Superb lyrebirds are some of the most accomplished mimics in the animal kingdom. In particular, they can imitate the sounds of a mobbing flock, a heterogenuous collection of birds responding to a predator by flying at it. This occurs at least during courtship and copulation; perhaps it also occurs at other times.
Why?
[Anastasia Dalziell of Cornell University] thinks the males aimed to scare the females into staying and mating. While male birds are known for using songs to attract a mate, this suggests male lyrebirds can also use them to deceive. [“Male lyrebirds imitate a flock of birds to scare females into mating,” Priti Parikh, NewScientist (6 March 2021)]
Here is a video of the observations. Note that the sounds of wing beats are actually also generated by these birds.
Here is the paper in Current Biology. by Dalziell, Maisey, Magrath, and Welbergen.
And I must say, the invaders from space movie makers missed a bet when they didn’t feature male lyrebirds as the invading critters. Eeeek!
