means they live in trees. They move in noisy groups of about six birds. These groups stay near the top of the forest canopy. They like to eat fruit, nectar, and insects. To raise their young, they build nests inside holes in trees. A typical nest holds two or three eggs.
In the wild, they use many different calls. These include whistles, wails, and even gurgles. Birds living far apart often have different call types. This is like having different dialects in human speech.
It is important to look after these birds in the wild. Many birds are caught from the wild to be sold as pets. In the 1990s, nearly 20,000 wild birds were taken each year. This caused some populations to go down in places like Thailand. Some groups, like those in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, became near threatened. To help, some people in the Garo Hills build special nests out of bamboo. These nests help protect the birds and their homes. We want to make sure these amazing talking birds stay safe in nature.
The common hill myna, known scientifically as Gracula religiosa, is a prominent species of starling.
These birds are primarily found in the hilly regions of South and Southeast Asia. They are widely recognized for their remarkable ability to mimic sounds. This skill makes them very popular in aviculture, which is the practice of keeping birds. Because they can imitate the human voice and even whistled tunes, they are highly valued. This unique vocal ability is a defining characteristic of the species.
Physically, the common hill myna is a stocky, jet-black bird. Its plumage often displays a green gloss or a purple tinge on the head and neck.
One of its most striking features is the large, white wing patches. These patches are very obvious when the bird is in flight but remain mostly covered while sitting. The bird measures approximately 29 cm in length. This makes it somewhat larger than the common myna, a related species. Its legs and bill are a bright, contrasting yellow.
The bird also features distinctive fleshy patches of naked skin called wattles.
These yellow wattles are located on the side of the head and the nape, which is the back of the neck. In the common hill myna, these wattles extend from the eye to the nape, where they join together. This pattern is different from other hill mynas. For example, the Sri Lanka hill myna has a single wattle across the nape. In the southern hill myna, the wattles are separate and curve toward the top of the head. These subtle physical differences help scientists distinguish between various groups.
Scientific study of this species dates back to 1758. The Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus formally described the bird in the tenth edition of his work, Systema Naturae. He assigned it the binomial name Gracula religiosa. The genus name comes from the Latin word 'graculus,' which refers to an unknown bird. The specific epithet, 'religiosa,' means 'sacred' in Latin. This name may refer to the historical practice of teaching these birds to repeat sacred prayers. The type location for this description was the Indonesian island of Java.
Taxonomists currently recognize nine distinct subspecies of the common hill myna. These include the G. r. intermedia, which ranges from northern India to southern China.
Other subspecies inhabit specific islands, such as G. r. palawanensis in the Philippines. One subspecies, G. r. miotera, is of great concern. A 2020 study suggested it may have been driven to extinction in the wild during the late 2010s. This decline was likely caused by unsustainable collecting for the wildlife trade. Scientists recommend rescuing the remaining captive individuals for captive breeding programs.
The vocal behavior of the common hill myna is highly complex. They are most active and vocal at dawn and dusk.
In the wild, they produce a wide range of sounds, including whistles, wails, screeches, and gurgles. Each individual has a repertoire of three to 13 different call types. These calls are learned when the birds are young. Interestingly, these sounds function like dialects. Birds living more than 15 km apart may have no call types in common. While they are famous mimics in captivity, they do not actually imitate other birds in the wild.
In their natural habitat, these birds are almost entirely arboreal. This means they spend most of their time living in trees. They usually move in noisy groups of about six individuals within the forest canopy. They are omnivorous, meaning they eat a variety of foods including fruit, nectar, and insects. They build their nests in tree holes, usually laying a clutch of two or three eggs.
This lifestyle keeps them closely connected to the forest ecosystem.
Conservation is a major concern for many hill myna populations. During the 1990s, nearly 20,000 wild-caught birds were entered into the pet trade annually. This high demand has caused declines in certain areas, such as Thailand. To protect them, the species was placed on CITES Appendix II in 1997. This is an international agreement to control the trade of certain species. In the Garo Hills, locals help by building artificial nests from split bamboo. These nests protect the birds from habitat destruction and help manage local populations.
Where will your curiosity go next?
🖼️ Images & Media (5)
More to explore
✨ What else?
Related topics you might enjoy
What is Nepedia?
A free, ad-free encyclopedia for children. Every article is written at five reading levels, so the same page works for a five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old — use the level switcher above to see this one change. No account needed to read.