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Definition of "lyrebird" [lyrebird]

  • Either of two Australian birds of the genus Menura, the male of which has long tail feathers that are spread in a lyre-shaped display during courtship. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "lyrebird" in a sentence
  • "In his book Why Birds Sing, jazz musician David Rothenberg reports that in the 1930s, an Australian flute-playing farmer in Dorrigo, New South Wales, kept a lyrebird as a pet, who liked to sing a fragment of one of the songs the man played."
  • "Other species include the well-known gang-gang cockatoo Callocephalon fimbriatum, glossy black cockatoo Calyptorhynchus lathami, superb lyrebird Menura novaehollandiae, crimson rosella Platycercus elegans, kookaburra Dacelo gigas, and satin bowerbird Ptilonorhynchus violaceus."
  • "There has been some erosion by wind and intense fires, and the superb lyrebird while excavating for food or building nest-mounds could have had some impact on erosion over time since they may turnover an average of 63 tonnes of debris per hectare per year."
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