Category Archives: Lyrebird
Lyrebird imitating a shooting game and several birds
It was a rare treat to find this Lyrebird in Sydney’s Northern Beaches. The bird was dancing, displaying his tail, and calling. He had an impressive repertoire, including the pieuw-pieuw sounds of an electronic shooting game and the calls of various birds.
Hint: For the best experience, increase the default quality of the video. (Use YouTube’s cog icon to update the settings.)
At the start of the video, the Lyrebird is searching through the leaves and twigs on the ground. The rushing noise in the background is a small waterfall nearby. The bird starts gently crooning and chirping to himself. (Turn up the volume to hear the mutterings.) Then the urge to sing overcomes him, and he starts his performance. The full display starts at about 50 seconds into the video, with the rattling and pieuw-pieuwing of an electronic shooting game accompanied by side-to-side and frontwards steps. He mingles some bird chirps into the shooting sounds for dramatic effect. Next come the bird sounds. I heard the start of a kookaburra call, though he didn’t get fully into it. (He did the full call in another performance, which I haven’t posted here.) He adds the calls of magpies, wattlebirds, lorikeets, and whipbirds. I think I hear a Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo and a magpie in there too, and other birds that I haven’t identified.
Between performances, the little fellow spent some time resting and picking through the leaves before starting up again.
The bird kept to the shadiest spots, making it hard to get a good photo. This is the best that I managed:
Common name: Superb Lyrebird
Scientific name: Menura Novaehollandiae
Length: 80-95 cm
Date spotted: 18 July 2024 (winter)
Location: Sydney’s Northern Beaches, New South Wales, Australia
Superb Lyrebird – excited to see and hear one in the wild
This morning I went for a stroll along the Berkeley Trail in Berowra. I stopped at the Naa Badu lookout point, to admire the view. From just below me, hidden by the rocks and trees, I heard a busy scratching and rustling. After a few minutes, a male Superb Lyrebird hopped up onto a rock and started whistling:
The bird is rather hidden by the bushes, but you can hear the lovely, clear sounds it makes, and you can get an idea of its appearance, including that impressive tail:
Common name: Superb Lyrebird
Scientific name: Menura Novaehollandiae
Approximate length: 80-95 cm
Date spotted: 3 July 2020 (winter)
Location: Naa Badu Lookout, Berowra, New South Wales, Australia: 33°37’04.8″S 151°07’41.4″E
Superb Lyrebirds are known for their ability to mimic other birds and the sounds around them. I plan to return to the Berowra area and film more of these birds!
This is the view that the lyrebird and I shared from the Naa Badu lookout:
Female Superb Lyrebird at Katoomba
She was hanging out in a secluded glen at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains yesterday, when I happened by with my camera. She is a Superb Lyrebird, scratching through the undergrowth for food. She doesn’t have the fanned lyre tail of an adult male, and alas, she’s not making any interesting noises. Instead, she’s catching a quick snack with a couple of wrens in tow.
We arrived in Katoomba at around 9am, and took the Scenic Railway down into the valley. We were strolling along the wooden walkways when the Lyrebird came into view. They’re usually very shy and keep to the shadows, so it was a treat to see this one reasonably well.
Lyrebirds are amazing mimics. Check out a video about the sounds Lyrebirds make, by David Attenborough.
Common name: Superb Lyrebird
Scientific name: Menura novaehollandiae
Approximate length: 85 cm
Date spotted: 13 June 2015
Season: Winter
Location: Katoomba (down in the valley), New South Wales, Australia
Approximate latitude/longitude: 33°43’56.1″S 150°18’14.1″E
Sydney Birder 