David Attenborough called this beautiful bird one of the best songbirds in the world (it is also the biggest singing bird in the world). During the mating season, this colorful bird mimics a range of sounds he picks up from all the birds and other wildlife around him to make a special song to attract a female. This complex song can have as many as 20 different bird sounds as well as sounds from the environment such as electronic toys, camera shutters, squeaky doors, or chainsaws.
The Lyrebird gets its name from the unique shape of its tail feathers that resembles a lyre musical instrument. When these exotic birds coordinate their song with dance, as part of their mating ritual, their tail goes up and opens up beautifully.
It is an absolute privilege to be able to take amazing photos and film this rare bird as it is extremely shy and difficult to approach. It reminds me a bit of the Road Runner cartoon character when they flee on foot.
Early morning song
In this video clip, the most obvious sound would be the laughing kookaburra. Other sounds include a camera shutter, grey-backed butcherbird, eastern whip bird, noisy friarbird, pied currawong, and grey shrike thrush. Local birds also copy willy wag, corella, rainbow lorikeet and noisy miner, black cockatoo, cockatoo, king parrot, wattlebird to name a few.
Dance and song practice time
All of these stunning pictures and videos were taken at the Kur-ring-Gai Chase National Park in Sydney, Australia.
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The bird is gorgeous! I wish I could see it in person! So many beautiful awesome things to see in this world of ours! When I pass away, I Hope to visit all the places and experience the wonders of the world and see the fantastic things I wasn’t able to see in my lifetime!! What s wonderful world we live in!
If you are ever walking in the Australian bush, and think you hear X bird and then Y bird. Stop, sit down , turn off phone and voices. Be* very* still. Wait. Then you might be lucky and see one. I have heard several I think. But only seen one.
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They remind me of mockingbirds. When we first moved to Texas, there were a couple of nests in our neighbourhood, so we looked them up. Apparently mockingbirds learn new songs throughout their lives, and you can tell the age of the bird by the number of songs they sing without repeating. We had one male that could sing for a full hour. They also teach their babies all of their songs and apparently they can have quite a repertoire. ...///... They’re limited by their vocal cords, but some of the “songs” I heard were a train whistle, a tornado warning siren, a very convincing meow (drove the neighbour’s cat bananas), and yipped like a little dog. This is all on top of every other bird call there is plus a little bit of Mozart.
Yeah, these guys are pretty much the mockingbirds of Australia. Far more spectacular, though.
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The bird is gorgeous! I wish I could see it in person! So many beautiful awesome things to see in this world of ours! When I pass away, I Hope to visit all the places and experience the wonders of the world and see the fantastic things I wasn’t able to see in my lifetime!! What s wonderful world we live in!
If you are ever walking in the Australian bush, and think you hear X bird and then Y bird. Stop, sit down , turn off phone and voices. Be* very* still. Wait. Then you might be lucky and see one. I have heard several I think. But only seen one.
Load More Replies... They remind me of mockingbirds. When we first moved to Texas, there were a couple of nests in our neighbourhood, so we looked them up. Apparently mockingbirds learn new songs throughout their lives, and you can tell the age of the bird by the number of songs they sing without repeating. We had one male that could sing for a full hour. They also teach their babies all of their songs and apparently they can have quite a repertoire. ...///... They’re limited by their vocal cords, but some of the “songs” I heard were a train whistle, a tornado warning siren, a very convincing meow (drove the neighbour’s cat bananas), and yipped like a little dog. This is all on top of every other bird call there is plus a little bit of Mozart.
Yeah, these guys are pretty much the mockingbirds of Australia. Far more spectacular, though.
Load More Replies...
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