Jungle Myna

The jungle myna is a myna of the starling family, 23 cm long with grey plumage, darker on the head and wings, easily recognised by the tuft of feathers on the forehead forming a frontal crest, a feature also found in the closely related Javan and pale-bellied mynas, which were treated as subspecies in the past. The eyes are pale, yellow or blue depending on the population, and the base of the orange-yellow bill is dark; the southern Indian population has a blue iris and the north-eastern Indian populations a smoky dark belly and vent (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is found patchily across much of the mainland Indian subcontinent but is absent from the arid zones of India, and has been introduced, intentionally or accidentally, to many other parts of the world, including Fiji, Taiwan, the Andaman Islands and parts of Japan. Foraging flocks make clipped cheeping contact calls, and its calls are higher pitched than the common myna's. Both sexes take part in nest building, incubation and feeding the young, and the usual clutch is four to six turquoise-blue eggs. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, an omnivore of non-specialised habitat with a Large range of about 857,000 km² and stable trends (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).