The common Mynah

An aggressive and confident bird, the common myna has adapted well to the urban environment, making it one of the most abundant and familiar birds in Asia.black tail . The bill, legs and the bare skin around the eyes are bright yellow, and bristly feathers on the forehead form a short crown . This large, stocky myna also has contrasting white patches on its wings, which are most visible when the bird is in flight . The male and female common myna are very similar in appearance, although the male is usually slightly larger, but the juvenile bird is duller than the adult, with browner plumage, and lacks the glossy sheen on the head . Like other birds of the Sturnidae family, the common myna has large and strong feet that allow it to walk on the ground rather than hop, while the stout, straight bill enables it to be fairly flexible in its food choice . The common myna is highly vocal at all times, and can also be identified by its ceaseless, loud chattering of various conversational-like gurgles and whistles, and it is even capable of learning to mimic human speech when in captivity   This well-known bird has distinctive chestnut-brown upperparts, with a glossy black head, brownish-black upper-wings and a white-tipped










Taxonomy and subspecies
The Common Myna has two subspecies

• Acridotheres tristis tristis (Linnaeus, 1758). Widespread, including Sri Lanka.
• A. t. melanosternus Legge, 1879. Endemic to Sri Lanka.

The subspecies melanosternus is darker than the nominate subspecies, has half-black and half-white primary coverts and has a larger yellow cheek-patch.^[The type locality of the nominate subspecies is Pondicherry, India

The Common Myna or Indian Myna (Acridotheres tristis) also sometimes spelled Mynah, is a member of family Sturnidae (starlings and mynas) native to Asia. An omnivorous open woodland bird with a strong territorial instinct, the Myna has adapted extremely well to urban environments.
The Common Myna is an important motif in Indian culture and appears both in Sanskrit and Prakrit literature. "Myna" is derived from the Hindi language mainā which itself is derived from Sanskrit madanā.


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