Been hearing this bird on and off for sometime now. But never got sight of it till tonight. Grainy shot, the light was failing but I did manage to get it. Tried to get closer but it flew off. Has wide wing span and wings are brown underneath. It has long legs. Really unusual grating sound for its call. Thought it might have been a bittern as it looks similar but it doesn't have the striped breast and the call sound is different.
We could actually hear three of them as we waited for it to come back into view. All were hidden in bushes at different points in our neighbours garden. The attraction was her very old large pool which is a pond with frogs and insect life these days.
Hi Kathie, that's great, I have been hearing this grating sound for years and never seen the bird either. Do they also call during the night sometimes? Your bird looks like a Rufus Night Heron. What do you think?
M-L
You're right, that's what it is. Wonder why that didn't show up when I was searching on the bird finder? Graham managed to record the sound too. We first heard it a couple of months ago in our Liquidamber tree but could never see it. We knew it wasn't a frog in the tree, well we were pretty sure that's what it was, a bird.
We saw it at the neighbour's tonight and she kept thinking it was a frog. But we have the sound recorded now. Click here.
Kathiemt
Selby, Victoria
I've been hearing one of these a few times lately around my place at night.
I found it a bit strange, as I'm not near water at all and would have expected these to be close to water.
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
I found it strange to hear it in my Liquidamber too, but it was exactly that noise. Both of our immediate neighbours have ponds, one is quite large. We hear frogs all the time and we do have frogs on our property even without a pond. Maybe there's water nearby that you don't know about?
Kathiemt
Selby, Victoria
We have a creek and the neighbours have a big dam. That call sets off my dogs, and the birds go on a bit, stop and start again. Now I have two dogs that sleep inside.
M-L
lol, it is a strange sound. Almost like a frog, but not quite.
Kathiemt
Selby, Victoria