Zoo Friends - ZooNooz June 05 - Focus on: Superb Lyrebird

The courtship display of the Superb Lyrebird is one of the most remarkable of all birds. At the start of the breeding season, mature males use their powerful claws to build 10 to 15 earth mounds, each about 15 cm high and 90 cm wide, throughout their two- to three-hectare territories. Their daily performance on each mound involves spectacular dancing and singing in an attempt to attract females.

They fan their beautiful tail, with its two lyre-shaped feathers bordering 12 long delicate feathers and two central plumes, and bring it forward to cover the body and head. With tail feathers shimmering, males prance and stomp in all directions over the mound, engaging in their unique song.

An estimated 80 per cent of Superb Lyrebirds' singing is mimicry. They can copy most sounds, from other birds and mammals, including people, to artificial things such as chain saws, car horns, alarms and trains. They also have their own sounds, including trills, rasps and clicks. Young males learn from older lyrebirds living nearby, so songs vary from area to area. The length and complexity of the songs are amazing.

A dense canopy of tall trees darkens the Superb Lyrebirds' habitat. They live in wet eucalyptus forests and rainforests along the coast and up into the Great Dividing Range of eastern Australia from Ballandean (near Brisbane) in the north to the Dandenong Ranges (near Melbourne) in the south. They have also been introduced into southern Tasmania. Mature lyrebirds are primarily solitary birds, each establishing a territory, which they protect with whistles and cackles.

During the day the birds use their powerful legs and long toes and claws to scratch through the thick mulch on the forest floor, seeking worms, centipedes, beetles and spiders. They sometimes also eat seeds. This digging also benefits the forest in return, encouraging decomposition of the leaf litter and releasing nutrients for other organisms. Their wings are generally small and weak and only used to fly to night-time roosts, or for low flights between feeding areas. They are quite wary and when frightened will run and weave quickly using the dense undergrowth as cover, while shrieking loudly.

Lyrebirds are the world's largest songbirds; males are 80 cm to 100 cm long, including a 60 cm tail, while females are smaller. With the exception of their tail, which they moult in spring, Superb Lyrebirds are nondescript, blending in with their poorly lit environment. Males, females and immature birds are chocolate-brown, with paler undersides, red-brown markings on their throats, and black legs and feet. The males' tails are dark brown on top and silver-grey underneath, with light-brown markings along the silver, lyre-shaped feathers. Females and young males have long reddish tails.

The only other species of lyrebird, Albert's Lyrebird is smaller and more darkly coloured than the Superb with a chestnut-rust body and black head. The male Albert's does not have lyre-shaped tail feathers and has a less complex song. It partially clears areas for displaying rather than building mounds. The Albert's Lyrebird is endangered, and restricted to mountain ranges in a relatively small area of northern NSW and southern Queensland.

Breeding season for Superb Lyrebirds is from May to October, peaking in June-July. Females' territories overlap those of males, giving them opportunities to visit different mounds when attracted by the males' displays. They will mate intermittently without forming a bond. Males, who can mate with several females during one season, take no further part in the breeding process.

Females construct a nest at the beginning of the breeding season - a structure of sticks, roots and ferns, lined with soft materials such as feathers and moss. Nests can be hidden on the ground, or be up to three metres high in tree ferns, in a tree stump or on a rock. The female lays one spotted, pale purple-brown egg which she incubates for about 42 days. After her chick has hatched, she will look after it for about 42 more days.

For a while after leaving the nest, young lyrebirds forage in groups of four or five that include mature males and females. After this young males, called 'plain-tails', live together until they grow their spectacular lyre tails at about three years. Both sexes mature at about eight years and establish their own territory before breeding. Superb Lyrebirds live for about 20 years.

While the Superb Lyrebird is common throughout much of its range, it is considered endangered in some regions. An example is the Dandenong Ranges where it is thought urban growth is the main culprit, the loss of habitat magnified by the lyrebirds' slow reproduction rate.

At Taronga Zoo, there are two Superb Lyrebirds in the Streets 'Creatures of the Wollemi' exhibit. They can be seen best between 1pm and 2 pm when they are fed.

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