Manorina melanocephala
Pics taken by Mark Ridgway, in Victoria, Australia.
The Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala) is a cross-eyed, noisy little bird in the honeyeater family Meliphagidae.
Endemic to eastern and southeastern Australia, including Tasmania, the Noisy Miner is about 9.4–11 inches long, with a wingspan of 14–18 in, and weighing 2.5–2.8 oz. It has a mottled gray breast, dark brown wings, and a black mask with yellow behind each eye which gives the bird a cross-eyed appearance.
As the common name suggests, the Noisy Miner is a vocal species with a large range of songs, calls, scoldings and alarms, and almost constant vocalizations particularly from young birds. They are gregarious, territorial, and communal — forming colonies of several hundred birds that forage, bathe, roost, breed and defend their territory. Each bird has an “activity space” and birds with overlapping activity spaces form associations called “coteries,” the most stable units within the colony. The birds also form temporary coalitions for specific activities such as mobbing a predator. Group cohesion is facilitated by vocalizations and ritualized displays.
Foraging in the canopy of trees and on trunks and branches and on the ground, the Noisy Miner mainly eats nectar, fruit and insects. Courtship and copulation are a frenzied communal event. The bird breeds all year long, building a deep cup-shaped nest and laying two to four eggs. Incubation is by the female only, although up to twenty male helpers take care of the nestlings and fledglings.
H/t Project Noah
~Eowyn
