Australian Brush-turkeys. They’re the bird everyone loves to hate. They’re not pretty to look at, and they have a habit of tearing up your garden to build their mounds. But they have a certain dignified strangeness that appeals to me.

One of the strange things about a brush-turkey is the noise it makes. The sound you’ll hear most often is a quiet grunt, like the cluck of a contented, somewhat deep-voiced domestic chicken.

But every now and then, male Australian Brush-turkeys make a weird, booming sound:

Oo-oo-oom

Listen to the sound of this male brush-turkey:

Did you hear the noise? Play the video again if you missed it. Making the noise seems to entail a lot of effort. The bird starts by ducking its head, a little like a pigeon doing a mating dance. Then it lifts its head, and the loose yellow skin hanging below its neck seems to be inflated with air. Perhaps expelling that air is what makes the noise?

Now that you’ve heard the noise, you may be able to make it out in the next video too. The bird makes the noise near the start of the video, but it’s a little masked by a chatty currawong.

Male brush-turkeys build a mound of leaves and other vegetation, then attract females to lay their eggs in the mound. The warmth from the compost heap keeps the eggs at the right temperature until they hatch. No sitting around on boring nests for this canny bird!

This particular bird seems to return to the same location to build its mound every year. The mound is uncomfortably positioned in a narrow strip between a road and a building. I guess the temperature must be just right. And maybe the presence of humans keeps predators at bay.

Here’s the proud father-to-be:

Common name: Australian Brush-turkey
Scientific name: Alectura lathami
Approximate length: 60-70 cm
Date spotted: 25 October 2020 (spring)
Location: Outside Manly Dam Park, New South Wales, Australia: 33°46’54.1″S 151°15’28.3″E