Superb Lyrebird
Encyclopedia
The Superb Lyrebird is a pheasant
-sized songbird
, approximately 100cm long, with brown upper body plumage, grayish-brown below, rounded wings and strong legs. It is the longest and third heaviest of all songbirds
.
The Superb Lyrebird is featured on the reverse side of the Australian 10 cent coin.
An Australia
n endemic
, the superb lyrebird can be found in the forests of southeastern Australia, from southern Victoria
to southeastern Queensland
. Its diet consists mainly of small invertebrates found on the forest floor or in rotting logs. In the 1930s a small number were introduced to Tasmania
amongst ill-founded fears it was in danger of becoming extinct. The Tasmanian population is currently thriving. Now widespread and common throughout its large range, the Superb Lyrebird is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List
of Threatened Species.
The male is the bearer of the most elegant of all tails. The tail has sixteen feathers, with the two outermost together forming the shape of a lyre
. Next within are two guard plumes and twelve long, lace
-like feathers, known as filamentaries. Seven years are required for the tail to fully develop. During courtship displays, the male inverts his tail over his head, fanning his feathers to form a silvery white canopy. Young males and females have brown tail feathers which are camouflaged against the forest floor.
Superb lyrebirds breed in the depth of winter. Adult males start singing half an hour before sunrise from roosts high above the forest
floor. Superb lyrebirds sing less often at other times of year but a stroll through their habitat
on a rainy or misty day will sometimes find them active.
Superb lyrebirds have a promiscuous mating system. During the breeding season adult females and males defend separate territories and only females care for young. A female may visit several males before she mates but it is not known if she mates more than once. The female lays a single egg
and builds a domed nest
often camouflaging it with fern
s or moss
. The chick spends about nine months with the female before becoming independent.
s in the family Menuridae
, the other being the much rarer Albert's Lyrebird
,
The scientific name has been given as Menura superba previously.
Lyrebirds are ancient Australian animals. The Australian Museum
has fossils of lyrebirds dating back to about 15 million years ago. The prehistoric Menura tyawanoides has been described from early Miocene
fossil
s found at the famous Riversleigh
site.
John Gould
's painting of a male and female pair of Superb Lyrebirds, painted from specimens at the British Museum
, unfortunately has the tail feathers of the male incorrectly displayed.
A specimen of a male Superb Lyrebird, at the American Museum of Natural History
, also unfortunately has the tail feathers displayed incorrectly.
Pheasant
Pheasants refer to some members of the Phasianinae subfamily of Phasianidae in the order Galliformes.Pheasants are characterised by strong sexual dimorphism, males being highly ornate with bright colours and adornments such as wattles and long tails. Males are usually larger than females and have...
-sized songbird
Songbird
A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds . Another name that is sometimes seen as scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin oscen, "a songbird"...
, approximately 100cm long, with brown upper body plumage, grayish-brown below, rounded wings and strong legs. It is the longest and third heaviest of all songbirds
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
.
The Superb Lyrebird is featured on the reverse side of the Australian 10 cent coin.
Description
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n endemic
Endemism in birds
An endemic bird area is a region of the world that contains two or more restricted-range species, while a "secondary area" contains one or more restricted-range species. Both terms were devised by Birdlife International....
, the superb lyrebird can be found in the forests of southeastern Australia, from southern Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
to southeastern Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
. Its diet consists mainly of small invertebrates found on the forest floor or in rotting logs. In the 1930s a small number were introduced to Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
amongst ill-founded fears it was in danger of becoming extinct. The Tasmanian population is currently thriving. Now widespread and common throughout its large range, the Superb Lyrebird is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List
IUCN Red List
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species...
of Threatened Species.
The male is the bearer of the most elegant of all tails. The tail has sixteen feathers, with the two outermost together forming the shape of a lyre
Lyre
The lyre is a stringed musical instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later. The word comes from the Greek "λύρα" and the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists", written in Linear B syllabic script...
