The Himalayas, is a mountain range which separates the Great Indian Plains from the Tibetan Plateau. This range is home to nine of the ten highest peaks on the Earth, including the highest, Mount Everest. The abrupt rise of the Himalayan Mountains from less than 500 meters to more than 8,000 meters in a few hundred kilometers has resulted in a huge diversity of flora and fauna. Nearly 1000 birds have been recorded in the Himalayas of which 15 species are fully endemic.
The common hill myna (Gracula religiosa) is a stocky jet-black myna, with bright orange-yellow patches of naked skin and fleshy wattles on the side of its head and nape. It is most vocal at dawn and dusk, when it is found in small groups in forest clearings high in the canopy. Both sexes can produce an extraordinarily wide range of loud calls - whistles, wails, screeches, and gurgles, sometimes melodious and often very human-like in quality. This myna is a resident breeder from Kumaon Himalayas in India (80⁰ E longitude) east through Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh, the lower Himalayas, terai and foothills up to 2000 m ASl.
IUCN Status: Least Concern (LC) Photo: Dr. Sangeeta Dhanuka