A displaying male lyrebird produces a long sequence in which imitations of other species make up the bulk of the performance. Recordings from wild populations are dominated by the calls of forest birds such as whipbirds, kookaburras, currawongs and satin bowerbirds, learned from neighbouring lyrebirds as much as from the original species, so local dialects of borrowed song persist.
The famous camera-shutter and chainsaw imitations trace largely to captive birds housed near people, and to a small number of individuals whose recordings circulated widely. Surveys of wild song have found mechanical sounds to be extremely uncommon, and the well-known chainsaw recordings are believed to originate with birds that had been in captivity or had learned from one that had.
The mimicry itself is not in doubt. Lyrebirds also mimic during nesting and in alarm contexts, not only in display, and females mimic too, which was long overlooked because attention focused on the male's display mound.