The Australian bird that looks like a peacock, particularly in its courtship display, is the Superb Lyrebird, known for its spectacular, lyre-shaped tail fan of iridescent brown feathers that it spreads wide, mimicking the peacock's grandeur but with unique elegance and incredible vocal mimicry of other sounds.
Lyrebirds have unique plumes of neutral-coloured tailfeathers and are among Australia's best-known native birds.
Debbie Guest yes, lyrebirds are shy and only found in Australian forests. They are wild animals that can mimic other bird calls even kookaburras and also man's sounds eg chainsaw. Peacocks have the bigger more colourful tails but have an awful sound. They are found around the world having been domesticated by man.
Birds of Paradise
Like peacocks, male birds-of-paradise often have long trains of tail feathers; they may also have unique breeding plumage on the wings or head. These birds aren't a part of the Pheasant family and bear little relation to peafowl.
The bird that goes "woop woop woop" in Australia is the Pheasant Coucal, a large, ground-dwelling cuckoo known for its distinctive, resonant, bubbling call that sounds like "oop-oop-oop-opp" or "whoop-whoop-whoop," often heard morning and night, and sometimes mistaken for rain.
Casuarius casuarius johnsonii. Southern Cassowary 🪶 Dubbed as the world's most dangerous bird, the Southern Cassowary has a vivid blue neck and striking long red wattles. If they feel threatened this flightless bird can deliver a powerful kick strong enough to break bones.
Powerful Owls are also one of the only Australian owls that make the classic owl call – a deep, resonant double-barrelled whoo-hoo that can be heard from several kilometres away. This call is most commonly heard during the winter months, when breeding occurs and pairs are establishing their territories.
The Grey Peacock-Pheasant, also known as the Burmese Peacock-Pheasant, is a large bird native to Asia and a member of the Galliformes order. It is a creature of considerable beauty, adorned with finely spotted green eyespots on its greyish-brown plumage, an elongated bushy crest, and a white throat.
Tawny Frogmouths are not rare at all, being common and widespread across Australia, even in urban areas, but they are hard to spot due to their incredible camouflage and nocturnal habits, often mistaken for a broken branch. While populations are generally stable, they face threats like habitat loss (especially old trees for nesting), roadkill, and pesticide poisoning, but are listed as a species of "Least Concern".
Songs. Great Horned Owls advertise their territories with deep, soft hoots with a stuttering rhythm: hoo-h'HOO-hoo-hoo. The male and female of a breeding pair may perform a duet of alternating calls, with the female's voice recognizably higher in pitch than the male's.
The Tasmania population is thriving and even growing. Across the rest of its large range, the lyrebird is common, and is evaluated as being of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
The male superb lyrebird is 80 to 100 centimetres long, including his 55-centimetre-long tail. He is dark brown on the upper part of his body and lighter brown below, with red-brown markings on his throat. His tail feathers are dark brown above and silver-grey below.
Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus Pavo and one species of the closely related genus Afropavo within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are referred to as peahens.
If a stray peafowl comes onto your land or into your garden, do not be tempted to feed it. If you feed it, you will encourage it to stay, and you may legally be seen as the keeper, and responsible for its actions.
Yes, there are many peacocks (peafowl) in Australia, thriving in feral populations across various states, introduced from India in the 1800s, and while beautiful, they are often considered noisy, destructive nuisance birds by residents, leading to management issues in suburbs like Canberra and on Kangaroo Island.
Australia is home to many birds found nowhere else (endemic), including iconic species like the Gouldian Finch, Noisy Scrubbird, Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo, and the famous laughing Kookaburra, alongside numerous honeyeaters, parrots, and unique ground birds like the Plains-wanderer, showcasing the continent's rich biodiversity.
Australia's rarest bird is often cited as the Mukarrthippi Grasswren, with potentially only a handful of individuals left in New South Wales, though the elusive Night Parrot and Red Goshawk are also contenders for the title, each with critically low numbers and facing high extinction risks. The Mukarrthippi grasswren has a very low known population (4-20) in a tiny area, while the Night Parrot population is estimated around 10-20 at Pullen Pullen Reserve, and the Red Goshawk is Australia's rarest bird of prey, with its range significantly reduced.
The results are in: the Tawny Frogmouth is Bird of the Year 2025. Following two weeks of eliminations and fierce competition, the Tawny Frogmouth has taken the top spot in Australia's favourite bird poll.
A tawny frogmouth visit often signifies spiritual messages of protection, camouflage (adaptability), and a connection to nature or the spirit world, encouraging you to be a silent observer, embrace change, and find oneness; in Aboriginal lore, they are guardians linking land and sky, symbolizing wisdom and patience, while their presence can also mean loyalty or a need to question your spiritual path.
First up is the Indian Peafowl's cousin—the Green Peafowl. Native to Southeast Asia, this bird sports similar vibrant plumage but boasts an emerald green hue instead of blue. Its long train is adorned with eye-catching patterns reminiscent of jewels glimmering in sunlight.
A bird is a warm-blooded vertebrate animal defined by having feathers, wings, a beak, two legs, and laying hard-shelled eggs, belonging to the class Aves (dinosaurs' descendants). While most fly, some like penguins swim, and others like ostriches run, showcasing diverse adaptations for their habitats, from hummingbirds to ostriches.
Peacocks (male peafowl) can be extremely aggressive and have very sharp talons. If peafowl approach you, back away, do not shoo, stomp, or kick peafowl. Do not eat or have food around peafowl. Peafowl don't need, or do well, with people food.
The Australian bird famous for its eerie, high-pitched screams at night is the Bush Stone-curlew (or Bush Thick-knee), whose call sounds like a wailing woman or baby, often startling people into thinking it's a human in distress. This nocturnal, ground-dwelling bird uses its distinctive, mournful cry for communication in open forests, grasslands, and even urban areas across Australia.
These medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds are noted for their long wings, short legs, and stout bills. The tawny frogmouth is active at night; by day it perches in trees perfectly camouflaged. They are native to Australia and also found on Tasmania.
Towering at five and a half feet tall, sprinting up to 31 miles per hour, and leaping up to seven feet off the ground, cassowaries are the stuff of legends. They are the third largest bird in the world, weighing up to 175 pounds with sharp talons that grow up to five inches long.