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Comment by MrMcCall | Hacker News Reader

Here's the one that blows my mind:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSB71jNq-yQ

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.

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Yeah amazing, and his name is Chook.

>“…two of his three lyrebirds were captives, one from Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary and the other from Adelaide Zoo. This latter individual, Chook, was famed for his hammers, drills, and saws, sounds he reputedly acquired when the Zoo’s panda enclosure was built.“ https://theconversation.com/lyrebirds-mimicking-chainsaws-fa...

There was (mockingbird?) near my home in the 90s who did a solid imitation of the multi- tone aftermarket car alarm that was common around that time. I recall being annoyed by it at the time since it often happened in the early morning hours. I kind of miss it now (or I’m just a little nostalgic for the sound of the time period).

When I was a teenager in the late 80's, I ran a BBS and a mockingbird outside my window learned the "paging sysop" beeps the computer made. It was very confusing, and like your bird, it was annoying because it was usually in the early morning hours.

The mockingbirds where I lived from 2009-2018 only sang the song of the car alarm. The original species became rarer and rarer, and generational distortion snuck in. It was definitely interesting comparing which parts of the alarm were mocked well and which were outside the range.

Otoh, really annoying on hot nights when everyone had their windows open and the damn things keep chirping all night. A neighbor found if you yell shut up really loud, you'll get about 5 minutes of peace.

As a teen I worked in a pet shop and a Mynah - the shop pet - had learned to imitate a squeaky hamster wheel.

I'm trying to remember the bird that stands guard for another species, and mimics their alarm calls on seeing predators, but when hungry throws in an occasional lie so that they drop their food and run. Something African I think.

Edit: I was thinking of the Fork-tailed Drongo, which does this to meerkats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork-tailed_drongo#Kleptoparas...

A bird sanctuary I went to in the Amazon had a bunch of parrots, macaws, and similar birds that had been seized from various businesses and criminals. Some of them had been taught to recite a bar's drink specials or to swear. I was quite the odd cacophony of calls.

I’ve seen that video maybe a dozen times since it was first aired and I’m still constantly flabbergasted each time.

They're fairly common near where I live. Sometimes when I'm on a hike in the mountains enjoying the wonderful variety of bird songs I come to the realisation that nope... there's just one bird there.

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