Superb Lyrebird

The Superb Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae) is arguably Australia's most celebrated bird — a pheasant-sized songbird with an almost supernatural vocal ability and one of the most elaborate courtship displays in the natural world.

Males grow to 100 cm including the famous lyre-shaped tail, which takes seven years to develop fully. During winter courtship (June–August), males build earthen display mounds in forest clearings and perform extraordinary dances while spreading their tails into a shimmering fan, singing a continuous cascade of song that incorporates perfect mimicry of other bird species, animal calls, and even mechanical sounds like chainsaws, camera shutters, and car engines.

Female lyrebirds are master nest architects, building large domed nests in rock crevices or dense vegetation, raising a single chick alone. The chicks themselves can begin mimicking sounds within months of hatching.

Lyrebirds inhabit wet sclerophyll forests and rainforest edges in southeastern Australia, favouring areas with deep leaf litter where they forage for invertebrates by raking with powerful feet. They are best seen on quiet early mornings in the right habitat — the Dandenong Ranges outside Melbourne, Sherbrooke Forest in particular, offer some of Australia's most reliable encounters.

Victoria's mountain ash and messmate forests are the lyrebird's stronghold, making Gippsland and the ranges east of Melbourne prime territory for birders seeking this species.