Winter is the lyrebird's peak breeding season and the time of year you're most likely to hear or see the males performing their incredible mating displaying and distinctive array of calls.
Each male constructs numerous mounds – a flat bench on the ground surface about 1 metre square – where it then practices its display performance, perfecting it in the hope of winning the approval of a passing female.
In this video, taken in July 2020, it’s pretty obvious what he’s practicing for! He even displays a bit of frustration at the end.
"Lyrebirds are outstanding survivors from the world’s first flourishing of songbirds. Australia had them 20 million years ago, before Europe had any of its current songbird groups. Australia was the first continent with song, and it has always had the “best” song, if we accept opinions by international experts that lyrebirds are the world’s best songsters."
From ‘Where Song Began’ by Tim Low
We know of 5 nest locations on the property, including the nest where we monitored the raising of a chick in 2020, until it was predated by a fox. There’s another one nearby, used in 2023, where the experts are confident that a chick was successfully raised.
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