Mynas v miners: they might be swooping menaces but they're not all bad

Know your miner from your myna. Both are aggressive in different ways - discover why we're killing one but never the other

" Vote for Australia's bird of the year

A kookaburra nestles on my balcony and belts its deliciously rambunctious laugh, like an ape in a zoo. But, mid-cackle, it is interrupted by a series of urgent, high-pitched screams like sirens.

Three miner birds flutter in its face, screaming hysterically at it. At first, the kookaburra just gives the unrelenting interlopers an unblinking, nonchalant death stare before eventually giving in and moving on. The miners follow it and chase it out of the neighbourhood.