In this BBC documentary excerpt, David Attenborough visits with the lyrebird, a sort of living tape recorder who can mimic any sound it hears and impersonate other birds.
Suggested by Paul P.
17 thoughts on “Lyre, Lyre, Pants on Fire”
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Astonishing! If only there were some way to see what went on in its brain when it heard and then imitated sounds !
I adore Sir David! He’s a treasure — can we save him and keep him going for another century or so? There’s so many wonderful species he hasn’t introduced to us yet, and *nobody* does it better than he does!
There was a mockingbird by the outdoor patio at a building where my husband worked that had zero cell phone reception in the building, so everyone went out to the patio to make their calls. The bird could imitate every cell phone ring of every person who used their phone out there — a lot of people answered phantom calls that were really from the bird! 😀 Birds are amazing!
Laura you beat me to it with a mockingbird story.
I lived in an apartment near a bus stop. The dominant mockingbird could imitate the sound of the bus screeching to a stop. Cracked us up every time.
It’s not just mockingbirds that have great mimic skills. I used to own a small Senegal parrot that picked up on the old “deet deet” sound that the Nextel phone’s walkie talkie feature made. A few times it got my husband out of bed from a sound sleep to answer his phone thinking someone was trying to reach him. That bird was such a perfect mimic that when I was potty training my puppy, I decided not to train the dog to nudge a bell on the door every time she wanted out because I had visions of the bird learning that sound and I’d be up and down all the time not knowing whether it was the bird or the dog. LOL!
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I read an account long ago of a man who, when he was very young, shared a home with a parrot. The parrot would yell swear words in the boy’s voice, then imitate laughter when the poor kid got yelled at.
As for mocking birds: I spent a summer semester, in my college days, in a house-cum-dorm. A mockingbird nested outside my window. Every morning, three quarters of an hour before I needed to get up, this bird would begin its performance. It was a miserable experience from the get-go, but by the third week this performance included a virtuosic rendition of my alarm clock.
I wanted to die.
Amazing and horrible at the same time!!!
Right you are, Laura! I don’t know what’s more remarkable, the lyrebird or Sir David!
And we had a mockingbird (or was it a starling?) in Baton Rouge that could mimic all four phases of the car alarm.
I think it was the camera sounds — just the click, but later the click with the film motor — that got me the most.
My parrot is no lyre bird but he does a perfect imitation of my microwaving beeping, my mobile phone ringing, among lots of other sounds. At least I live in a detached home: my friend in a condominium apartment had a neighbour who called the fire department when it sounded like the fire alarm was going off in my friend’s unit. It was just her parrot imitating the sound!!!
I have heard stories about some rangers who use the local parrots and their imitations-of-sounds to figure out whether there’s gunfire from poachers operating illegally in the jungle.
It’s heartbreaking to hear the lyrebird imitating the sounds of powersaws destroying the forest.
This is true. Very sad. Luckily the bird does not have this knowledge or the worry.
What he does have is a chance to demonstrate an almost unbelievable adroitness at mimicry.That chainsaw sound is demonically complex and intricate.
Its staggering an animal can actually imitate it that exactly.
(Big words used to show smart I am)
(The chainsaw sounds makes it easy for anyone to appreciate how remarkable a bird he is,and appreciate what the loss would be if his species were to go extinct.)
If/when they reboot Police Academy this guy needs to audition:
Who else was reminded of a velociraptor? (I guess only me :))
When I see birds I think “dinosaurs” all the time now.