The Australian bird whose call has millions baffled

A rare Aussie bird has left millions of people baffled after an animal enthusiast captured its mating call on film.

The bird has gained more than seven million views on its loud mating call that some say sounds exactly like an alien.

The superb lyrebird was filmed in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, loudly emitting a laser-gun-like sound.

A local animal enthusiast posted the moment online on Thursday, and said he stayed to watch the native animal for more than 30 minutes.

In a second post, he described it as a "magical" experience that he "will never forget".

Lyrebirds are native to south-eastern Australia and have a unique ability to mimic the calls of other birds and man-made sounds in its environment, along with their own library of freaky tunes.

Birds have been documented mimicking the sound of cameras, chainsaws and guns.

The birds are able to pass the sound down through generations, which is then used as a mating call to attract female lyrebirds.

The bird's short bursts of strange sounds have captured the attention of viewers, who flooded the comments with messages of fear and confusion.

"It's definitely an alien," one user claimed.

"What in the Jurassic Park is that?" another comment read.

Lyrebirds have a rare ability to be able to produce more than one sound at a time, thanks to anatomy of their vocal organ.

The strange sounds of the native bird do not just stop at lasers, as Aussies explained in response to the video.

One TikTok user shared their own experience with the wacky sounds, recalling how one of the birds once lived near their farm.

"I had one of these jerks living in the mountains behind my farm... he would make my washing machine finishing noise 20 minutes after I would put a load in. Fooled me every time," they said.

"I worked security at Warragamba dam years ago. There was a lyrebird that would mimic a shotgun. The old blokes at work said it was present in a robbery 30 years ago," they said.