Screeching night bird?

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TonyFrogmouth
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Screeching night bird?

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.

timmo
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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

TonyFrogmouth
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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. 

TonyFrogmouth
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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

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