At home in south-east Australia and southern Tasmania, the Superb Lyrebird spends its days on the floor of humid forests, taking to the trees to roost at night. Lyrebirds only cover a small amount of ground within their lifetime, generally keeping within a ten-kilometre diameter of its home at all times.
Using its feet to clear leaf litter, the lyrebird’s diet mainly consists of insects, spiders, and worms. Lyrebirds tend to live and forage alone, with the exception of females and their male young.
These pheasant-like birds spend most of their life solo, but when it comes to breeding the males are quite the show-off! They attract multiple females by singing and dancing (quite literally shaking their ornate tail feathers!) to impress a potential mate. After mating, the female lyrebird will work alone to build a nest and incubate the egg, raising the young by herself.
While listed as Least Concern by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, population numbers of Superb Lyrebirds are decreasing thanks to threats including climate change, severe weather events, and habitat shifting and alteration by humans.
