The lyrebird is renowned for mimicking an astonishing range of sounds, including chainsaws. Australian lyrebirds can reproduce bird calls, animal noises, human speech, car alarms, camera shutters, and other mechanical sounds with remarkable accuracy.
There are two living species: the superb lyrebird and Albert’s lyrebird. The superb lyrebird is the larger and more widely known species, found in southeastern Australia. Males combine their own song with learned imitations during elaborate courtship displays, often singing for hours during the breeding season.
Lyrebirds do not literally copy every sound they encounter, so “any sound” is a colorful shorthand rather than a scientific limit. Their repertoire depends on what they hear in their local environment, and young birds learn many imitations from older lyrebirds rather than directly from the original animals.
The famous chainsaw recordings helped make the species a global curiosity, but some widely shared footage features captive birds exposed to machinery. In the wild, lyrebirds more commonly imitate other birds and forest sounds.