Family Menuridae

Lyrebirds

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General

Large, mainly ground-dwelling birds with short, rounded wings, long legs and a long tail.
Eastern Australia.
Mostly moist forest with dense understorey and some bare areas.

76-103 cm.

1 genus, 2 species, 4 taxa.

0 species threatened;
none extinct since 1600.

Systematics

The scientists who examined the specimens of the Superb Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae) sent to England soon after the species’ discovery by Europeans, in 1798, were puzzled as to the bird’s...

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Morphological Aspects

The two lyrebirds are primarily ground-dwelling birds, their flight being largely restricted to episodes of gliding downhill. They are among the very largest of the passerines, being of the same size as a Phasianus pheasant, and they have short, rounded wings....

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Habitat

The family Menuridae is restricted to moist forest habitats in eastern Australia, where it ranges from extreme south-east Queensland southwards to the south-eastern half of Victoria. The discovery of the fossil species Menura tyawanoides in the Riversleigh deposits in north-west...

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General Habits

Although lyrebirds spend most of the day on the ground, they roost at night in trees, often 20-45 m above the ground. The ascent at dusk involves a series of clumsy leaps accompanied by wing-flapping, and the morning descent is made in a series of glides from branch to branch. Lyrebirds are...

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Voice

One characteristic for which the lyrebirds are renowned is their spectacular vocal behaviour, particularly the male’s song with its large component of mimicry. Males sing at all times of the year, but with...

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Food and Feeding

Very little is known about the diet and foraging behaviour of Albert’s Lyrebird. The following details, therefore, apply almost exclusively to the...

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Breeding

Breeding begins in the austral winter, generally in June, and ends in early November, but nest-building can commence in the autumn, sometimes as early as March.

Female Superb Lyrebirds first breed when...

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Movements

Studies of individually recognizable birds, combined with the temporal stability of song types (see Voice), indicate that Superb Lyrebirds are sedentary in all parts of their range. Adults are territorial throughout the year, although territory boundaries are relaxed a little in the non-...

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Relationship with Man

Aboriginal people appear not to have hunted lyrebirds to any significant extent, and these birds, unlike many other native animals, do not feature greatly in their rock paintings. Even so, indigenous Australians were obviously familiar with the...

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Status and Conservation

Albert’s Lyrebird was considered by BirdLife International to be Near-threatened in the early 1990s. Just a few years later, however, in an important publication in 2000, S. T. Garnett and G. M. Crowley...

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General Bibliography

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Species list

List of species of the Lyrebirds (Menuridae) family. Each species provides information on taxonomy, descriptive notes, voice, habitat, food and feeding, breeding, movements, status and conservation and bibliography.

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Family Menuridae

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