Abstract
What bird has personal style, has that look that makes it stand apart from the rest? We have to be talking about the distinct mynah bird that captures everyone's attention with its uncanny ability to out-talk the best parrot.
Java Hill Mynah
The Java Hill Mynah (Gracula religiosa religiosa), the subject of this article, comes from southern Burma, Malaysia and the Indonesian Islands of Sumatra, Java and Bali as well as Borneo. The bird measures 12 inches in length. The plumage in the adult is black with an iridescent purple and green sheen. A band of white appears across the center area of the flight feathers. Head feathers are short with a velvety texture. The beak resembles Halloween candy-bright orange fading to yellow on the tip. The tail is square and about 2 1/2 inches. The feet and legs are yellow. The chief distinguishing features are the wattles which are fleshy patches of bare skin that dangle over the nape of the neck. The wattles are bright yellow, a vivid contrast to the surrounding black feathers. The Java Hill is larger than the Greater India Hill Mynah ( Gracula religiosa intermedia), especially in the head and the thick beak, even though it is
only one inch longer.
This large heavy-bodied bird is the aristocrat of the pet mynahs. More rare and expensive than the Greater India Hill Mynah, it is not consistently available. There are fewer than 10 known pairs set up for breeding in United States and only four pairs are known to have produced babies. It is considered the best talker of all, even better than the African Grey Parrot.
The Greater India Hill Mynah The Greater India Hill Mynah comes from northeastern India, the Himalayas, Burma and Thailand. A natural mimic, it will imitate a variety of natural sounds in the wild and a handfed baby is usually a marvelous talker. This is the mynah that most people remember in the pet shops.
While both are similar in appearance, one distinguishing difference is in the wattles. The Greater India Hill's wattles begin at the broad area below the eyes and extend backwards around the head, covering most of the lower facial area, but not extending below the lower mandible. Narrowing at the nape of the neck, the wattles almost meet at the back of the head but are separated by a small triangle of velvety black feathers. The Java Hill Mynah has a wide connecting line instead of a triangle.
The same pattern holds true in the yellow flesh area below the eyes. The Greater India Hill Mynahs have a small triangle of black feathers, almost an inverted T, the Javas have a wide connecting line.
In this article, I will answer the
question that begs to be answeredcan mynahs he successfully bred in captivity?
Can Captive Mynahs be Bred?
I'll be the first to admit that my husband, Michael, and I knew nothing about raising mynahs when we started. I was, understandably, a bit apprehensive about raising a flock of baby mynahs. Could we do it and would there be a demand for them? We had already successfully bred and handfed Cockatiels, conures and African Grey Parrots but there was very little information available on breeding of mynahs in 1991-and what was available was very inaccurate. We decided to go ahead with our plans and have never regretted it. It has been a challenge well worth the effort.
The Java Hill and the India Hill Mynahs are the only two varieties of mynahs that we raise in southwest Florida. We live in a subtropical area with winter temperatures averaging in the 70s and summer temperatures averaging in the 90s with high humidity, and a long rainy season-perfect conditions for raising mynahs, we hoped.
Our first producing pair of mynahs were the Java Hills that we purchased in the spring of 1991. I believe they were about six months old. We found them in a local pet store and were amazed at their size and beauty. We were very fortunate that they turned out to be a pair and we had no idea just how rare they were. Unfortunately, we never found another pair for sale.