An Israeli industrial designer has developed a smart nest that prevents the development of minnow eggs without harming the bird - has the solution been found to eradicate the notorious invasive bird?
Reut Alon, agency angle News for science and the environment

You cannot miss her - she is loud, lives around humans, sometimes aggressive towards people and pets and some would say she is very intelligent. The common myna is a bird that is considered a particularly aggressive invasive species that pushes native birds aside, and is defined as one of the 100 "worst" invasive species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list. according to Report Situation Nature of the web for 2023, the abundance of individuals of the species found in Israel increased by 585 percent, and the spillover of its distribution from settlements to the open areas endangers other bird species. The attempts to eradicate it include, among other things, methods that physically harm the bird, but an intriguing development by an Israeli industrial designer offers a humane alternative, which will prevent the development of the eggs in the nest even before they hatch.
The worst intruder
Common myna, or by its other name Indian myna, is a brown songbird with a yellow ring around the eye from the family the starlings. "This is a species of bird that originated in Southeast Asia, which, among other things, spread through humans to the whole world except Antarctica," says Tali Maguri-Cohen, a research associate at Bar Ilan University. "In our country it was observed for the first time in 1997 in Yarkon Park and since then it has spread all over the country, so that there is almost no place in Israel that the species has not reached, and they have even spread to the countries that surround us such as Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt." According to her, the biggest concern is competition with the local species for resources, especially nesting holes and food.
In order to reduce the distribution of species in Israel, the Nature and Gardens Authority (RTG) uses various measures, including injury on my website nesting, capture and dilution. "Starting in 2020, RTG allowed hunters to shoot deer in agricultural areas, which is not necessarily effective because the highest concentration of deer is in cities," says Yohai Rotem, a bachelor's degree graduate in the industrial design department of Hadassah Jerusalem Academic College. within project the final His Under the guidance of Prof. Kenny Segal, Rotem designed and produced a smart nest that prevents the development of the eggs of the invasive species. "When I realized the magnitude of the problem of the meena invasion in Israel, I looked for a humane solution that did not include killing the bird."
Rotem chose to focus on protecting nesting birds from the aggressive species, whose aggressive behavior causes neighboring nests to be abandoned, and they even prey on chicks of other species. In order to understand how it is possible to protect the nesting of local birds, he met with Shlomit Lifshitz, coordinator of biotopes at the Society for the Protection of Nature and director of the center for the care of wild birds in the yard, who explained to him how different birds nest. "Myna competes with local birds for nesting in spaces, so creating nesting boxes that are adapted to different species - such as a box for small birds with an opening surrounded by a metal ring to prevent large birds from opening it - can be helpful," he says. But since myna is similar in size to birds such as the Syrian woodpecker and the woodpecker - which are also birds that nest in holes, it is impossible to develop a nest that is only intended for them.
A (smart) nest for a bird
Rotem explains that removing wines from the nesting areas is not enough and active action is required to eradicate them. That's why he turned to Dr. Yoav Motro, a pest control consultant for the Ministry of Agriculture who was the project manager for the control of the black crows in Eilat. its development," Rotem explains. "This method does not harm the nesting bird as it continues to incubate without knowing That the eggs don't hatch and you avoid laying reserves - that is, another laying in case the first nest is destroyed.'
After being exposed to the method, Rotem designed a smart nest that is built from an outer box and an inner box with simple-to-operate parts, and which is attached to the tree with a cloth strap so as not to damage the trunk or the branch. The inner box in which the bird nests is removable and made of sugar cane, and above it is a drawer of electronic components that contains, among other things, a camera and two test tubes with vegetable oil. At the end of the nesting, the old box with the eggs is pulled out and thrown into the compost, and a new nesting box is put in its place. "It was important to me that the design be as durable and sustainable as possible - the outer box is made of plastic that can be recycled, the inner box is made of organic materials and the oil test tubes can be refilled," he explains.
The nest is controlled by an application developed by Rotem that allows only those with permission to activate the oil spray when it comes to the nesting of an invasive species. The general public also has the option to follow the nests and report in real time on the nesting birds. "Since it is impossible to control which bird you choose to nest in the smart box, the camera and the app are designed to allow control over the extermination process, and also allow exposure of the general public to our local birds," says Rotem. According to him, the data from the application will allow the creation of a database of nesting information of different species of birds.
A small but significant step
"In Israel, the species are dealt with very locally in nature reserves," says Ohad Hatzofa, an avian ecologist at the Nature and Parks Authority. According to him, a smart nest will not help in eradicating the bird because its breeding potential is huge and includes several nesting cycles per year. "The invasion of the species has already taken place, and today the species is established throughout the country and in most of the Middle East. Therefore, even pest control activities in Israel will not prevent infiltration from the neighboring countries.'
And yet, according to Rotem, the system may help reduce the population of the species by influencing the next generation, and thinning the future population can help protect the nesting of local birds. "Nature knows how to get back to itself when the offending species is removed from it," he says. Although Rotem's idea is in its infancy, the smart nest is an example of how design, research and practice can be integrated into creative ideas that, together with other solutions, can possibly deal with the invading bird.