A Lyrebird is a ground-dwelling bird, native to Australia. It has strong legs and feet and short rounded wings. Its plumage is a mix of brown, white and black. It is a poor flier and rarely take to the air except for periods of downhill gliding. The males have a strikingly beautiful tail, which they fan out as part of courtship display.
A Lyrebird is best known for its ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds from the environment. Its songs may last as long as 20 minutes and It make different sounds for different requirements.
Its diet consists of cockroaches, spiders and beetles. It is a solitary, shy bird.
Female Lyrebirds build dome-shaped nests made of sticks. They build these cosy structures on the ground, in tree stumps, in tree ferns or even in caves, and fill them with fern fronds, feathers, moss and roots – a particularly talented lyrebird could even put Grand Designs homeowners to shame.
Once they’ve built and decorated their home, they’ll generally lay one egg, which hatches in six weeks. The young lyrebird will then live in the nest for the first 6-10 weeks of its life.
There’s also a smaller, darker lyrebird that lacks the elegant lyre-shaped tail feathers of the superb lyrebird. This is the Albert’s lyrebird – less superb, but equally amazing – the Albert’s lyrebird is found in only a small region of south-east Queensland and far northeast New South Wales. With brown upper body plumage and a rich chestnut colour below, they are roughly the size of a pheasant.
Threats to the species include danger from vehicle collisions, domestic animal, and foxes. Having survived the devastation of the 2019-20 bushfires by living in one of the Unburnt Six forest areas on our east coast, lyrebirds are still vulnerable to threats such as land-clearing and logging and need our help to thrive and stay as superb as we know they are.
Credit : WWF Australia
Picture Credit : Google
