Muscat – As part of its efforts to combat invasive birds in Oman, the Environment Authority (EA) has set an integrated plan and hired an international expert.

Sulaiman Nasser al Akhzami, director general of nature conservation in EA, said that invasive birds such as the Indian jungle crow and the mynah are increasing in numbers in Oman.

“The authority formed a team to prepare a study to check the spread of these birds and develop a national strategy. The authority has on-boarded an international ornithologist and prepared an integrated plan to confront invasive birds,” said Akhzami.

Mynah birds, which come from India, China, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and western Indonesia, belong to the starling family. These birds are 22-25cm long and wings extend to 36.5cm when flying. These are medium-sized birds with a black head and yellow feet.

Mynahs affect the food chain in the areas of their existence and attack other birds’ nests, killing the young ones. In 2000, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared the bird among ‘100 of the World’s Most Invasive Species’.

These birds cause a lot of damage by destroying crops, eating bees and transmitting diseases, parasites and fleas to humans as well as animals.

The Indian jungle crow (Corvus culminatus) is a species of crow found across the Indian subcontinent south of the Himalayas.

It is an opportunist and generalist omnivore. It softens its food by dropping it in water and has also been observed to eat sand after feeding on meat from a carcass. These birds have a range of cawing vocalisations. These sometimes fly with special flight styles.

Among the most important stopovers for birds in Oman is Barr al Hikman in Al Wusta.

In 2017, a team from Wetlands International found more than half a million birds wintering in Barr al Hikman, and recorded a total of 63 waterbird species at the site during 2017-2019 period.