Bird keeping us awake all night

pburns

I've lived in the country all my life so I'm not some urbanite who is unaccustomed to countryside sounds...

However the last few weeks a bird starts screeching around 10.00pm (nightfall) and continues well into the wee hours. The screeches are between 5-10 seconds apart.

1. Does anyone have any idea what type of bird this could be?
2. How do I (humanely) get rid of it?

crosstownk

Can you see it? Is it in a tree or on the ground? Has it been going on for long or just recently? Blackbirds will sing through the night to try and allure a mate, but usually much earlier in the year.

An audio clip or a pic would be great.

You may be able to identify the bird by listening to the calls on this site.

dodgyme

pburns wrote:

2. How do I (humanely) get rid of it?

The bird can ask the same question about you. I have starlings annoying the crap outta me every year and living in my roof, waking me up etc and I dont ask this question. It may and I mean may be an owl in which case you are lucky to hear it but these are very rare in ireland and with the current rain fall probably even rarer.

Lillyella

dodgyme wrote:

The bird can ask the same question about you. I have starlings annoying the crap outta me every year and living in my roof, waking me up etc and I dont ask this question.

Not everyone is happy to miss sleep in the interest of Blackbirds getting their leg over. Its great that you're happy with Starlings annoying you, but there is no need to intervene with smartness when you have no intentions of helping the OP.

tc20

dodgyme wrote:

It may and I mean may be an owl in which case you are lucky to hear it but these are very rare in ireland and with the current rain fall probably even rarer.

pardon my ignorance, but why or how does the amount of rainfall impact on owl survival?

Alun

tc20 wrote:

pardon my ignorance, but why or how does the amount of rainfall impact on owl survival?

IIRC Owl's feathers don't have the waterproofing qualities that other birds feathers do, so they can easily become waterlogged. As a result, they generally avoid hunting when it's raining and in extreme cases can starve to death. This is particularly dangerous if they're rearing young at the time.

tc20

^ cheers Alun.

I worked on a local farm when i was a kid, during summer hols and the like. Was fortunate to see an owl on a couple of oocasions whilst i was there. Im presuming a barn owl, looked like the one from the Late Late show intro

Waltercampbell

I have an issue with a bird that may be the same type. I have an mp3 recording of it but cant upload it to your site. I would like to identify it primarily.
I listened to the link suggested for bird sounds but nothing came close.

Walt

Waltercampbell

We solved our bird, its a Long eared owl, calling in evening and on..
Sound on this site, yours may be the same.


http://www.owlpages.com/sounds.php

colmranger

They only make the calling when juveniles and are still have not learned to hunt.

They should have stopped calling for another year until next spring