This is bird note.

Imagine you were a bird with a unique bird song.

You might be surprised to hear your signature song repeated back to you with near perfect accuracy,

but not from your same species.

The source of the echo is the bird song chameleon, known as the superb lyre bird.

Found in Australian forests, male superb lyrebirds can mimic coals well enough to convince

the bird they're imitating that the lyrebird is one of their own.

Here's his impression of a yellow-tailed black cockatoo.

First, you'll hear the lyrebird and then the bird that he's mimicking.

A pyrkara vong.

A cuckabura. A cuckaburah.

And even an eastern web bird.

The superb lyrebird is one of nature's greatest mimics, a living and breeding dictaphone.

While males seem to attract maids, females imitate the calls of predators, which could help

frighten other birds of their territories. Lyrebirds in zoos even pick up mechanical noises like car

alarms, chainsaws, and construction sounds.

The BBC recorded one liar bird imitating a camera shutter.

That was a camera shutter.

What a trickster.

This show is also available in Spanish.

Visit our website, birdnote.org, to learn more.

I'm Camilo Garsohn.

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