Superb Lyrebird at Adelaide Zoo Mimics Polaroid Camera Shutter

A visitor to Adelaide Zoo, Stephanie Kothe, captured remarkable footage of a superb lyrebird named Nova perfectly imitating the sound of a Polaroid camera shutter. The bird, a 37-year-old male, likely learned the noise from a zoo visitor. Nova also mimics other sounds, including chainsaws, radio button clicks, and various bird species such as kookaburras, magpies, rosellas, and rainbow lorikeets. Lyrebirds are endemic to Australia and are renowned for their mimicry, with about 80% of a male's songs imitating other bird species. Their vocalizations are used to attract mates, with more complex and convincing sounds being more impressive. Nova's keeper, Kiona, notes that lyrebirds in the wild live only 20 to 30 years, making Nova quite old. The footage was shared on Instagram by the Washington Post climate coverage account. This incident echoes a 2011 BBC show, David Attenborough's Life of Birds, which filmed a superb lyrebird imitating a camera shutter, car alarm, and chainsaw, and even mimicking a kookaburra so convincingly that a real kookaburra responded.