Hi, I don't even know if it is a bird or an insect... if it is a bird, hopefully you guys will know!
Every summer there is something that makes a repeated noise of two stones clicking together: 8x in rapid concession, break for about 5 seconds, repeat. Usually on sunny/hotter days. So I'm thinking it is actually unlikely to be a bird but some kind of insect.
To be precise, if anyone remembers wishing stones (a thing in the 90s haha) it sounds exactly like that. Or I guess you would get a similar sound from two glass marbles.
I live in the outer East suburbs of Melbourne.
Thanks for any help!
Is the sound comng from gound level or up in a tree, & a description of habitat might help, but it's difficult to id birds based on verbal description of sounds. One of the calls of Lewin's Rail is described as two coins being hit together. I'm wondering do you have Asian House Geckos in Melbourne.
Down at ground level which further discredits the idea that it's a bird but you never know haha. Usually down amongst longer grass. At this point I just wanna know what it is!
Ground level suits Lewin's Rail. You can listen to Lewin's Rail calls on the following website: http://www.xeno-canto.org/explore?query=lewin%27s+rail
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Hmmm, it could be that one! Recordings are always so hard to tell with things like this. With whatever animal I'm hearing, you can't tell what it is because it sounds so much like two stones clicking, slightly higher pitched than the recordings seem. Whereas with the Lewin's Rail, you can tell it is a bird behind the noise. I read up quickly and they usually live in wetlands? No wetlands near me.
The mystery deepens :p Maybe it's something simple like a weird kind of cicada or something. The funny thing is I usually only hear one or two at a time.
This time of the year, possible cicadas. We have almost 1000 species of cicadas in australia, only under 300 been named.
We have it around our house day and night 24/7.