Southern Hill Myna

The southern hill myna is a glossy black starling about 20cm long, with yellow legs, a bill that is bright orange at the base and yellow at the tip, white spots on the primaries and yellow wattles on the head. The sexes look alike. Like other hill mynas it is an outstanding mimic of human voices and is bred in captivity for this, though it is said to be less gifted than the common hill myna, whose range does not overlap with it (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives in forests and plantations. Noisy groups of about half a dozen move through the canopy at forest edges, hopping sideways along branches and keeping in contact with a wide range of calls. It is omnivorous, eating fruit, nectar and insects, and nests in a tree hole, laying two or three eggs. SoIB 2023 treats it as endemic to the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka, resident with local movements, finds its current trend stable, and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).