At the Rawdat Al Faras facility outside Doha, thousands of invasive myna birds are kept in secure enclosures and provided with food and water as part of a sweeping national campaign to protect Qatar’s delicate ecological balance.

Since 2022, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoECC) has been actively working to combat and control one of the world’s most invasive species: the myna bird.

Originally brought to Qatar as an ornamental pet in the 1980s, the species — native to India and parts of Southeast Asia — quickly adapted to the local climate, thrived in urban and rural landscapes, and began outcompeting native birds for food and nesting sites.

“In the past, they were just ornamental birds,” explained Saleh Shandhour Alyafei, Campaign Field Team Leader at the Wildlife Development Department, MoECC, in an exclusive interview with Doha News. “They got used to our climate, started breeding, and their numbers went beyond normal levels. They destroyed the nests of pigeons, bulbuls, and migratory birds. They even eat chicks and take over the nests.”

The impact has not been limited to wildlife. Farmers have complained of significant crop damage, particularly to fruit and vegetable yields. “It hurts agriculture and the economy,” Alyafei said. “Some farms were losing a lot. In one farm, we could catch 80 or 90 birds a day. Now, after the campaign, sometimes it’s only 20 or 50 in a whole month.”

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the myna among the world’s 100 worst invasive alien species since 2000. For Qatar, which has been a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity since 1996, controlling the bird is part of meeting biodiversity protection targets under the national strategy.

How the campaign works

The MoECC launched its national programme to control myna numbers in 2022. Since then, more than 36,000 birds have been trapped by mid-2025. “We’ve seen the highest activity in green areas: farms, public gardens, the Corniche,” Alyafei said. “These places give them food and safe nesting.”

The campaign relies on specially designed cages, developed over several stages after extensive behavioural studies. “Special cages have been designed to trap invasive myna birds, in line with effective standards that comply with protocols and public safety regulations,” Alyafei explained. “The bird likes sharp angles, it’s bold around people, and it eats almost anything, rice, bread, dates, sugar. We used this knowledge to design traps that are effective but safe for other birds.”

The design process was trial-and-error. “The first model was a pyramid shape,” he said. “Then we changed it. The final design we use now is one metre by one metre, with a height of 1.7 metres. It allows the worker to go inside, take the birds out, and reset the trap.”

Teams work seven days a week, responding to public reports of sightings or nests through the ministry’s hotline (16066). Morning rounds focus on clearing traps, while evening shifts remove any remaining captured birds. In addition, the ministry also works in collaboration with governmental and private entities.

Safe holding and regulations

Once trapped, mynas are transported to the Rawdat Al Faras holding facility, a purpose-built, climate-controlled shelter where they are supplied with food, water, and regular cleaning in line with environmental and public health standards.

Alyafei explained. “It’s fully air-conditioned, we clean it every week, and we make sure they have food and water at all times.”

From a legal perspective, the operation is carried out under Qatar’s environmental laws and in line with international commitments. “Our work follows the Convention on Biological Diversity,” Alyafei said. “It’s also part of the National Biodiversity Strategy, which aims to protect ecosystems from invasive species.”

The choice of method was deliberate. “We made sure our approach complies with animal welfare laws and Islamic principles,” he added. 

The Qatari cage-trapping model has drawn attention from other nations facing similar challenges. “Some Gulf countries took the idea from us,” he noted. 

Future Framework

The MoECC is already planning to apply the lessons from the myna campaign to other invasive species in Qatar. “We have a programme for controlling invasive alien species,” Alyafei said. “The success with the myna gives us a strategy we can use for other threats to biodiversity.”

Research is also set to expand, with a collaboration with Qatar University on disease monitoring and ecological studies. “We want to know exactly what they carry,” Alyafei explained. “It’s difficult to catch a bird and test it on the spot, but in the long term, it’s important for public health and the environment.”

For now, the ministry urges the public to remain vigilant and report sightings or nesting activity of the myna bird.