A master of mimicry, Apollo, the superb Lyrebird at Healesville Sanctuary, is strutting his stuff and performing a symphony of impressive sound effects as part of a winter courtship ritual delighting visitors.
The cooler months set the stage for breeding season where the males shake their tailfeathers and copy the sounds around them in hopes of attracting a mate.
Apollo’s vocal repertoire includes other birds from the sanctuary such as kookaburras, magpies, yellow-tailed black cockatoos, superb parrots, crimson rosellas, satin bowerbirds and eastern whipbirds to name a few.
Even more impressive is his ability to mimic human-related sounds – from car alarms to sirens to camera shutters chainsaws, golf carts, ringing phones and even people blowing kisses. Healesville Sanctuary bird coordinator Tammika Stasiak said Apollo can make about 25 different noises, that he has learnt from his parents growing up, and then he has picked up others from listening in new environments.
“We’ve heard him copy the keepers by saying things like ‘what ya doing?’ and ‘good boy’,” Mrs Stasiak said.
“The actual lyrebird sound is like being in a time zone or laser studio. We’ve seen people ducking and not understanding what is happening when Apollo is making those crazy laser sounds. “Apollo hasn’t heard someone beatboxing or been in a laser room, that’s just the crazy mating sound lyrebirds make.”
Male superb lyrebirds do this performance to attract potential mates.
The bigger the repertoire, the more specific the sounds, the sexier you are and the more mates you attract in the bird world.
“If I was a female lyrebird, I would think he is extremely attractive. You don’t know which bird sound he is going to make. You don’t know if it is a real lyrebird or a kookaburra or if it is a Red-tailed black cockatoo,” Mrs Stasiak said.
“To be in that environment and seeing him display, it’s a magical experience that you don’t usually get to see up close in the wild.”
Apollo is displaying courtship dance rave behaviours regularly during the morning and late afternoon.
Visitors are advised to give Apollo plenty of space to move around.
Superb lyrebirds are classified as least concern with a decreasing population on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
They live in forest environments along the east coast of Australia from Brisbane to Melbourne.
Threats to their survival include climate change and severe weather altering their habitat.
