As blazes tear through Victoria and New South Wales, a magpie has been filmed mimicking the sound of emergency vehicles.

In the video above captured in Newcastle, the native bird can be heard copying the siren of passing fire trucks.

Watch it in the clip above

Resident Gregory Andrews, who captured the video, says it was one of the "coolest things ever".

"Today I met an Australian magpie in Newcastle NSW which had learned to sing the calls of fire-engines and ambulances," he said.

But some have deemed it the Australian 'canary in a coal mine', saying the magpie's call is an ominous symptom of the nation's bushfire emergency.

Country in crisis

More than 110 blazes continue to burn across NSW on Thursday morning, with more than 50 burning out of control.

There were three fires burning at a "watch and act level" as of 9.00am.

These were the 229,000-hectare Currowan fire on the south coast, the 130,000-hectare Dunns Road fire in the Snowy Valleys and the 104,000-hectare Green Valley fire east of Albury.

Play Video A man in Batemans Bay has uploaded footage showing fires surrounding his house, and while everything around them was destroyed they saved their home. A man in Batemans Bay has uploaded footage showing fires surrounding his house, and while everything around them was destroyed they saved their home.

NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons on Thursday confirmed that at least 382 homes have been destroyed on the south coast since New Year's Eve.

This number is expected to climb higher as damage assessment teams gain access into hard-to-reach areas.

At last count, 1087 homes have been confirmed destroyed across NSW since July. The number is now thought to surpass 1200.

More from 7NEWS.com.au on the bushfire crisis:

"There is every potential that the conditions on Saturday will be as bad or worse than we saw yesterday (Tuesday)," RFS Depute Commissioner Rob Rogers warned on Wednesday.

In Victoria, navy ships have been called in to evacuate 4,000 people stranded in the seaside town of Mallacoota after it experienced severe bushfires on New Years Eve.