Lynch Bird

Lynch Bird
A Common Mynah
by Halyna Kuheana, from Hawaii

My husband Joe brought two baby Common Mynahs home from a construction site he was working at. By the feathering, I figured the birds to be 20 to 24 days old at the time. I reared the babies with a mix of baby bird formula and canned dog food for a week or so before they could eat entirely on their own. Then I supplemented their diet of mynah pellets with veggies, fruit, and fish (canned tuna).

Later on I made a choice to keep only one of the babies because I heard from several sources that if I wanted them to talk, then they must be independent from one another or may only talk mynah talk to each other, and not care about talking to humans or learning to speak words. So I gave one of the mynahs to my sister-in-law and he started talking and picking up new words at 8 months old.

<>The one we kept we named "Lynch Bird". He started talking, very limited and very quietly, about 5 to 6 months of age. As he got closer to 8 months, he got louder and more confident of what he was saying.
8 months rolled around and it was like the
flood gates opened; he'd chatter all day.

Myself and my husband would hold a 3-way conversation with him. Here is an example: Joe would say "Lynch Bird, the fat-head bird". Then Lynch Bird would answer back "No way!" I would then say "That's right!" Then Lynch Bird would say "Lynch Bird what a handsome smart and good bird".

This picture is from the counter, a dutch wall between the living room and kitchen. Evening time I would let him out and he'd fly back and forth from his cage to the counter, until I asked him to go in his house, as it got dark.

Common Mynahs can definitely learn more thana few words. Not only could Lynch Bird talk fluently, a vocabulary of some 50+ words but he also demonstrated a couple examples of word association in his later years. Do you know that also in his later years he even learned to smile? I promise! Obviously his beak corners didn't go up. But I noticed one day that when I smiled at him, he would start almost squinting at me. When I'd stop smiling, he'd stop smiling and just sit there (he wasn't falling asleep). I'd smile again, he'd smile again at me. I have no doubt in my mind, he was imitating my behavior. We went on to smile at each other for years after. My good friend, of nearly 10 years, recently passed away on 1/23/2000. I really miss that bird.

Back to Profiles