Amazing! Bird Sounds From The Lyre Bird - David Attenborough - BBC Wildlife
Why Hacker News recommends it
Brought up whenever threads touch on mimicry, voice cloning or bird vocalization, and people say the ending is startling.
What it is
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.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2008 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec paloaltokid · 2016-08 · on “The Greater Honeyguide, a Bird That Understands Humans”
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.
Strong rec coldsmoke · 2017-04 · on “Lyrebird – An API to copy the voice of anyone”
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.
Cites ryanmahoski · 2008-06 · on “Ask HN: I'm having dinner with the Mythbuster tomorrow night... got any questions?”
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]
Cites arbie · 2018-03 · on “Listening for illegal logging chainsaws using TensorFlow”
I had to look this up because I though you were jesting. Turns out Lyrebirds can mimic nearly any complex sound: [this video]
Cites emmelaich · 2020-06 · on “New slats make the Golden Gate Bridge sound like a David Lynch movie”
The lyrebird can imitate a chainsaw -- among many other things. This is from the BBC's Life on Earth. [this video]
Cites sva_ · 2020-07 · on “A ‘viral’ new bird song in Canada is causing sparrows to change their tune”
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]
Cites kristopolous · 2023-07 · on “Were small-brained early humans intelligent? Row erupts over scientists’ claim”
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.