Hi Syd & anyone still interested,
I'd suggest the amount of ideas that these lyrebirds mimic human made sounds is
one of the biggest myths of Aussie bird folklore. The examples given are mostly
misunderstandings of their normal calls or are from unusual circumstances
(captivity, imprinted, etc). Given that lyrebirds don't vocally relate in any
way to the birds that they copy, they could equally pick up other sounds to
include in their mimicry, just as they do with birds. Indeed what is
interesting, is that they either, always or generally don't mimic available
human made sounds.
Beyond that, I suspect that Syd's comments are sort of being quite particular
there. Sure there is variety in the length of these bird's tail feathers. Apart
from that they are somewhat curved and it might depend on how they are
measured, also whether the feathers are measured in the bird or moulted lose
feathers. As for your "Not very similar" in response to: "The Albert's lyrebird
is similar in appearance to the superb ..." I'd say, sure they are similar. I
haven't seen a live Albert's Lyrebird but can tell they are similar. Yes there
are differences and isn't it reasonable to say they are as similar as are many
other pairs of congeneric or same family species? Just as our fantails are
similar, whistlers are similar, etc. It is largely a person's familiarity with
the group that creates their own impression of how similar or not they are. I'd
call many sea birds similar, mainly because I don't have the experience of
someone like Mike Carter in that area.
Philip
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