Noisy Miner

Appearance

The noisy miner is a large honeyeater, 24–28 centimetres in length, with a wingspan of 36–45 centimetres, and weighing 70–80 grams. Male, female and juvenile birds all have similar plumage: grey on the back and tail and on the breast, and otherwise white underneath, with white scalloping on the nape and hind-neck and on the breast; off-white forehead and lores; a black band over the crown, bright orange-yellow bill and a distinctive patch of yellow skin behind the eye; a prominent white tip to the tail; a narrow olive-yellow panel in the folded wing; and orange-yellow legs and feet.

A juvenile can be distinguished by softer plumage, a brownish tinge to the black on its head and the grey on its back, and a duller, greyish-yellow skin patch behind the eye.

The noisy miner is similar in appearance to the yellow-throated miner and the black-eared miner; it has a dull white forehead and a black crown, while the others have grey heads.

Naming

synonyms
⤷ "Gracula melanocephala" Latham, 1801

Distribution

The noisy miner is endemic to eastern and south-eastern Australia, occupying a broad arc from Far North Queensland where there are scattered populations, to New South Wales where it is widespread and common from the coast to a line from Angledool to Balranald, through Victoria into south-eastern South Australia, and eastern Tasmania.

Habitat

The noisy miner primarily inhabits dry, open eucalypt forests without understory shrubs.

Reproduction

The noisy miner does not use a stereotyped courtship display; displays can involve 'driving' where the male jumps or flies at the female from 1–2 metres away, and if she moves away he pursues her aggressively. The female may perform a 'bowed-wing display' where the wings and tail are spread and quivered, with the wings arched and the head pointing down.

The male may adopt a vertical or horizontal 'eagle display' with wings and tail spread wide and held still for several seconds. Copulation is frequent and conspicuous, with both males and females copulating with several birds, while other members of the colony display or otherwise interfere with the mating pair.

Copulation usually occurs on larger, exposed branches close to the nest site and can occur at any time of the day, although slightly more often between 11:00 and 13:00 when communal activities are less frequent. The frenzied courtship activity had led to speculation that the female mates promiscuously to recruit males to help care for the young, but recent genetic testing shows that 96.5% of noisy miner broods result from monogamous mating and that multiple paternity is rare. An observation of banded birds noted that while females copulated repeatedly, it was always with the same male. Mate switching between broods is uncommon, with pairs staying together over several years.

The noisy miner breeds all year long, with most activity from July through November, though the peak period is subject to seasonal variations with sharp peaks in laying activity when conditions are particularly favourable for raising young. The nest is built in prickly or leafy trees, and the noisy miner is often recorded nesting in eucalypts, and also in wattles, "Araucaria", "Banksia", "Bursaria", "Hibiscus", mistletoe, "Melaleuca", "Pittosporum", "Schinus" and jacaranda.

Food

The noisy miner primarily eats nectar, fruit and insects, and occasionally it feeds on small reptiles or amphibians. It is both arboreal and terrestrial, feeding in the canopy of trees and on trunks and branches and on the ground.

Predators

Noisy miners make louder alarm calls in noisier sections of urban environments, such as main roads. The most common initial response to alarm calls is to stay in the area and scan for threats, rather than withdraw. A study conducted in Melbourne and a nearby rural area found that noisy miners in urban areas were less likely to take flight, and when they did they flew shorter distances. It is unclear whether this is an adaptation or bolder miners had been the ones to settle in the city. A field study in Canberra found that superb fairywrens that lived in areas frequented by noisy miners recognised miner alarm calls and took flight, and had learnt to ignore their non-alarm calls, while those that live in areas not frequented by noisy miners did not respond to miner alarm calls. This suggests the species has adapted and learnt to discriminate and respond to another species' vocalisations.