Lyre Bird

Lyre-Bird, any of the three species of Australian passerine genus Menura. These birds, rather smaller than a hen pheasant, are found in the brush of New South Wales, ranging north into Queensland and south into Victoria. The general plumage is sooty brown, the tail in the males of M. superba and M. Victoria is of sixteen feathers, the two outer curve like the sides of a lyre, the two long middle ones have vanes only on one side, and in the remaining twelve the barbs are widely separated. In M. albcrti, the most northern form, the tail is not lyre-shaped, and the two outer feathers are shorter than the rest.