The SUPERB LYREBIRD "The World's Best Mimic" on video

About The Superb Lyrebird Video:

"See an unbeleivable bird mimic human sounds.. car alarms.. chainsaws.. cameras & all kinds of other birds!"
The lyrebird, which Sir David Attenborough meets on a log in a dense forest in Australia, is the bird world's best mimic. It can imitate 12 other birds. It does the whirring of a camera's motor drive and the click of a shutter. It repeats the engine of a car, and the din of a car alarm. It can even imitate the screech of the chainsaw wielded by the loggers coming to cut down its habitat.
The Superb Lyrebird video clip has been voted Britain's Favourite Naturalist moments. Remarkably, the talented lyrebird proved more popular than the legendary 1979 Rwanda Mountain Gorilla story. Sir David Attenborough discovered the very talented lyrebird while he was in Australia filming the 1998 series The Life Of Birds. The bird proceeded to perform an accurate imitation of a chainsaw, then gave a perfect rendition of the photographer's camera shutter and the crew's car engine and car alarm, as well as a dozen other bird impersonations.

Impressive. nice find

LOl the chainsaw part was fun too watch.

I first thought nah it's a joke.. but it seriously does do this..
..as explained by David Attenborough

That was great. I love the camera part too.

Heh. One of my favourite birds in the world. Even humans (more intelligent e.t.c.) can't mimic a chainsaw, camera or car alarm without a considerable amount of practice.

Wow, fantastic!!! That was so cool!!!

LOL that was awsome!

Wild birds are also capable of bizarre mimicking; in the past we've had a starling that mimicked the stupid whistling of a neighbour, another that occasionaly sang as a (trimphone) ring!

Back in the early 80s locally there was a released/tame jackdaw that could talk - not just mimick but construct sentences and converse. Sadly its friendliness and sociability was its undoing, as it was stoned to death by mindless idiots - who should have suffered the same fate.

Lets not forget the African grey !

The Wonders of Nature. This is brilliant.

The Camera click and motor drive are incredible

It actually sounds like my Canon EOS SLR camera.

It is amazing alright, but isn't it sad though that it can mimic "human" noises? Just shows as a reminder that their home is being chopped down, and it doesn't have a clue of what is about to happen. Makes me want to cry.

A parrot wolf whistled at me once.

How did I miss this thread!?

That was a very very cool vid Vremmi! I remember seeing this on PBS years and years ago.

The lyrebird isn't the only bird species that is supurb at mimicry. I used to raise parrots, well over a thousand hatchlings of all varieties in my time.

I had parrots that would imitate my alarm clock, doors slamming, my neighbors dog barking, my daughter's little girl screeching (unpleasant) I even had one cockatiel that would immitate my sneezing while throwing his head forward like when a person sneezes. He only did it when I sneezed first and I could not fool him with a fake sneeze. He absolutely knew the difference. After he "sneezed" he'd hop up and down on his perch giggling and sounded a lot like my daughter.

Birds are amazing creatures, it's not just that they can mimic noises and human words, it's not at all uncommon for them to use words in context and express exactly what it is they want. I had a Macaw that used to demand eggs for breakfast (cannibal!) if I didn't give him scrambled eggs he'd have a cow. He'd throw his pellet food at me, throw whatever I gave him on the floor. He literally pitched a fit like a 2 year old. I have hundreds of stories where my birds used words and acted in total context to the situation. The same macaw was a "Houdini" and he could pick a combination lock that was on his cage. I ALWAYS knew when he did it because he'd come find me and tell me "Bad bird, I'm bad... Pelee's a bummer." (Pelee is his name)

Parrots in general, especially the larger ones are about as smart a 3 year old child and have the emotional stability of an 18mo to year old child. Not a fantastic combination unless you have an incredible amount of patience. haha

Thanks Miss MelsWell, the animal kingdom never fails to amaze me!

My wife tried to teach her cockatiel how to talk, everyday she would say "hello" to Sunny. One day she stepped out of porch to hear a mocking bird say "hello". At that point she gave up on teaching the Sunny to talk.

How's the Mocking Bird coming along?

Cockatiels are an enigma. If Sunny was a hen, she would probably never talk. Most hen 'tiels don't. The males can talk quite well, but they're often hard to understand. I had close to 100 hen tiels at one point, I don't think a single one of them ever talked. The males I couldn't shut up though.

In the world of parrots, garden variety parakeets (or more correct, budgies) are actually the MOST accomplished talkers. Most budgie owners never realize that though because you have to listen to them very carefully. They have tiny little screechy voices and they don't speak as clearly as most of their larger cousins. Budgies typically know hundreds more words and phrases than their big boisterous noisy counterparts though. It's thought that it was an English Budgie that was the single most accomplished talker with nearly a 1200 world vocabulary. My macaw never had more than about 200-300 consistent words, and he was quite a good talker for a macaw.

When I had all my birds, we found that the wild ravens around the house started to talk too, so that's fairly common. Garden variety ravens (or blackbirds) learn to speak extremely well and clear too. Mockingbirds are known to be eager little talkers too.

Birds are my favorite.

I watched that whole series on the knowledge net. and it had me so captivated, and when that bird did his chainsaw imitation i cracked up laughing! That was a great series, wish i,d have taped it! Thanks for posting one of my favorite parts of the program, i loved seeing it again!

What a fascinating bird...The chainsaw and camera cracked me up...Great Find...Thanks...

thanx Goalienan

no probs swtp

That was just amazing! Loved the video! Thanks so much for sharing.

Wow thats awesome. I hope it never hears the crazy frog ring tone it will cause mass suicide in forest lol

good point you make

that is SO COOL!!!!

pervert!

The chainsaw bit cracked me up, talk about sound real!!!

My cat was watching the screen intensely

Good video

Oh here's my chainsaw

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

camera

CLICK

car alarm

YOOOOOP YOOOOP YOOOOP

see no problem

This is a very cool bird, could you imagian one as a pet. He would mimic the drip in the faucet, the phone, the smoke detector, the dog barking ohhhh that would be awful.

I saw one of these Lyrebirds in ferntree Gully National Park forest last week during my morning run, it was immitating noises of some of the local birds amazing stuff!

What i truly magnificent bird.