Aggressive mynas threat to Israel's bird species

JERUSALEM — Many native bird species in Israel are on a rapid decline, some even in danger of extinction possibly due to the spread of myna birds, according to a leading wildlife ecologist in the country.

Motti Charter, a lecturer from the Shamir Research Institute at the University of Haifa, said some bird species have bred almost 80 percent less since the myna, a bird species from India, took over.

Considered one of the world's most invasive species, myna birds were brought to Israel in the late 1990s and were locked in a bird park in central Israel before escaping or being released around 2000.