---
title: "What the sources say about the Superb Lyrebird | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "30 claims from the Superb Lyrebird profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it."
image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/superb-lyrebird-1.webp"
canonical: "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/superb-lyrebird/sources/"
---

# What the sources say about the Superb Lyrebird (*Menura novaehollandiae*)

> 30 claims from the Superb Lyrebird profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it. A "..." marks a cut in a quote and [brackets] an insertion.

Profile: [Superb Lyrebird](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/superb-lyrebird/)

## Menura novaehollandiae. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T22703605A132071218.

https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2018-2.rlts.t22703605a132071218.en

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| The IUCN's 2018 assessment lists the superb lyrebird as Least Concern | IUCN Red List category: Least Concern (LC). |

## Superb Lyrebird. Australian Museum, 2023.

https://australian.museum/learn/animals/birds/superb-lyrebird/

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| growing 80 to 100 centimetres long including its tail | Size Range 80 - 100 cm in long (including tail) |
| About 80% of its song is mimicry of sounds from its surroundings, from local native birds to chainsaws, car engines and dog barks | About 80% of the song consists of expert mimicry, with both and joined together in a rousing medley. Sounds can include anything heard in the bird's immediate surroundings, such as chainsaws, car engines, dog barks and local native birds. |
| A song built roughly 80% from mimicry | About 80% of the song consists of expert mimicry (note: stats.superpower, same fact as the body's 80% line) |
| The adult male's tail carries specially curved feathers that take the shape of a lyre in display, while females and young males have long tails without them | The adult male has an ornate tail, with special curved feathers that, in display, assume the shape of a lyre. The tails of females and young males are long, but lack the specialised feathers. |
| Breeding runs from April to October, slightly shorter in the north of the range. A male mates with several females, and the female alone builds the nest, incubates the eggs and cares for the young | Superb Lyrebirds breed in April to October each year (the season is slightly shorter in the north of its range). ... The male will mate with several females. The female alone builds the nest, incubates the eggs and cares for the young. |
| Insects, spiders, worms and occasional seeds, found by scratching through leaf litter | Superb Lyrebirds feed on insects, spiders, worms and, occasionally, seeds. It finds food by scratching with its feet through the leaf-litter. (note: stats.diet; 'occasional' carries the same hedge as the source's 'occasionally') |
| Alongside its impressions it makes whistles and cackling notes that serve as territorial calls, and it has a loud shriek of alarm | The Superb Lyrebird also emits a series of whistles and cackling notes that are used as territorial calls, as well as a loud alarm shriek. (note: FAQ 1) |
| Lyrebirds find food by scratching through leaf litter with their feet | It finds food by scratching with its feet through the leaf-litter. |
| a bird whose song is about 80% expert mimicry of the sounds around it, stitched together into one medley | About 80% of the song consists of expert mimicry (note: settle #889 (vibe.reason)) |

## Lyrebirds. NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/native-animals/native-animal-facts/birds/lyrebirds

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| a display mound of scratched earth that he builds himself, up to 90 centimetres wide and 15 centimetres high, and one territory may hold 10 to 15 of them | The superb lyrebird has an elaborate courtship ritual centred around a display mound. Built by the male bird, this display mound is made of scratched earth and measures up to 90 centimetres wide by 15 centimetres high. Each lyrebird territory may include 10 to 15 display mounds |

## Menura novaehollandiae. AnAge: The Animal Ageing and Longevity Database, Human Ageing Genomic Resources.

https://genomics.senescence.info/species/entry.php?species=Menura_novaehollandiae

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Wild superb lyrebirds have been recorded living up to 17.9 years, according to banding records | Maximum longevity 17.9 years (wild) Source ref. 1305 (note: AnAge's ref. 1305 is the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Scheme (ABBBS), listed in AnAge's own references) |
| an average adult weighs about 980 grams | Life history traits (averages) Female sexual maturity Male sexual maturity Gestation Clutch or litter size Breedings per year Weight at birth Adult weight 979.95 g (note: 979.95 g rounds to about 980 g; AnAge lists it under averages) |
| weightKg: 0.98 | Adult weight 979.95 g (note: settle #889) |

