Ok, so we all know that the lyrebird is the unrivalled master-performer amongst Australian birds, but so they ought to be after 20 – 40 million years of practice right! Males maintain several small (about 1 metre round) performance mounds spread across their territory (pictured above) which they rake clean of leaf debris each and every day during the Autumn and early Winter breeding season. You can usually find these mounds along ridgetops where he can entertain ladies from both catchments.
The call I’ve recorded here was made from a male lyrebird while a female was nearby. To my mind I’ve only captured half of the real courtship call here, the other half (the REAL courtship voice) happens only when the female physically steps into the dance arena. When that happens, his calls quieten right down and can become almost inaudible. He lifts his magical tail feathers, draping them forward as a lacy and shimmering veil across his head while uttering a series of strange repetitive clicks and other funny noises.
I’m sorry to report that I’ve been too busy to find the time (serious amounts of time are required) to lay in wait near a calling mound (a make will use multiple mounds in a day) with my sound recording gear! It’s my May 2024 challenge so watch this space…
A final, rather weird note on lyrebirds
During the 2019 wildfires it is thought that up to 50% of superb lyrebirds across south-eastern Australia were either killed by direct exposure to flames or perished soon afterwards owing to a lack of insects to eat. Given that the vast clouds of smoke from these fires eventually settled as both a layer of soot on the glaciers of New Zealand and darkened the waters of the Pacific Ocean (where the rain of organic ash was mopped up by unseasonal phytoplanktom blooms that eventually turned into fish, whalesharks, coral and limestone), it is completely true to say that the final resting place for thousands of lyrebirds is now spread across the planet. It is an unsettling and macabre thought that ought to leave us feeling ashamed.