. Next within are two guard plumes and twelve long, lace
Lace
Lace is an openwork fabric, patterned with open holes in the work, made by machine or by hand. The holes can be formed via removal of threads or cloth from a previously woven fabric, but more often open spaces are created as part of the lace fabric. Lace-making is an ancient craft. True lace was...
-like feathers, known as filamentaries. Seven years are required for the tail to fully develop. During courtship displays, the male inverts his tail over his head, fanning his feathers to form a silvery white canopy. Young males and females have brown tail feathers which are camouflaged against the forest floor.
Voice
The superb lyrebird has an extraordinary ability to accurately mimic a huge variety of sounds. Both male and female lyrebirds sing but males are louder and sing more often.Mating habits
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
floor. Superb lyrebirds sing less often at other times of year but a stroll through their habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
on a rainy or misty day will sometimes find them active.
Superb lyrebirds have a promiscuous mating system. During the breeding season adult females and males defend separate territories and only females care for young. A female may visit several males before she mates but it is not known if she mates more than once. The female lays a single egg
Bird egg
Bird eggs are laid by females and incubated for a time that varies according to the species; a single young hatches from each egg. Average clutch sizes range from one to about 17...
and builds a domed nest
Bird nest
A bird nest is the spot in which a bird lays and incubates its eggs and raises its young. Although the term popularly refers to a specific structure made by the bird itself—such as the grassy cup nest of the American Robin or Eurasian Blackbird, or the elaborately woven hanging nest of the...
often camouflaging it with fern
Fern
A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants...
s or moss
Moss
Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...
. The chick spends about nine months with the female before becoming independent.
Taxonomy
One of the two lyrebirdLyrebird
A Lyrebird is either of two species of ground-dwelling Australian birds, that form the genus, Menura, and the family Menuridae. They are most notable for their superb ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds from their environment. Lyrebirds have unique plumes of neutral coloured...
s in the family Menuridae
Lyrebird
A Lyrebird is either of two species of ground-dwelling Australian birds, that form the genus, Menura, and the family Menuridae. They are most notable for their superb ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds from their environment. Lyrebirds have unique plumes of neutral coloured...
, the other being the much rarer Albert's Lyrebird
Albert's Lyrebird
The Albert's Lyrebird is a pheasant-sized songbird, approximately 90cm long, with brown upper body plumage and rich chestnut below. It is very similar with the Superb Lyrebird in its habits. This bird also mimics other species sounds....
,
The scientific name has been given as Menura superba previously.
Lyrebirds are ancient Australian animals. The Australian Museum
Australian Museum
The Australian Museum is the oldest museum in Australia, with an international reputation in the fields of natural history and anthropology. It features collections of vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, as well as mineralogy, palaeontology, and anthropology...
has fossils of lyrebirds dating back to about 15 million years ago. The prehistoric Menura tyawanoides has been described from early Miocene
Miocene
The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...
fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s found at the famous Riversleigh
Riversleigh
Riversleigh, in North West Queensland, is Australia's most famous fossil site. The 100 km² area has fossil remains of ancient mammals, birds and reptiles of Oligocene and Miocene age...
site.
Museum specimens
John Gould
John Gould was an English ornithologist and bird artist. The Gould League in Australia was named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection...
's painting of a male and female pair of Superb Lyrebirds, painted from specimens at the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, unfortunately has the tail feathers of the male incorrectly displayed.
A specimen of a male Superb Lyrebird, at the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
, also unfortunately has the tail feathers displayed incorrectly.
External links
- BirdLife Species Factsheet
- IUCN Red List
- Superb Lyrebird - Museum Victoria
- Superb Lyrebird - Healesville Sanctuary
- Lyrebird Forest - Healesville Sanctuary
- Superb Lyrebird - Australian Journal of Zoology
- Photos of Superb Lyrebird
- Superb Lyrebird photo - Trevor Quested
- Superb Lyrebird - Dr. Ellen Rudolph
- Superb Lyrebird photo and information - Sherbrooke Lyrebird Survey Group
- Superb Lyrebird videos on the Internet Bird Collection
- Superb Lyrebird - clip from David Attenborough's BBC program in which he watches a Superb Lyrebird