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(<I>Acridotheres Tristis</I>) in Florida

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(<I>Acridotheres Tristis</I>) in Florida tus ist 'b tio m n ß t i ß BILLPRANT¾ ß8515 VILLAGE MILL ROW - BAYONET POINT, FLORIDA 34667 ß (EMAIL: BILLPRANTY@HOTMAILCOM) Figure1.Adult Common Myna at Seven Sp•ngs, Pasco Count. FIo•da, 28 O•ober •. •is photogr•hd•uments one of the no•hemmo• •cords of the Common Myna in FIo•da, and the no•hem- mo•rec•d To da•e along •e recentlycolonized Gulf coast. InaddiUon • •e•r disUn••umage•brown bo• withbla• head,wings, and tail, white wing and tail patches, and yellow soft p•Com- mortMynas are disUnguished fromother royhas by•eir cordingmannec semi-•,es•al habits, and habitat prefere•es. Usually, asshown here, suitable myna habitat in FIo•da comists ofpa•ing lots ofsho•ing centen orfast-food restaUghtS, where the birds sear• for Fren• •es, pota••i•, orsimilar fare. Photogrop• byKen Tracey. Abstract nent,and east through lndochina (Feare and flus, New Hebrides,and the Seychelles,and This papersummarizes the knownstatus and Craig1998). Two subspeciesare recognized: elsewhere(Long 1981, Lever1987, A.O.U. distribution in Florida of the exotic Common melanosternus,which is endemic to southern 1998, Kannanand James 2001). Myna (Atridotherestristis), focusing particu- Indiaand Sri Lanka, and the widespread nom- CommonMynas were discovered in south- larly on the species'range expansion in the inatesubspecies, tristis, which has been wide- ernFlorida during the early 1980s. Since that past25 yearsand on its currentpopulation ly introduced,either intentionally for insect time, the populationhas been expanding in size. control,or accidentallyfrom the pet trade rangeand increasing in numbers.The species (Long1981, Lever 1987). Exotic populations hasbeen ignored by ornithologistsand bird- Background of CommonMynas are now foundin Aus- ers in Floridaand so remainslargely un- CommonMyna (Acridotheres tristis; Figure 1) tralia,Florida, Hong Kong, Madagascar, New known except for anecdotalinformation is nativeto the CaspianSea region and Kaza- Zealand, Polynesia,South Africa, island compiledfor thispaper. The recentdiscovery khstan,south through the Indiansubconti- chainssuch as Hawaii, the Maidives,Mauri- of a roostof perhaps400 CommonMynas at 658 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS STATUSANDDISTRIBUTION OFCOMMON MYNAIN FLORIDA Palm Beach 60 Mllee Common Myna reportl B•oward ß 1982-1990 ß 1991-1999 ß 2000-2007 '• FloridaCity roo=t oo Miami- Dade L Figure2.Distribution ofthe Common Myna inFlorida, 1982-2007. Most locations within 0.8 km of one another are Figure3. DistributionofCommon Myna along the southern Atlantic coast of Florida, combined.Notethat the myna's range has inceased inextent and distance from Miami during each eight- or nine- 1982-2007.Most locations within 0.8 km of oneanother are combined. Each location yearperiod. Each location mapped iscolored according tothe earliest report, sothis map should not be used to gauge mappediscolored according tothe earliest report, so this map should not be used to populationpersistence. Thearea shown bounded inred may be considered asthe limits ofthe Common Myna's cur- gaugepopulation persistence. Amuch greater number ofobservers inMiami-•de rentcore range. There isalso arecent report ofan apparent Common Myna at Sapelo Island. Georgia (see text]. relativetoBroward and Palm Beach may skew the apparent distribution ofmynas alongthe southern Atlantic coast; 72% of the observations from these three counties arefrom Mimni-Oade. Thearea shown bounded inred (minimum convex polygon), FloridaCity, along with recentobservations Florida representdispersers whichmay be considered asthe known limits of Common Myna's current core range, alongthe central Gulf coast, rekindled my in- from known populations 'si more than 1760 km 2 Insize. The distribution ofmynas within this core range is like- terestin this species.This papersummarizes ratherthan local escapees. I ex- lymuch greater than what it showndue to birder disinterest andtraffic congestion. the pastquarter-century of Florida records of pressabundance of mynason Thered star marks the location ofthe Florida City roost, which was estimated tocon- CommonMyna, its rangeexpansion, and its ChristmasBird Countys as the tainabout 400 mynas inNovember 2006. The scarcity ofreported observations currentpopulation size in thestate. number of individuals ob- aroundthis roost is of interest: there is surely incomplete information ofmyna range, evenwhere the birds are most numerous andpresumably most widespread. servedper 1000party-hours to Methods takeadvantage of wholenumbers of royhas. lantic coastin Palm Beach,Broward, and Mia- I compiledobservations of CommonMynas All countynames are listed in parentheses mi-Dade(Figure 3). from the seasonalbird reportspublished in and italics,and siteswhere royhas