22.7M views · Feb 12, 2007 · 2:55 · 2 HN recommenders · 7 mentions · discussed 2008–2023
A short BBC clip in which David Attenborough shows a lyrebird imitating sounds, including camera shutters, car alarms and chainsaws. It comes from the BBC natural history series Life on Earth.
Why Hacker News points people here: Brought up whenever threads touch on mimicry, voice cloning or bird vocalization, and people say the ending is startling.
“The end of this BBC clip blew my mind the first time I saw it.”HN comment, 2017
“Check out the link, it's mindblowing.”
Lyrebird copies bird songs and man-made sounds
Another amazing bird worth knowing about is the Lyrebird: this video It copies not just the songs of other birds, but man-made sounds as well! Check out the link, it's mindblowing.
“The end of this BBC clip blew my mind the first time I saw it.”
Lyrebird impersonation clip, end is mind-blowing
I guess they've named it that because the lyrebird is an amazing impersonator. The end of this BBC clip blew my mind the first time I saw it. this video But you may have a point, and the ethics section makes it clear that they are indeed very aware of that this may be misused.
“The Lyre bird can perfectly mimick lots of man-made sounds: camera shutter, camera with a motor drive, car alarm, chainsaw.”
Lyrebird mimics camera shutters, car alarms, chainsaws
Ever watched a trained parrot? Birds imitate all kinds of sounds. Doubtless a cell phone ring is in the avian call repertoire. The Lyre bird can perfectly mimick lots of man-made sounds: camera shutter, camera with a motor drive, car alarm, chainsaw. this video
“Lyrebirds can mimic nearly any complex sound”
Lyrebirds mimic nearly any complex sound
I had to look this up because I though you were jesting. Turns out Lyrebirds can mimic nearly any complex sound: this video
“The lyrebird can imitate a chainsaw -- among many other things.”
Lyrebird imitating a chainsaw, from BBC's Life on Earth
The lyrebird can imitate a chainsaw -- among many other things. This is from the BBC's Life on Earth. this video
“camera shutter, chainsaws [1]”
Lyrebird imitating chainsaws
Even more fascinating, in my opinion, are Lyrebirds [0]. They have been observed the imitate artificial (human-made) sounds such as those of camera shutter, chainsaws [1], and construction work [2]. Not only do I find it impressive that they're capable of producing these kinds of sounds, but probably much more the necessary memory-recall for this. Birds have rather little brain-mass after all, so they must have some excellent way of 'sampling', distinguishing, and storing auditory stimuli. [0] link [1] this video [2] link
“lyre birds are way better at vocalization.”
Lyrebird vocalization example
Correct. You can't use a single number to accurately measure something that takes more than a single number to express. It's reductionist and impossible. All kinds of animals are far better then us at specific core brain functions with way smaller brains. Mantis shrimps are way better at vision than we are and lyre birds are way better at vocalization. ( this video ) You can find all kinds of vastly superior aspects of systems in the animal world. Ants and bees for instance, are probably better at socializing. Some supercolonies span thousands of miles with hundreds of millions of ants - rivaling the size of human countries. Ants, 0.25mg brains. Doesn't seem that important in organizing either. We're certainly not 5.2 million times better (which is our difference in brain mass) We're the only animals that have built rocketships and computers - so there's certainly something there but it's fleeting and complicated. Reducing it to a single measurement is inherently inaccurate in the same way you cannot describe the material, color, shape and volume of 3 dimensional objects with 1 number. Brain size alone cannot be a complete or useful metric.
