Lyre bird

Detail about Lyre bird:

Superb lyrebird which gives the family its name. Its spectacular tail of fanned feathers, when spread out in display, looks like a lyre a musical instrument of ancient Greece). The male superb  lyrebird is 80-100 centimetres long, including his 55-centimetres-long tail. He is dark brown on the upper part of his body and lighter brown, with red-brown markings on his throat. His tail feathers are dark brown above and sliver-grey below.
                    Females of the species are smaller than the males, with similar colouring but without the lyre-shaped tail. The females tail feathers are broadly webbed with reddish markings. Young male superb lyrebirds do not grow their lyre tails until they are three or four years old. Until this time, they usually group together and are known as 'plain-tails'.

Description:

The lyrebirds are large passerine birds, amongst the largest in the order. They are ground living birds with strong legs and feet and short rounded wings. They are generally poor fliers and rarely take to the air except for periods of downhill gliding. The superb lyrebird is the larger of the two species.
                    Females are 74–84 cm long, and the males are a larger 80–98 cm long—making them the third-largest passerine bird after the thick-billed raven and the common raven. Albert's lyrebird is slightly smaller at a maximum of 90 cm (male) and 84 cm (female) (around 30–35 inches) They have smaller, less spectacular lyrate feathers than the superb lyrebird, but are otherwise similar.

Distribution and habitat:

The superb lyrebird is found in areas of rainforest in Victoria, New South Wales, and south-east Queensland. It is also found in Tasmania where it was introduced in the 19th century. Many superb lyrebirds live in the Dandenong Ranges National Park and Kinglake National Park around Melbourne, the Royal National Park, region south of Sydney, in many other parks along the east coast of Australia, and non protected bushland. Albert's lyrebird is found only in a small area of Southern Queensland rainforest.

Behaviour and ecology:

Lyrebirds are shy and difficult to approach, particularly the Albert's lyrebird, with the result that little information about its behaviour has been documented. When lyrebirds detect potential danger, they pause and scan the surroundings, sound an alarm, and either flee the area on foot, or seek cover and freeze. Firefighters sheltering in mine shafts during bushfires have been joined by lyrebirds

Diet and feeding:

Lyrebirds feed on the ground and as individuals. A range of invertebrate prey is taken, including insects such as cockroaches, beetles (both adults and larvae), earwigs, fly larvae, and the adults and larvae of moths. Other prey taken includes centipedes, spiders, earthworms. Less commonly taken prey includes stick insects, bugs, amphipods, lizards, frogs and occasionally, seeds. They find food by scratching with their feet through the leaf-litter.

Breeding:

The breeding cycle of the lyrebirds is long, and lyrebirds are long-lived birds, capable of living as long as thirty years. They also start breeding later in life than other passerine birds. Female superb lyrebirds start breeding at the age of five or six, and males at the age of six to eight. Males defend territories from other males, and those territories may contain the breeding territories of up to eight females. Within the male territories, the males create or use display platforms; for the superb lyrebird, this is a mound of bare soil; for the Albert's lyrebird, it is a pile of twigs on the forest floor.

                     Male lyrebirds call mostly during winter, when they construct and maintain an open arena-mound in dense bush, on which they sing and dance in courtship display, to display to potential mates, of which the male lyrebird has several. The female builds an untidy nest, usually low to the ground in a moist gully, where she lays a single egg. The egg is incubated over 50 days solely by the female, and the female also fosters the chick alone.

Lyre bird Video:

Lyre bird basic information:

Kingdom: Animalia.

Phylum: Chordata.

Class: Aves.

Order: Passeriformes.

Genus: Menura.

Family: Menuridae.

Mass: Superb lyrebird: 970 g.