This Bird Can Mimic a Chainsaw
You've seen birds that can copy human speech, but the Menura novaehollandiae, better known as the superb kyrebird, takes this a step further. As a bird with perhaps the most advanced sound-mimicking capabilities, it's taken to mimicking cameras and chainsaws.
David Attenborough details their talents in the clip above. The Australian bird gains its abilities through its syrinx, the bird version of human vocal chords. Humans, though, use only use 2 percent of all the air they exhale to make sound. Birds use almost all their air for sound, and the superb lyrebird's syrnix is especially well-developed.
The lyrebird's syrnix incorporates itself into the bird's mating ritual. Males try to impress females by making as wide a variety of sounds as possible, and in captivity, as the birds Attenborough is focused are, they've been known to do perfect imitations of sounds from the human world, including human voices.
It's worth noting that that wild lyrebirds have little to no interest in mimicking human culture. Which is lucky for us, because their prank phone calls would be amazing.
Source: Scientific American
