The wildfires in Australia have burned for so long that the local birds have learned by now to imitate the sound of a fire-engine truck siren.
True story: I live fairly near a large hospital; and one of the roads I need to cycle to get to countryside is rather busy and leads in the direction of said hospital. And located on this road is a sell-anything kind of store which carries everything from flowers to fireworks - and you can get a car wash there as well, if you want.
At one time they sold pets, and kept caged birds on display (is that the right word?) just outside of the main building. One day I was riding past the store, and an ambulance from the hospital went past me in the opposite direction, blue lights flashing but no siren; and as it passed me, one of the caged birds in the store did the ambulance siren noise perfectly.
There was a long moment where I just could not work out what had happened - lights from one direction, sound from the other. Quick check - nope, just the one ambulance. What?? And then slowly you figure it out. I presume that, as ambulances frequently use the road with lights and sirens. the birds just learnt that the two went together and, on this occasion, supplied the missing element.
A VERY weird experience.
j
I used to live in a rural area. One morning, I heard a songbird chirping out an outrageously complex (for a songbird) theme. Every five seconds or so, it would change to a different theme. I thought: That’s one creative bird there, experimenting with all that complexity and variety.
After a while I realized: The bird was imitating a car alarm. You probably know the type: those alarms that make about ten different kinds of alarm/siren sounds for five to ten seconds each. This bird had learned to imitate all of that.
When biking past the Univ. of Florida’s football stadium one morning on my way to class, heard
a referee’s whistle.
On a weekday, with no fans going in and out of the stadium.
Quickly found the culprit, a local mockingbird who obviously heard (& copied) the whistles on the weekends.
Magpies are smart birds.
I slightly question the backstory of this video though, seeing as this maggie is sitting on a clean front fence next to lush greenery. That argues “has heard a bunch of firetrucks travelling through this suburban area on their way to a spot fire which is successfully dealt with” rather than “is close to serious bushfires”.
The air quality in particular, compared with these photos from Sydney for instance, is strikingly good looking
Perhaps they’re in cahoots with the falcons. 
Video’s been removed now but, when I saw it earlier, the description placed it in Perth - the other side of the country from the worst of what’s going on at the moment - and at a house reasonably near to a fire station.
lyre birds are incredible mimics:
This page says the video was posted on Copacabana Rural Fire Brigade facebook.
That would be NSW central coast, between Sydney and Newcastle.
Almost any Walmart will have a murder imitating the bad power steering/suspension of all the cars gone through.
How many cameras do you hear clicking in your average amusement park? Depends how many boids are hanging around.
when I clicked on the video my cat heard it and looked out the window for a fire truck.
Hunter Valley is a little north of Newcastle. I haven’t been following NSW fire news quite as closely as Victoria, which is where I actually live, but this map seems to confirm that it’s medium close to severely affected areas, but hasn’t gotten actually burnt yet. So, yeah, that image isn’t really packing any emotional punch for me - the house is still standing, the magpies are still singing, all is good. They’ve got a fire brigade, it’s doing its thing, it hasn’t had so much on its plate that it’s been unable to protect everybody, yay!
My feed this week has mostly been filled up with the situation in Mallacoota (beach town) where a group from my church was running a summer holiday program for kids. There, it looks like this.
It is true, though, that the fire season has lasted a hell of a long time this year. Since the end of winter, I’m told, and we still have a month and a half to go till the hottest month