Nocturnal Bird - What is it?

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owl
owl's picture
Nocturnal Bird - What is it?

Would someone be able to hazard a guess at the identity of our new backyard feathered resident. We have a small backyard with two large gum trees. Lately we have been hearing loud chirping every night quite similar to the calls of the Masked and the Australian Owl-nightjar accompanied by very loud flapping of wings. These sounds start at dusk and go on all night at varying decibel levels. Attempts to try at catch a glimpse have proven futile.

Any clues?

poephila
poephila's picture

Hi owl,

Need far more information, such as habitat, location, etc., but in my experience both these birds are pretty silent fliers and loud flapping could indicate a third possibility.

Greetings from the northern Southern Tablelands of NSW

owl
owl's picture

Hi Poephila,

Tx 4 responding. We live in Bellevue Hill, NSW so greetings from Inner Suburbia, NSW!

Our backyard abuts a large park so it would be on the outskirts of a larger green area with mature gum trees.

These bird or birds (or bat?) can be are quite noisy all through the night as if fighting or jostling. The loud flapping also goes on for most of the night. I am just dying of curiosity.

owl
owl's picture

A fruit bat sounds quite plausible.

We tried to catch glimpses during dusk and could see something flying around the backyard (we ruled out cats and possums) and its vicinity but never clear or near enough to get a good look.

There are many fruit trees in the vicinity.

poephila
poephila's picture

Hi owl,

I agree with Denis. I used to live down the road from a very large colony of these bats. They can fly immense distances in one night. They tend to chuckle, squabble and have what sounds like a raucous cartoon character laugh, among many other vocalisations. They are very noisy. You should be easily able to see their silhouettes in the dusk (or against the urban glare) and I reckon they'll be coming from the east towards you, possibly from the Botanic Gardens (if the colony has been permitted to stay there). Even in Goulburn way we tend to get a few stragglers, and that's a mighty long way there and back in a night. More common here are the occasional Little Red Flying Foxes, but that's another story. No, 99.9% sure of Grey-headed Flying Foxes because:
1. the noise
2. the flocking behaviour
3. Sydney suburbs
4. plenty of fruit trees available (don't forget, their natural food around Sydney was predominantly the blossoms of tall eucalypts such as blackbutts prior to clearing)
5. loud flapping sounds
6. any squabbling sounds at all
7. the night-long behaviour starting at dusk
8. the availability of mature eucalypts (though hardly a critical factor these days).
If you can glimpse the silhouette you should not be able to make out a tail (or much of one). Big assemblages of these bats can smell sickly sweet from their poorly digested droppings. Sadly, these jolly (if argumentative) creatures that were once present in their tens of thousands are now declining to threatened status. For a good yarn about them in the old days read "Flying Fox and Drifting Sand" by Francis Ratcliffe, an ex CSIRO expert (hope I got the reference correct). He thought they were impossible to eradicate.

Greetings from the northern Southern Tablelands of NSW

owl
owl's picture

Yes I listened to a sound byte of flying fox calls and sure they are the culprits. Thanks for taking the time to clear this up!

The good news is, according to the website, they are nomadic and will move on to other food sources so I can look forward to decidly less shrieking midnight conversations and raucous chatter amongst the trees!!

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