## Dalziell et al. (2013). Dance Choreography Is Coordinated with Song Repertoire in a Complex Avian Display. Current Biology.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.05.018

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| A male sings four different song types and matches each with its own set of movements, delivering song and dance in a predictable sequence; a 2013 study concluded that coordinating the two in this way is not a uniquely human trait | male superb lyrebirds (Menura novaehollandiae) sing four different song types, matching each with a unique set of movements and delivering song and dance types in a predictable sequence. ... the coordination of independently produced repertoires of acoustic and movement signals is not a uniquely human trait. (note: '2013' is the paper's publication year, taken from the reference list, not a figure the quote itself states) |

## Dalziell et al. (2021). Male lyrebirds create a complex acoustic illusion of a mobbing flock during courtship and copulation. Current Biology.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.02.003

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| During his song and dance displays, a male superb lyrebird can build an acoustic illusion of a mixed-species mobbing flock, mimicking several species' alarm calls together and even imitating the wingbeats of small birds, convincing enough that real birds treated it as genuine in a playback test | during their song and dance displays, male superb lyrebirds (Menura novaehollandiae) create an elaborate acoustic illusion of a mixed-species mobbing flock. Acoustic analysis showed that males mimicked the mobbing alarm calls of multiple species calling together, enhancing the illusion by also vocally imitating the wingbeats of small birds. A playback experiment confirmed that this illusion was sufficient to fool avian receivers. |
| an acoustic illusion of a mixed-species alarm flock convincing enough that real birds treat it as genuine | create an elaborate acoustic illusion of a mixed-species mobbing flock ... A playback experiment confirmed that this illusion was sufficient to fool avian receivers. (note: stats.superpower and tagline, same fact as the blockquote) |
| Ground-dwelling mimic whose courtship act includes a fake alarm-flock illusion convincing enough to fool real birds | create an elaborate acoustic illusion of a mixed-species mobbing flock ... A playback experiment confirmed that this illusion was sufficient to fool avian receivers. (note: tagline, same fact as the blockquote and stats.superpower) |
| males used the illusion only at two specific moments: when a female tries to leave his display arena, or during mating itself, suggesting it works to keep her from ending the interaction early | males produced this mimicry only (1) when females attempted to exit male display arenas, and (2) during the lyrebirds' unusually long copulation, suggesting that the mimicry aims to prevent females from prematurely terminating these crucial sexual interactions (note: FAQ 2; 'mating' paraphrases 'copulation' for the site's younger audience; keeps the source's 'suggesting' hedge) |

## Maisey et al. (2020). Foraging by an avian ecosystem engineer extensively modifies the litter and soil layer in forest ecosystems. Ecological Applications.

https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2219

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| In a study in forests of Victoria's Central Highlands, they turned over an average of 155.7 tonnes of litter and soil per hectare in 12 months, an amount the authors call unparalleled by any other vertebrate soil engineer on land | in forests in the Central Highlands, Victoria. ... On average, Lyrebirds displaced 155.7 Mg/ha of litter and soil in a 12-month period. ... The enormous extent of litter and soil turned over by the Superb Lyrebird is unparalleled by any other vertebrate soil engineer in terrestrial ecosystems globally. (note: 155.7 Mg/ha = 155.7 tonnes/ha; scoped to the study's Central Highlands forests) |

## Maisey, Haslem & Bennett (2025). Foraging activity by an ecosystem engineer, the superb lyrebird, 'farms' its invertebrate prey. Journal of Animal Ecology.