have bred Florida Field Naturalist and American are marked with an asterisk. SummaryofObservations Birds/NorthAmerican Birds, from Stevenson I have divided all observations of Common and Anderson(1994), the FloridaBreeding Results Mynasin Floridainto oneof threeperiods of Bird Atlasproject (1986-1991; Kale et al. I compiled275 observations of Common My- nearlyequal duration: the first nine years 1992), observationsposted to the threepri- nas in Florida since 1982. Of these, 171 (1982-1990), the second nine years maryonline birding lists in Florida:BrdBrain, (62%)had not beenpublished formally; most (1991-1999),and the most recent eight years FloridaBirds-L, and the Miami BirdBoard representedrecent posts to online birding (2000-2007). (T.A.S. 2007), and the ChristmasBird Count lists.All observationsrepresent 98 discretelo- (C.B.C.) database(hAS 2007). Becausethe cations(Figure 2). Overall,Common Mynas 1982-1990•The publishedliterature indi- CommonMyna is a conspicuousand unwary havebeen reported in 20 countiesin Florida catesthat CommonMynas were first ob- semi-terrestrialspecies that is closelyassoci- andhave been reported to breedin 13of these servedin Floridaon the DadeCounty C.B.C. atedwith areasof humandevelopment, it is (Table1). All but one report,from Neptune (Miami-Dade) on 17 December 1983 (Robert- usuallynoticed, even by nowcebirders. I Beach (Duval), are from the southern two- son and Woolfenden1992), and that they mappedall locationsas specifically as possi- thirdsof thepeninsula or themainline Flori- were first observedbreeding at Homestead ble, thenentered them into a GeographicIn- da Keys(those traversed by US-1).There is (Miami-Dade)on 22 May 1985 (Stevenson formationSystem (GIS) coverage. I combined alsoa recentreport from southernGeorgia andAnderson 1994). However, Larry Manfre- mostlocations that were within 0.8 kin. I pre- (seebelow). The strongholdof the Common di (in litt.) first saw Common Mynas at sumethat all CommonMyna observations in Myna in Floridais alongthe southernAt- Hialeah(Miami-Dade) in 1982,by whichtime VOLUUE 61 (2007) ß HUUBER 4 659 ISTAT•SANDDISTRIBUTION OFCOMMON MYN•-IN FLORIDA Figure4.Common Mynas reported onChristmas BirdCounts inFlorida, from the 84th (1983-1984) Figure5. Chronologyofactive Common Myna nests inFlorida with known dates, 1982-2007 through107th (2006-2007) C.B.C. periods. Numbers ofroyhas a•e graphed per 1000 party-hunrs to (n=17)by half-menth intervals. Oates refer to the earliest sign of nesting activity. takeadvantage ofwhale numbers ofbirds. they were alreadybreeding. Within a few *EvergladesCity (Collier) in 19897, and was 16 birdsat Tequestain November1986 yearsof theirdiscovery, mynas had dispersed Ochopee(Collier) in 1990(Table 1). (Atherton and Atherton 1987). to near Belle Glade (Palm Beach) in 1984, Thuswithin nineyears of theirdiscovery EvergladesNational Park, *Homestead, in Florida, CommonMynas had colonized 1991-1999--Common Mynas colonized *Kendall, and *Miami (all Miami-Dade) in seven counties (Brevard, Broward, Collier, *West Palm Beach(Palm Beach) in 1991, Stu- 1985,Tequesta (Palm Beach) in 1986,*Cocoa Hendry, Martin, Miami-Dade, and Palm art (Martin) in 1992, *1ona (Lee) in 1993, and Beach (Brevard) in 1987, *Clewiston Beach),with breedingconfirmed in six of *Hollywood(Broward), the MiccosukeeIndi- (Hendry)in 1988,near Indiantown (Martin), these(all but Martin;Table 1). The highest an Reservation (Miami-Dade), and near near *Pembroke Pines (Broward), and at countof royhasobtained during 1982-1990 JonathanDickinson State Park (Martin or Figures6 and 7. Two examples ofCommon Myna nests in Florida. Mynas build their nests"in any place that will hold a largepile of leaves, twigs, paper, and the like"(Kannan andJames 2001). in Florida, onenest was placed inthe crotch ofa BlackOlive, while others have been built in cavities inwooden utility poles o• niches instreet lights. Perhaps most Common Myna nests in Florida are built within let- tersof logos attached tocommercial buildings. These two nests were built within lettering ofPublix supermarkets, inthe "d" of "food" and the "c" of "pharmacy;' respectively. Theimage at left shows a nestwith three nestlings, from Kendall, Miami-Dade County, 1June 2002, with the image at right, of an occupied nest with unknown contents, from Pompano Beach, Broward County, 21July 2007. Pho- tographsbyJohn H. Boyd and BilI Pranty, respectively. 660 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS STATUSANDDISTRIBUTION OFCOMMON MYNA•N FLORID• Rangeexpansion Sincethe early 1980s, Common Mynas have exhibiteda nearlycontinuous series of dis- persalevents outward in nearlyall directions fromMiami-Dare. Ihese dispersalscontinue to consolidatethe myna'srange along the southern Atlantic coast and to result in new colonizationof areasinland, along the main- lineKeys, the Gulf coast, and north along the Atlanticcoast.
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