Lyrebirds are ground-dwelling birds belonging to the family Menuridae, with two distinct species. Native to the rainforests of Australia, they were also introduced to Tasmania in the 19th century. These birds are famous for their extraordinary ability to mimic not only the calls of other birds but also a wide range of natural and manmade sounds from their surroundings.
The first lyrebird specimens were sent to England from New South Wales in the late 18th century. British Army officer, artist, and naturalist Major-General Thomas Davies was the first to illustrate and describe the superb lyrebird in the Transactions of the Linnean Society of London in 1800. He originally gave it the scientific name Menura superba, derived from the Ancient Greek words μήνη (mēnē), meaning “moon,” and ουρά (ourá), meaning “tail.” However, because his work wasn’t published until 1802, the species was officially named Menura novaehollandiae due to nomenclatural priority. English physician and naturalist John Latham had already described the bird under that name in his 1801 work General Synopsis of Birds.
While many admired the lyrebird’s striking tail, so much so that Victorian women used the feathers to decorate hats, Church of Scotland minister and zoologist John Fleming had a different opinion. In his book The Philosophy of Zoology, he was less than impressed with the bird’s ostentatious ornaments, and gave it the name Menura vulgaris.
European ornithologists initially classified lyrebirds as part of the order Galliformes, alongside pheasants, peafowls, and junglefowls, due to their similar appearance. The superb lyrebird was even originally called the “native pheasant.” However, its classification was reconsidered when researchers discovered that its chicks are altricial, unlike the precocial chicks of pheasants. This led to much debate until, in 1840, the superb lyrebird was officially recognised as a passerine, the third largest in the order, after the thick-billed raven and the common raven.
The male superb lyrebird measures between 80 and 100 cm in length, while the smaller female ranges from 74 to 86 cm. Its upperparts are dark brown, and its underparts are grey-brown, with reddish flight feathers. The bird has short, rounded wings, which make it a poor flier, though they assist with balance and gliding from trees to the ground.
The adult male’s striking tail, approximately 70 cm long, consists of sixteen feathers. Among them are two banded outer feathers with a distinctive S-shaped curve, coloured burnt orange and white with black tips. These “lyrate” feathers resemble a lyre, giving the species its name. Between them are twelve delicate feathers with silver-coloured barbs called filamentaries, while the centre of the tail has two dark grey, wiry median feathers.
The female’s tail is far less ornate. Her lyrate feathers are shorter and plain in colour, and instead of delicate filamentaries, the central feathers are broad and plain.
Albert’s lyrebird (Menura alberti), named after Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, and also known as the Northern lyrebird, was not discovered until the mid-19th century. Initially, it was mistaken for a variant of the superb lyrebird rather than a distinct species. Smaller than its relative, the male Albert’s lyrebird grows to a maximum length of around 90 cm, while the female reaches up to 84 cm. It has rich chestnut-brown upperparts, with a paler undertail, rump, and throat, along with a broad blue-grey ring around the eye. Both male and female have smaller, less spectacular lyrate feathers than the superb lyrebird.
When a taxidermist, who had never seen a live superb lyrebird, prepared a specimen for the British Museum in the early 19th century, he assumed that its tail feathers were displayed upright, similar to a peacock’s. As a result, he arranged the tail in this position. English ornithologist John Gould, often regarded as the father of ornithology in Australia, had also never seen a live lyrebird. When he created an illustration for his seven-volume series, The Birds of Australia, he based it on the museum specimen, depicting the lyrebird with its tail feathers held aloft.
However, during courtship, the male lyrebird does not hold his tail feathers upright in this way. Instead, he fans them out and bends them forward over his head while beating his wings and strutting around. Throughout the display, he sings a combination of his own vocalisations and remarkably accurate imitations of other birds.
Lyrebirds sing all year round, but they are most vocal during the breeding season from June to August. During this time, they can sing for up to four hours a day, nearly half of the daylight hours.
Their songs combine their own vocalisations with mimicry of other species. Lyrebirds are known to imitate the calls of more than 20 bird species, including kookaburras, cockatoos, shrikethrushes, currawongs, and whipbirds. They have also been observed mimicking the sounds of mammals such as possums, koalas, and dingoes.
Some of the birds imitated in the audio clips below include the pied currawong, the little wattlebird, Eastern whipbird, grey butcherbird, satin bowerbird, rainbow lorikeet, common myna, and yellow-tailed black cockatoo.
James Ray/xeno-canto
Lyrebirds don’t just copy natural sounds – they also imitate human-made noises. They’ve been heard mimicking chainsaws, camera shutters, gunshots, car engines, alarms, fire sirens, and even mobile phone ringtones.
In episode 6 of David Attenborough’s Life of Birds, first broadcast by the BBC in 1998, a male lyrebird is shown imitating drills, hammers, and other construction site noises. However, it was later revealed that the clip featured two birds, both raised in captivity. One of them, named Chook, hatched at Healesville Sanctuary near Adelaide Zoo and had learned the sounds while the panda enclosure was being built.
Lyrebirds are often said to mimic the sounds of lasers or gunfire from video games, but this is a misconception. The “electronic” noises they produce are actually part of a natural repeating sequence that males use during courtship.
Marc Anderson/xeno-canto
Another common myth is that female lyrebirds don’t mimic sounds. While they are almost completely silent during courtship, at other times they produce complex vocal displays that blend lyrebird-specific calls with imitations of sounds from their environment.
A study by scientists from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology found that female lyrebirds change their calls depending on the situation. While foraging, they mostly sing intricate lyrebird songs. However, when defending their nests or competing with other females for breeding territories, they switch to alarm calls, sometimes even mimicking the calls of predators or the alarm signals of other bird species. Females use more mimicry when protecting their nests than when foraging, and the types of sounds they imitate vary depending on the context. This suggests that their mimicry serves multiple purposes.
These findings challenge the belief that female lyrebird vocalisations are rare or insignificant. In fact, they reveal that female lyrebirds have a rich and complex vocal repertoire, proving that their calls play an important role in their survival and behaviour, even in a species famous for its elaborate male displays.
