Bird expert condemns Mornington Peninsula man’s brutal Indian myna call

A bird expert has urged Mornington Peninsula residents not to heed the calls of a Red Hill man who has taken to social media urging people to stomp on Indian mynas in a bid to protect native birds.

Public affairs manager at BirdLife Australia, Sean Dooley, says while Indian mynas are “a pest” they’re not in the plague proportions many think.

“We’ve got to be a bit careful here that we don’t get all hysterical,” he told Ross and Russel.

“In some areas they can be a problem, in places like the Mornington Peninsula, on the edges of the city,” he told Ross and Russel.

“But overall … their numbers are actually stabilising and in fact in the Aussie Backyard Bird Count they dropped out of the top 10 most common birds last year for the fist time.”

Where Indian myna populations are a problem, Mr Dooley urges people to use catch them via council trapping programs, where special trap cages are provided and residents return the trapped mynas to a council site where they’re humanely gassed.

He says stomping on the birds, or gassing them with car exhaust fumes, as suggested by the Red Hill resident, is not the way to go.

“They’re living creatures,” he said.

“We want to treat the birds that we love, even the ones we don’t love, with dignity.”

Press PLAY below for Sean Dooley’s response to the brutal idea