QPuzzles - Australian Lyre Bird 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

A superb lyrebird in full display on a mossy log, 1000 pieces and 70 x 50 cm finished. Australian made, cut and boxed in Queensland.

What you are looking at

A male superb lyrebird standing on a fallen log with his tail thrown forward over his back: the two broad lyre-shaped outer feathers barred in chestnut and black, the fine filamentary plumes fanned between them. Behind him the gully falls away into tree ferns, eucalypts and a sandstone escarpment catching the last of the light, with a sunrise sky above. Around the log, waratahs, a Ulysses butterfly, a cicada, a small skink and native pink five-petalled flowers. An illustrated study rather than a photograph, which is why every element sits so clearly.

You are carrying one of these. The male superb lyrebird has been on the Australian ten cent coin since decimal currency began in 1966, from Stuart Devlin's original design, and it has never been changed.

And the chainsaw impression is mostly a myth. It is the single most repeated fact about this bird and it does not survive contact with the research. The famous footage everyone has seen was filmed on captive birds, one at Healesville Sanctuary and one at Adelaide Zoo. Wild lyrebirds overwhelmingly mimic other birds, and a good deal of the clicking, twanging and whirring that people hear as machinery is the lyrebird's own voice rather than an impression of anything. The real achievement is quieter and more impressive: a bird that carries the calls of most of the other species in its gully.

What it is like to build

The bird is the easy part, and it is the smaller part. It is the only thing in the picture with a hard silhouette and strong tonal contrast, so build it first and work outward from it. The barred tail feathers are effectively a ready-made sorting rule: chestnut and black bands in a regular rhythm, found nowhere else in the box.

The rainforest is the real job. Ferns at four or five different depths, all green, all frond-shaped. Sort them by how blue the green has gone, because distance drains the warmth out of foliage, and the far gully is noticeably cooler and greyer than the fronds at your feet. Leaf shape is your second sort: tree fern, maidenhair and eucalypt are all distinct once you look for the outline rather than the colour.

The log is the reward in the middle. Bark, moss, lichen and bracket fungus give you texture and warm colour after the green, so use it as a break when the ferns have worn you down. Leave the sky until last and sort it by gradient.

Why QPuzzles

QPuzzles is Australian owned and operated, manufacturing at Ashmore on the Gold Coast, and cutting and boxing their puzzles there rather than outsourcing. Eco-friendly board and kid-safe inks.

An Australian bird, on an Australian puzzle, cut in Queensland. There is not much of that left in this category and it is worth paying for.

Specifications

A little context

Australian wildlife is badly under-served in this category. The shelves are full of European woodland, North American barns and generic tropical birds, and a genuinely Australian subject painted with this much care is rare enough that we buy it whenever we can get it. If you want more of it, the Australian range is where it lives.

More like this: our Animals range, Art, 1000 piece puzzles, and everything from QPuzzles.

Stock is real and it is in Sydney. Free shipping Australia wide over $150, and free same-day delivery inside 6 km of North Bondi with no minimum.

Built it already? Use the Questions section below and tell us how you found it. Which part fought you, how long it took, and whether you would send someone else to it. We answer every one.