TUROSS Head’s Don McGregor is a devoted fan of Australia’s greatest entertainer – and we are not talking about Iggy Azalea, Jimmy Barnes or Hugh Jackman.
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Mr McGregor, 79, has spent the past six years studying lyrebirds in the Moruya State Forest, finding out much not previously known.
He has developed a fondness for the character of these feathered friends.
“The male lyrebird is a great entertainer,” he said.
“He’s brilliant at singing, dancing and mimicking voices. He is an egotist and a show- off.
“One we studied could perfectly mimic the sounds of 14 different birds.”
Mr McGregor conducted the study together with Margaret and Tony Turner, also of Tuross Head.
It all started when they were “up the bush” and heard one singing.
“We thought that people see them bound across the road but little else is known about them,” he said.
“We would spend up to four hours a day in a hide watching them using special motion detection and time- lapse photography.”
Mr McGregor has published a booklet based on the six years of research, and held 19 free presentation nights in Sydney, Canberra and rural NSW and Victoria.
He said the study had debunked some officially held beliefs.
“The previous studies were done in Sher-
brooke Forest in Victoria, where the population of lyrebirds is so tame that they behave differently to other lyrebirds in the wild,” he said.
Mr McGregor studied four separate males and four separate nesting hens.
“It was believed that the male mates for life and we have found that is not true, but rather he mates with as many females as he can,” he said.
“It was believed that the male helps look after the chick, but he actually only wants to mate.
“The female picks the best singer and dancer to mate with.”
Mr McGregor said each of the four hens studied had different means of protecting their chick. Lyrebirds only have one chick at a time.
“The chick turns its rear vent toward the hen and produces a faeces sac, which the hen then carries away from the nest,” he said.
“It was most unusual to get footage of that.”
Despite the Moruya State Forest lyrebird population being wild, Mr McGregor and the Turners developed a friendship with one of their subjects.
“One hen was very angry at us at first, but then she got used to us to the point we could drop worms for her to eat,” he said.
Find out more at lyrebirdman.com.
