IDENTIFICATION

VOCALISATIONS

Highly vocal species that utters a diverse array of harsh and less harsh sounds. The song is a tuneless chatter repeated at fairly long intervals

Typical calls include a short inflected whistle.

The common flight call is loud and somewhat modulated.

The alarm call is harsh, slightly upslurred ‘tchaer’, which can be heard in this recording along with an upslurred, sweeter note that is often heard.

Other calls can be heard in these recordings.

DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE

Widespread but generally avoids forest, closed-canopy shrubland and mountainous areas. Favours lowland open habitats including farmland, fishponds and coastal areas. As a result the majority of records are from north and northwest New Territories. Numbers can also be high in open habitats in lowland areas of the Tai Mo Shan massif such as Shek Kong and Lam Tsuen. Also occurs in urban areas, including parks and villages. Generally commensal but also frequent on uninhabited small islands and rocky coasts though numbers are usually smaller. Nocturnal roosts occur in mangroves, closed-canopy shrubland and trees with dense foliage in urban areas, particularly Ficus microcarpa and F. benjamina.

There was an 11% reduction in 1 km sq occupancy between the breeding bird surveys of 1993-96 and 2016-19 from 53.3% of surveyed grids to 42.4% . In contrast, a 17% range increase occurred between the winter atlas surveys of 2001-05 and 2016-19 from 29.8% of the surveyed grids to 34.8%. A reduction in the area of open habitats especially in the New Territories in the last two decades probably explains, at least in part, the decline.

OCCURRENCE

Crested Myna is regarded as a sedentary species. Although reported as a possible altitudinal migrant in central and southeast Asia (Johnson and Campbell 2020), there is no evidence of such movement in HK. The highest count since 1999 is 480 emerging from a roost on Chek Lap Kok on 26 November 1999, followed by 461 birds at Fung Lok Wai on 26 January 2016. The highest on record, however, is an estimated 600 leaving a roost at Chek Lap Kok on 7 October 1997.

As it is a popular cagebird that is taught to ‘talk’ after its tongue is slit, the population may include ex-captive individuals but numbers are no doubt negligible.

BREEDING

Like most starlings this species is a hole-nester, and it utilises a wide range of natural and artificial sites including holes in rocky cliffs, quarries and trees, weep-holes in retaining walls or artificially stabilised slopes, old kingfisher holes, lighting towers, air-conditioning units, drainpipes, holes in buildings and bridges, and disused nests of Oriental Magpie, Black-collared Starling and Black Kite. Nest sites are often aggregated, but this is probably a function of nest site availability rather than it being truly colonial.

It breeds from March to July. Nesting begins in mid-March (earliest nesting record at Braemar Hill on 17 March 2013) until mid-July (Victoria Park on 15 July 2020). Juveniles have been seen as early as 26 March 2011 and as late as 26 August.

BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET

Gregarious, forming large post-breeding flocks but also in smaller groups at other times of the year. Highly opportunistic when foraging. Frequently feeds on the ground but also perches on cattle to take insects. Also observed to deliberately kleptoparasitise Chinese Pond Heron chicks (Leader 1996). However, there are very few local data regarding diet, presumably omnivorous.

RANGE & SYSTEMATICS

Resident in the southern half of China; locally common in Beijing, though these birds may derive from ex-captive individuals. Also present in northeast Indochina and Vietnam (Liu and Chen 2020, Birding Beijing 2022, Johnson and Campbell 2020). Three subspecies occur, with the nominate present in south and southeast China, including HK. A. c. formosanus occurs in Taiwan, and A. c. brevipennis on Hainan and in Vietnam.

CONSERVATION STATUS

IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend stable.