Mt Hay in the rain; Lyrebird evolution

[Andrew Taylor <>]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 01:42:40PM +1000, Evan Beaver wrote:
> Anyway, any opinions on this? I've probably re-invented the wheel here
> and this was all covered by an undergrad in 1906, but we'll see.

Sexual selection would look to have more effect on lyrebirds  than
most species.  They even get a mention in Charles Darwin's 1871 book
on the topic.  Somewhat like you he stood at dawn on cliffs in the
upper Blue Mountains - probably hearing lyrebirds below.

Both territory size and acoustic power scale with body size - larger
birds tend to be louder and they tend to have bigger territories.
The only paper I've seen examine the relationship had data for only
handful of species - far too few to separate the factors - so I think
the effect of territory size isn't known.

Andrew