Lyrebirds are covered with
brown feathers.
They live in forests and woods in Australia.
They have wings but stay on the ground most of the time.
Lyrebirds eat insects, spiders, beetles and worms.
Male lyrebirds can copy many sounds.
Lyrebirds belong to a group of birds called passiforms.There are 2 species
(kinds) of lyrebird:
the Superb lyrebird, which is about the size of a rooster, and Albert's
lyrebird, which is the smaller of the two.
Albert's lyrebird is the rarer of the two, and doesn't have the same tail
feathers as the superb lyrebird.
Appearance
The Superb lyrebird gets its name because of the tail of the male bird. When the
tail is raised over his head, it looks like an ancient musical stringed
instrument called a lyre. The male carries the tail low most of the time, but
when he is trying to attract a female during the mating season, he spreads his
tail and raises it over his head. When he does this, the tail covers his body
and head. The tail can be as long as 60 centimetres when the male is fully grown
at about 8 years old.
Lyrebirds have mostly brown feathers and although they have wings, they don't
often fly. They move about the forests on foot, running and jumping quickly on
their short legs. They have four claws on each leg. At night they roost in
trees.
Lyrebirds have long, pointed bills which they use to catch worm, spiders,
beetles and insects.
Behaviours
To court a female, the male makes several mounds of earth which he uses as
performance platforms around his territory. He dances and sings on the mounds.
He extends his tail and holds it over his back and head so that his body is
under it. He shivers the tail and sings his own sounds, and also sounds of the
forest and other sounds he has heard, even chainsaws, cars and cameras. Each
lyrebird has his own song, made up of the particular sounds he has heard and
imitated in his territory. Several females will be attracted to his
performances.
Life Cycle
After mating with a male, a female lays one egg in a nest built on the ground or
around the stump of a tree or fern. The nest is up to about 10 cm high and about
70 cm wide and made of sticks and leaves. The egg hatches in about six weeks and
the young lyrebird stays in the nest for about six weeks. The female feeds her
young.
Conservation status
Lyrebirds are a protected species. Albert's lyrebird is classified as Vulnerable
(the stage before endangered). The Superb lyrebird was once almost extinct, but
is now not threatened. However, both species need to be protected from feral
cats and foxes, and their forest habitats are affected by human activity such as
logging and four-wheel driving.