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Mimicry by Lyrebird

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Subject: Mimicry by Lyrebird
From: brian fleming <>
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 14:08:23 +1000
Not surprisingly, this topic was discussed many years ago, in the columns of the now forgotten "Wildlif Magazine", edited by the late Crosbie Morrison. It was agreed that the song of both Superb and Albert's Lyrebirds included many strange effects which seemed to imitate human sounds. I suppose that accounts for teh tale of the bird which imitated the saw-mill's "Wake-up" hooter, but havingno sense of time got everyone out far too early, in the dark. It was claimed that Albert's lyribird is a much better mimic than Superb. And one correspondent who had worked at an old-style saw-mill, claimed that he had heard an Albert imitating the sequence of the horse-team arriving at the mill - shod hooves clinking and thudding on the road, followed by splashing through the ford, interspersed with blowing and snorting from horses, and more hooves on road. I can't think of any natural or innate songs which would account for that. But it's only hearsay of course.
 Anthea Fleming


Peter Madvig wrote:

A quick addition to this topic, afore it 'croaks'-

I recall in the '70s at the Kalkari (?) visitors' centre near Bobbin Head, Ku-rin-gai Nat. Park, northern Sydney, listening to a recording of a local Lyrebird going through the scales of an oboe! It was supposed to have been passed on to the next generation, if I remember rightly?

Any takers?

Regards,
Peter Madvig

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