The Display

I've heard them calling in the forest, and have seen females while out walking along the paths just beyond Grants Picnic Ground, but I'd never seen a male lyrebird doing a mating display until just the other day.

We were at The National Rhododendron Gardens, when we came across a family who'd stopped alongside the path and who were intently watching something hidden by some bushes. I heard the sound of a butcher bird coming from the direction they were looking, and wondered why they'd be so entrance by a bird that is interesting and lovely, but certainly not a rare sight here. Then the butcher bird call ceased and the sound of a loud camera shutter took it's place, and then the sound of kookaburra's laughing. All the sounds were coming from the same place: underneath a bush just in front of us.

Ah! It was a lyrebird! Lyrebirds are incredibly talented at mimicking sounds they hear.

So we stopped, too, and stood quietly watching. There were two of them, both males, and they seemed to be taking turns dancing and performing a mating display.

Stephen was able to get a couple of good photos of one of them:



During a display, the male flips his long tail up over his body and quivers so that the long feathers wave and tremble. He turns this way and that, stomping the ground and calling as he dances.



I didn't see any females, just the two males, so I don't know if they were really trying to attract a mate or if they were just practicing and showing off for each other. There might have been a female in the bush next to where they were dancing; the dark shadow of the bush made it very hard to see much, and we didn't want to move in closer and possibly upset the birds.