The Superb Lyrebird

 

photo of male Superb Lyrebird: copyright Hans and Judy Beste

Lyrebirds are ground-dwelling Australian birds, most noted for their ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds from their environment.  A lyrebird's call is a mixture of its own song and imitations of other songs and sounds. The bird's syrinx (vocal organ) is the most complexly-muscled of any songbird, giving the lyrebird the extraordinary ability to imitate almost any sound, including: various songbirds, flocks of birds, musical instruments, chainsaws, jackhammers, machinery of all kinds, car engines, car alarms, explosions, rifle-shots, fire alarms, camera shutters and motor drives, barking dogs, crying babies and the human voice. There are two species of lyrebird: the Superb Lyrebird and Albert's Lyrebird.

photo of male Superb Lyrebird: copyright Hans and Judy Beste

Cool Superb Lyrebird Facts:

• The lyrebird is able to carry on two tunes at the same time
• Males construct and maintain an open area mound in dense bush, on which they sing and dance in courtship
• Females build an untidy nest close to the ground in a moist gully
• Females lay a single egg and incubate the egg for over 50 days
• When in danger, lyrebirds run rather than fly due to their awkwardness in flight
• Lyrebirds have been seen to take refuge in wombat burrows, and firefighters taking shelter in mine shafts during bush fires have been joined by lyrebirds
• A group of lyrebirds is called a musket
• When in display, the male lyrebird's tail is carried up over his back as a shimmering fan, not in an upright lyre-shaped fashion
• The female lyrebird lacks the elaborate plumes of highly modified tail feathers

photo of male Superb Lyrebird: Wikipedia Commons

Amazing Video Links:
For a video of "Chook" at the Adelaide Zoo imitating construction work, click here .
For a video of David Attenborough observing a lyrebird's repertoire in the wild, click here.

photo of male Superb Lyrebird: copyright by Ryan Wick, Creative Commons