18.5M views · May 18, 2009 · 2:58 · 2 HN recommenders · 5 mentions · discussed 2020–2025
A short BBC Earth clip from David Attenborough's Life of Birds showing a lyrebird imitating sounds, including a chainsaw and camera shutter, so accurately it is hard to tell from the real thing.
Why Hacker News points people here: Shared whenever birds mimic sounds come up, as a mind-blowing example of vocal mimicry.
“Here's the one that blows my mind”HN comment, 2025
“It's really mind-boggling to me.”
Lyrebird imitating a chainsaw indistinguishably from the real thing
You might enjoy the superb lyre bird imitating sounds as mind boggling as a chainsaw--and when I say imitate, I mean I couldn't have distinguished the lyre bird sound from a real chainsaw. It's really mind-boggling to me. this video
“Here's the one that blows my mind”
Lyrebird imitating camera, car alarm and chainsaw
Here's the one that blows my mind: this video It's from one of (our honorary Uncle) David Attenborough's nature series, where a Lyre bird is imitating an analog professional camera, a car alarm, and a chainsaw. If I hadn't watched it well over a decade ago, I don't think I'd believe it. Search YT for 'lyre bird imitating chainsaw' for a choice of vids.
“The Lyrebird from Australia is probably the best at this.”
Lyrebird imitates nearly any sound
The Lyrebird from Australia is probably the best at this. It can imitate just about anything - car alarms, other birdsongs, camera shutters, gunshots, etc. etc. this video link
“Here's a lyrebird imitating a chainsaw”
It's spelled Lyre Bird, not Lire (the spelling is correct in the repo, just wrong in the title). Not much else to say. Here's a lyrebird imitating a chainsaw: this video
“The obvious and very Australian bird question is, of course”
The obvious and very Australian bird question is, of course, how can we search for: * A camera shutter, * A camera with a motorised drive, * A car alarm, * A chainsaw, ... etc ? this video
