 The noisy miner primarily eats nectar , fruit and insects , and occasionally it feeds on small reptiles or amphibians . It is both arboreal and terrestrial , feeding in the canopy of trees and on trunks and branches and on the ground . It forages within the colony 's territory throughout the year , usually in groups of five to eight birds although hundreds may gather at a stand of flowering trees such as banksia . The noisy miner collects nectar directly from flowers , hanging upside down or straddling thin branches acrobatically to access the nectar ; it takes fruit from trees or fallen on the ground ; gleans or hawks for invertebrates ; and picks through leaf litter for insects . It has been recorded turning over the dried droppings of emu ( Dromaius novaehollandiae ) and eastern grey kangaroo ( Macropus giganteus ) searching for insects . 
