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Order: Passeriformes    Family: Sturnidae       Conservation Status: Least Concern

Synonyms: Orange-faced Grackle, Orange-faced Myna, Papuan Myna, Long-tailed Myna

Description:

The Yellow-faced Myna is a large bird measuring 23 to 26 cm in length and weighing around 217 grams.
It has an overall black plumage which has a metallic lustre. There are short spiky feathers on the forehead and at the base of the upper mandible – these have a blue-purple sheen. Most of the head is bare and this bare skin, which forms a patch around and behind the eye along with a bib on the chin and sides of the throat, is orange-yellow. The beak and legs are a similar orange-yellow colour. The iris is yellow to brown. The neck, throat and mantle have a purple metallic sheen, whilst the back, wings, breast and belly have a greenish sheen. The tail is short and squarish. Additionally it has a white rump and under tail coverts with a golden-yellow lower belly.

Call and Vocalisation:

The Yellow-faced Myna is a noisy bird, emitting a variety of “nasal, growling, and croaking calls with a sometimes human-like conversational quality”

Yellow-faced Myna call
Yellow-faced Myna call

Range and Distribution:

Yellow-faced Mynas are endemic to New Guinea and the nearby smaller off shore islands. Within their range they are fairly common and can be found at altitudes of up to 800 metres. They are noticeably absent from the south-eastern coast of the mainland.

The species is monotypic

Habitat:

The Yellow-faced Myna is found in subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, forest fringes and gallery forests. Occasionally it has been recorded in more open savannah areas.

Diet:

The Yellow-faced Myna is omnivorous with its diet consisting of fruits, spiders, insects, lizards, frogs, eggs and nestling chicks of other species. Foodstuffs are usually foraged from high in the tree canopy.

Breeding:

Breeding of the Yellow-faced Myna occurs from the middle of the dry season to early in the wet season, i.e. from August to September and from January to April. The species breeds in holes and crevices in trees well above the ground. Nests are constructed from twigs and a clutch of 1 to 2 pale blue eggs, speckled with grey and rust, are laid.

Behaviour:

Yellow-faced Mynas occasionally form larger flocks. Communal roosts of over two hundred birds have been recorded.

Conservation Status:

Within its range the Yellow-faced Myna is widespread and common. There is some exploitation for the cage bird trade but the species as a whole is not globally threatened.