The noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala) is a bird in the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae, and is endemic to eastern and south-eastern Australia. This miner is a grey bird, with a black head, orange-yellow beak and feet, a distinctive yellow patch behind the eye and white tips on the tail feathers. Males, females and juveniles are similar in appearance, though young birds are a brownish-grey. As the common name suggests, the noisy miner is a vocal species with a large range of songs, calls, scoldings and alarms, and almost constant vocalisations particularly from young birds.
Noisy miners are gregarious and territorial; they forage, bathe, roost, breed and defend territory communally, forming colonies that can contain several hundred birds. Each bird has an 'activity space' and birds with overlapping activity spaces form associations called 'coteries', the most stable units within the colony. The birds also form temporary flocks called 'coalitions' for specific activities such as mobbing a predator.
This post is part of the Saturday Critters meme,
and also part of the Camera Critters meme.
Hello, Great shot of the Noisy Miners. They are cool looking birds. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend. PS, thank for your visit and comment on my blog.
ReplyDeleteThey certainly are gregarious. On a visit to NSW, Tasmania and Victoria last year we saw them most days, even in quite urbanized areas. A few trees along a boulevard seemed all that was needed to attract them.
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