Noisy Miners

[GregH]

I've read heaps of member posts about noisy miners and until recently they weren't a problem but they have recently discovered the birds at my place. What does a honey eater get out of annoying the crap out of totally unrelated caged birds? I take it that if any of my finches were to land on the wire next to a miner that it will not just snap its beak at them but snap my birds neck. Do miners learn this behaviour or is it innate and can anything dissuade them?

[iaos]

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resou ... rKTPPD.pdf

Here is an interesting recent paper on them.

[Danny]

Not sure I agree that noisy miners will push Peaceful doves and Double bars into the endangered category ?

[GregH]

Thanks for the link IAOS. I hadn't considered it before but there are very few birds around aside from the noisy minor, rainbow lorikeets, sulfur-crested cockatoos, crows and channel-billed cuckoos. The paper doesn't go into why the miners aggressively exclude other species because they aren't appropriating resources for themselves as they don't eat seed, psyllids or greater diversity of insects within the defended territory. They are dive bombing the aviaries as I speak and I'm worried about the stress they induce in the caged birds and its impact on the health and breeding of the finches.

[Myzomela]

Hi Greg,

I believe that these guys are just extremely defensive of their territory once they've settled into an area. Few honeyeaters are considered "passive" and this has been explained in the past as a mechanism for protecting the nectar and pollen flow which are limited resources.
Even though aviary birds may not directly compete with these guys, the noisy miners perceive ANY bird within their territory as a potential threat, hence the constant aggression.

I've seen some guys place shade netting or anti-bird netting from the top of the aviary diagonally away from the aviary to the ground to keep them away. This way the aviary birds realise that the aggressors can't get too close to them and soon settle down.

[wilsta]

I have had a similar experience with noisy miners on my zebras cage there will be atleast two or three and will sit on either side of the cage. Luckily for me the zebs are not flighty and fall into the trap. My dog usually chases them off so karma comes full circle,