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744 Nests Show How Common Mynas Breed Around People

Common myna beside a nest cavity in a palm trunk
Research · Reproduction & development

A field study of 744 active common myna (Acridotheres tristis) nests in Lower Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, documented breeding across both natural and human-made nesting sites. Published on 30 March 2026 in Planta Animalia, the study followed the 2025 breeding season from March to August.

Researchers surveyed farmland, orchards, roadsides, markets, settlements and semi-urban areas. Nests were included when eggs, nestlings, an incubating adult or other clear evidence showed that breeding was active.

Trees and buildings both provided nesting sites

Trees contained 318 of the 744 nests, or 42.7%. Wall cavities held 243 nests, market shutters 107 and pipes 76. Natural tree cavities were therefore the largest single category, while human-made structures together accounted for more than half of the recorded nests.

Clutch size and incubation varied among breeding attempts

Clutches ranged from two to six eggs, with individual egg mass reported between 7.3 and 7.7 grams. Incubation lasted 15–22 days. A table covering the four quantified nest-site categories listed 809 eggs, of which 680 hatched and 129 did not.

Three completed nests were collected for analysis of building materials. They contained twigs, grasses, leaves and feathers together with manufactured materials including plastic, paper and rubber. The researchers also observed adults provisioning nestlings repeatedly and using food available in the surrounding human-modified landscape.

The authors interpret the combination of varied nest sites, flexible nest materials and parental provisioning as evidence of reproductive and behavioural flexibility in Lower Dir, helping common mynas breed successfully in landscapes strongly shaped by people.

Sources and image credit

  1. Ahmad, A., Khan, A., Khan, F., Andaleeb, Ali, M., Khan, M. S., ur Rahman, A., & Anjum, S. (2026). Breeding ecology, nesting behavior, and urban adaptability of the common myna (Acridotheres tristis) in the agroecosystems of Dir Lower, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Planta Animalia, 5(2), 769–777. https://doi.org/10.71454/PA.005.02.0467Primary research article published 30 March 2026. The field study documented 744 active common myna nests during the 2025 breeding season in Lower Dir, Pakistan, including nest-site use, clutch and incubation data, nest materials and parental provisioning.

Image: Afsarnayakkan / Wikimedia Commons — common myna (Acridotheres tristis) beside a nest cavity in Kattampally, Kannur district, India, 3 February 2019. Illustrative photograph, not from the Lower Dir study. CC BY-SA 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source

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