According to David Attenborough, the superb lyrebird displays one of the most sophisticated voice skills within the animal kingdom—"the most elaborate, the most complex, and the most beautiful".

[4] Based on specimens sent from New South Wales to England, Major-General Thomas Davies illustrated and described this species as the "superb lyrebird", which he called Menura superba, in a presentation to the Linnean Society of London on 4 November 1800, but his work was not published until 1802;[5] in the intervening time period, however, the species was described and named Menura novaehollandiae by John Latham in 1801, and this is the accepted name by virtue of nomenclatural priority.

[6] Latham described the inner webs of the bird's outer tail-feathers as having numerous transparent lunules, its generic name Menura comes from this description from the Ancient Greek words μήνη mēnē "moon" and ουρά ourá "tail".

[7] Its specific epithet derives from Modern Latin Nova Hollandia "New Holland", the name given by early Dutch explorers to Western Australia.

[10][11] 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.

[9] The preferred habitat of the bird is in wet forest and rainforest, where there is an open ground layer of moist leaf litter shaded by vegetation.

There are outer two feathers broad and S-shaped named "lyrates" for their resemblance to the shape of a lyre, they have brown and buff coloured patterning.

The tail plumage develops into that of the mature bird through a series of annual moults, with feathers undergoing change in structure and patterning.

[18] Superb lyrebirds forage by scratching vigorously in the upper soil layers, disturbing the topsoil and leaf litter.

Within his territory, the male will construct several circular mounds of bare dirt on the forest floor, for the purpose of conducting courtship displays.

Nests are most likely to be located in wetter areas with deep leaf litter and high understory vegetation complexity, reflecting the requirements of food availability and protection from predators.

[20] The superb lyrebird is renowned for its elaborate vocal mimicry,[24] with an estimated 70–80% of the male's vocalisations consisting of imitations of other species, mostly other birds[25] but occasionally marsupials.

[28] This is reflected in the vocalisations of lyrebirds in the Sherbrooke Forest in Victoria, which were observed to frequently mimic the song of pilotbirds, a species that had not been recorded in the area for over 10 years.

[28] During the winter when the nestlings hatch, adults more frequently mimic model species that are less active during this time, again suggesting that mimetic items are initially learnt from other lyrebirds.

[27] However, a study found that females also produced mimetic vocalisations while foraging and during nest defence, suggesting that mimicry has a function in deterring predators and conspecific rivals.

6), the superb lyrebird is described as able to imitate twenty bird species' calls, and a male is shown mimicking a car alarm, chainsaw, and various camera shutters.

[35] Methods utilised by superb lyrebirds to reduce predation risk include selection of protected areas for nest sites, mimicking calls of other predatory birds, and adopting solitary and timid behaviours.

[9][27][12] As the superb lyrebird is a poor flyer, when alarmed it will tend to run away, sometimes incorporating short gliding flights to lower perches or downhill.

[12] The presence of roads and infrastructure also pose edge effects, for example disturbance from domestic animals and predation by introduced species such as the red fox, which is often associated with urban areas.

Notable examples of this include a male superb lyrebird being featured on the reverse side of the Australian 10-cent coin,[36] and as the emblem of the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service.

[citation needed] A specimen of a male superb lyrebird, at the American Museum of Natural History, also has the tail feathers displayed incorrectly.