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Tasmanian lyrebirds - RFI

To: <>
Subject: Tasmanian lyrebirds - RFI
From: Syd Curtis <>
Date: Sat, 09 Mar 2002 22:44:22 +1000
Thanks Merrilyn, for the lyrebird advice.

However, my interest is specifically related to the breeding season song.
Outside the breeding season both species indulge in a range of mimicry that
is not part of their breeding season song.  I too, have recorded mimicry of
a cat and of a dog (from an Albert's Lyrebird), but not in the breeding
season.  And if lyrebirds do mimic mechanical sounds of human origin as is
so often claimed (and in many hours of tape-recorded song I have not a
single example of this), it is unlikely to be in the breeding season, when
their singing is of serious intent for quite specific purposes.

I need to be sure that if I go to Tasmania to record them, they will be
defending territories and singing to attract females to their mounds.

Cheers

Syd

> From: Merrilyn Serong <>
> Date: Sat, 09 Mar 2002 19:58:23 +1100

> Hi Syd
> Superb Lyrebirds in Toolangi State Forest and Yarra Ranges National Park ~60
> to
> 80 km NE of Melbourne definitely sing all year round.  I don't think I have
> visited the area without seeing or hearing a lyrebird, no matter what time of
> year.  They are certainly doing a lot of singing right now.

(snip)
> 
> Syd Curtis wrote:
> 
>> Having more than a passing interest in lyrebirds, I took the opportunity
>> when in Tasmania last week, to inquire about the Tasmanian introduced
>> population.  The Ranger at the Hobart NP Inquiry counter, recommended the
>> Hasting's River Caves population as the most accessible.  The Ranger at the
>> Hasting's visitor centre advised that they were singing well near
>> Chesterman's Road and that she wondered if they were already commencing
>> their breeding season.
>> 
(snip)
>> 
>> I hope some time, not necessarily this year, to visit the Hasting's
>> lyrebirds to tape record their breeding season song,  and it would be most
>> frustrating indeed were I to go there in June or July - the normal lyrebird
>> breeding season - and then find that they have changed their breeding season
>> to March/April, and I've wasted my trip.
>> 
>> Can anyone guide me in this?  (The Ranger at Hasting's River knew of no-one
>> presently working on the lyrebirds there.)
>> 
(snip)

>> TIA
>> 
>> Syd Curtis
>> 

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