Can a bird really talk? The truth about the common hill myna's voice

Nature · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The common hill myna is a master of mimicry, capable of reproducing human speech and whistled tunes with startling clarity. While often mistaken for a wild mimic, this bird only develops its famous vocal repertoire in captivity. In the wild, these birds stick to their own complex, regional dialects.

Formally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, the common hill myna (Gracula religiosa) is a jet-black, arboreal starling native to the forests of South and Southeast Asia. These birds are easily identified by their bright yellow facial wattles and their habit of moving through high forest canopies in small, noisy groups. Unlike many other species, they do not walk jauntily; instead, they hop sideways along branches.

The bird's reputation as a talker is well-earned in captivity, where it rivals the grey parrot in its ability to imitate the human voice. However, this skill is not used in the wild. Instead, wild populations rely on a repertoire of whistles, wails, and gurgles learned during youth. These calls are highly localized; birds living more than 15 kilometers apart share no common call-types, creating distinct regional dialects that change rapidly across their range.

Despite being classified as a species of Least Concern by the IUCN due to its wide distribution, the common hill myna faces significant pressure from the pet trade. During the 1990s, annual imports of wild-caught individuals reached nearly 20,000 birds. This intense demand has led to localized declines and even regional extinctions, such as in Bangladesh. Conservation efforts now struggle to balance the bird's popularity in aviculture with the need to protect vulnerable subspecies, such as the Simeulue hill myna, which researchers believe may have been driven to extinction in the wild as recently as the late 2010s.

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