The distribution of Noisy Miners in Sydney

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Noisy Miners are one of the most common birds throughout our towns and cities on the east coast of Australia and they are also one of the most aggressive. They are a native honeyeater species (not to be confused with the introduced Common or Indian Myna).  University of Sydney Honours student Alice Si has looked at the relationship between Noisy Miners and some of those classic 'bird-friendly' plants as well as the aggression of this species in the suburbs. Read more about Alice here.

A huge thank you to the more than 200 of you that replied tfrom all over the Sydney metropolitan area. From this survey, it was found that Noisy Miners are, indeed, everywhere in Sydney, and that although small bird diversity has declined, there is still a wide range of larger bird species found throughout the city. These include the Rainbow Lorikeet and Australian Magpies which were reported at over half the sites, and the Sulfur-crested Cockatoo shortly following. The average respondent reported five different bird species visiting their garden, and the total number of different species reported totalled more than 57.

This survey was just a part of Alice's year-long research project with the School of Environmental and Life Sciences (SOLES) at Sydney University. The broader focus of the thesis was to determine if nectar, as a food resource, mediated aggressive behaviours in Noisy Miners. The hypothesis was that Noisy Miners sometimes engage in aggressive behaviours in order to defend nectar as a food resource from other birds. The results, however, found this not to be the case, as there was no relationship between the amounts of aggression shown, when compared to the availability of nectar at different sites. This suggests that Noisy Miner aggression is not driven by resource guarding of food. Here is a dropbox link to the thesis, for those of you who wish to have a look:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xpk1ex3fg2fooxl/Alice%20Si%20Honours%20Thesis.pdf?dl=0 .

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