Last night I heard an interesting (presumed) bird sound that I'd like some help identifying.
- Best descriptor I can come up with is "screeching", but not piercing or high-pitched.
- It was a short (around 0.5 to 1 second), single sound that was repeated at intervals of 10 seconds or more.
- It was very loud; we could easily hear it from inside, and outside it sounded quite loud even though it seemed to be coming from a couple of houses down the street.
- I live in Glen Waverley (Melbourne eastern suburbs), though I don't recall hearing this sound here before (I've lived here about a year).
- It was around midnight.
- Unfortunately I didn't get a recording, nor was I able to spot it.
My first thought was an owl or other nocturnal bird predator but I've gone through a bunch of bird sounds and none sound right. Any help is appreciated!
Thanks.
Hard to pick from a description of sound, but possibly Bush Stone-Curlew?
They are often calling late at night and have a kind of siren-like repeated call.
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the reply but I don't think so, it wasn't a siren like sound. It was short and infrequently repeating and had no clean pitch, more like a sulfur crested cockatoo almost (but different). And anyway, I don't think bush stone-curlew come this far south, I've never seen one in Victoria.
Figured it out! Not a bird at all but a red fox. Sounded exactly like the first sound in this video https://youtu.be/UxLHUxzEoRU