https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.70009

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| A 2025 study found that this mixing and turning of litter and soil replenishes the biomass and diversity of the invertebrates the birds eat, making up for what they take. The authors' word for it is farming | Lyrebird foraging actions that mix, turn over, and aerate litter and soil layers create a positive feedback loop that actively replenishes the biomass and diversity of their invertebrate prey, compensating for offtake by predation. These results provide evidence that lyrebirds 'farm' their prey resource. (note: '2025' is the paper's publication year, from the reference list) |
| One experiment compared ground open to lyrebirds, ground raked by hand to copy their digging with no birds allowed to feed, and untouched ground. Invertebrate biomass and variety were higher in the raked plots than the untouched ones, showing the digging itself helps, but lower in the lyrebird-accessible plots than the raked ones, because the birds ate some of them | (1) lyrebird‐free, fenced exclosures ('control'; no engineering or predation); (2) fenced exclosures with raking ('raked'; engineering effects only); and (3) unfenced plots accessible to lyrebirds ('lyrebird'; engineering and predation effects). Biomass and taxonomic richness of invertebrates were higher in 'raked' treatments compared with 'control' treatments, due to the engineering effects of raking. Biomass and richness were lower in 'lyrebird' treatments, due to predation effects by lyrebirds. (note: FAQ 3; rewritten to state only the two pairwise comparisons the abstract makes (raked vs control, lyrebird vs raked), not a three-way 'most' ranking; 'because' restates the quote's own 'due to predation effects by lyrebirds') |
| a big, ground-dwelling bird of the moist eucalypt forests of south-eastern Australia | The superb lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae), a ground-dwelling species of moist eucalypt forests in south-eastern Australia |

## Brook & Buettel (2026). Edge-of-range camera-trap records of Superb Lyrebird Menura novaehollandiae in western and central-north Tasmania (2018–2025). Australian Field Ornithology.

https://doi.org/10.20938/afo43091097

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| it was introduced at Mount Field in 1934 and Hastings in 1945, both in the island's south-east, and a 2026 paper reports that it has since spread across much of the island's central bioregions | Although not native to Tasmania, it was successfully introduced at two locations in the south-east, at Mount Field in 1934 and Hastings in 1945 ... was deliberately introduced to south‑eastern Tasmania in 1934 and has since dispersed across much of the island’s central bioregions (note: published version (Australian Field Ornithology 2026) of the 2025 EcoEvoRxiv preprint) |
| plus an introduced population in south-east Tasmania | deliberately introduced to south‑eastern Tasmania in 1934 (note: stats.habitat) |
| In August 2025 a camera trap filmed a lyrebird near Mount Roland in the state's central north, about 50 years ahead of the 2070 to 2080 window a spread model gave for the birds reaching that region | a late-century arrival in the central north (Amin et al. 2025). The Mount Roland detection, occurring c . 50 years earlier than the modelled window (2070–2080) (note: FAQ 4; the source's full phrase is 'occurring c . 50 years earlier' (the PDF text splits 'c.'), hence 'about 50 years'; the published version moved the model window from the preprint's 2080-2100 to 2070-2080) |
| The species is not native to Tasmania | Although not native to Tasmania, it was successfully introduced |
| In August 2025 a camera trap filmed a lyrebird near Mount Roland in the state's central north | a 3-second video near Mount Roland in the central north (9 August 2025) (note: FAQ 4, the date half) |

## Maisey et al. (2023). Effects of a megafire vary with fire severity and forest type: The impact of Australia's 'Black Summer' fires on the superb lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae), an iconic forest species. Biological Conservation.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110356

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Australia's 2019 to 2020 "Black Summer" fires came after it, burning an estimated 41.5% of the habitat of the southern subspecies, M. n. victoriae. A year later, surveys found lyrebird foraging almost completely absent from sites burned at high severity, except in rainforest | Initial assessments of the 2019/20 megafires of Australia's ‘Black Summer’ highlighted widespread, severe impacts for many species. ... We investigated the impacts of megafire on the southern superb lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae victoriae) ... One-year post-fire, we carried out field surveys at 226 sites ... In total, 41.5 % (~2.1 million ha) of habitat was burned at differing levels of severity. ... foraging was almost completely absent from all sites that experienced high severity fire, except in rainforest. (note: '2019/20' is the source's shorthand for 2019 to 2020; 'came after it' is date arithmetic against the 2018 assessment) |
| Moist eucalypt forest and rainforest of south-eastern Australia | Rainforests (<1 % of distribution) have the greatest post-fire value for lyrebirds (note: stats.habitat; moist eucalypt forest is claimed from farming-2025) |