Male lyrebirds that are looking for love can use their mimicry to "compose" songs to serenade females during the breeding season.
Research led by Western Sydney University found the ground-dwelling birds that are renowned for their ability to mimic can also "compose" songs from the sounds they hear in their environment.
Lead researcher PhD student Fiona Backhouse says lyrebirds are a bit like hip-hop artists, using sounds produced by other birds to compose new songs by assembling them into sequences.
Many bird species organise their songs into sequences, yet little is known about the drivers of that sequence structure, including with lyrebird mimicry.
"We've established that each population has a characteristic song sequence, where individual males sing the same song sequence many times during the breeding season with only minor variations," she said.
"His neighbours will sing a very similar song sequence, but there are differences among populations," Ms Backhouse said.
On average, the study found the similarity between sequences an individual male sings was 40.7 per cent - a figure significantly higher than expected by random chance.
The study found that lyrebirds copied sequences from their neighbours - who also copied sequences from others.
"This then provides the ingredients for a 'game of telephone', whereby changes in sequence structure evolve throughout the species' range," the study said.
"This process is similar to how geographical differences arise in human communication."
Songs were sung with a high acoustic contrast, suggesting that sequence structure was a means to enhance perceptions of the male lyrebirds' repertoire.
"Lyrebirds appear to compose their song sequences to maximise drama ... so that consecutive samples are as dramatically different as possible.
"This seems like an excellent way to give the listener the best and quickest impression of the virtuosity of the male's mimicry."
Previously, lyrebirds and other vocal mimics were viewed as 'passive' mimics - like a recorder merely reproducing what they heard.
"This research shows that lyrebirds do in fact use their mimicry to 'compose' long, complex songs, all in an effort to appeal to their female listeners."
The study of male Albert's lyrebirds in Bundjalung Country, in eastern Australia was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
© AAP 2022
Image: www.environment.nsw.gov.au