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Superb Lyrebird | Menura novaehollandiae |
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Lyrebird from Above
Image: 680x512, 130,854 bytes
Date & Time: 18 April 2003 10:17
Place: Sherbrooke Forest,
Dandenong Ranges National Park
Lyrebird Scratching
Image: 640x512, 135,030 bytes
Date & Time: 13 April 2003 11:18
Place: Sherbrooke Forest,
Dandenong Ranges National Park
Lyrebird Singing in the Mist
Image: 1024x600, 204,556 bytes
Date & Time: 17 May 2003 9:25
Place: Sherbrooke Forest,
Dandenong Ranges National Park
Male Lyrebird Foraging
Image: 680x512, 95,879 bytes
Date & Time: 3 July 2004 12:02
Place: Sherbrooke Forest,
Dandenong Ranges National Park
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Lyrebirds are the largest song birds and, in my view, the best singers of them all.
Famous for their mimicry, they make the same bird calls as other species in the forest,
as well as mimicking other noises (they have been know to make motor mower and chainsaw noises).
Both males and females sing but males tend to be more proficient mimics and only males have the magnificent tails
and dance (that I am yet to get a good photo of).
They live in forests along the Australia's east-coast hills and mountains.
The first two photos are of the same bird on different days.
The lyrebirds in Sherbrooke forest are reasonably familiar with human traffic along the paths
and you can normally get to within 10 metres or so if you approach carefully.
With my camera (which only has a 3x zoom) this is not close enough to get a good photo
but with the first two photos I got lucky (hiding behind trees helped).
The third photo, though not a good example of the bird, is good to see how you would most likely come across one.
In this case it is performing at another male, possibly to encourage it out of this territory.
My camera has the ability to record 5 seconds of audio and I used it to record some of their songs, including mimicry.
You can download them below, each file is less than 10kB.
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