A male superb lyrebird. (Credit: Alex Maisey)
(CN) — Researchers have found an unusual behavior in the male superb lyrebirds of southeastern Australia: during courtship and mating, males will imitate the cacophonic sound of a panicked “mobbing flock” of birds, a call they typically deploy when a predator is afoot.
“Our paper shows that male superb lyrebirds regularly create a remarkable acoustic illusion of a flock of mobbing birds and, in so doing, create a complex but potent cue of a hidden predator,” said Anastasia Dalziell, lead author of a study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, in a statement.