Noisy bird....Help!

Hi everyone! I'm new and just popped in for some help in figuring out what this noisy bird is! I don't know anything about birds at all, I could point out a crow and a seagull and anything else is beyond me. I live in Scotland and right outside my front door there's a wooded area. Always had lots of birds (and sometimes some owls) in it. The birds have always tweeted and twittered away in the early hours and it's never bothered us....until now! A new bird seems to have moved in and it's driving everyone crazy. It wakes my entire family  (2 adults 4 kids under 7) every single morning at 4am and it doesn't let up for hours on end! It is not a pretty birdsong.....it sound like an alarm clock! Like an actual electronic sound. It goes beep beep four times like a half second apart. 30 seconds quiet, then again and again. We haven't managed to spot it yet as there are a lot of birds out there, but it's very close as it is so loud. Maybe if someone could shed some light as to what it could be I could spot it, if I see the pretty little bird it may not drive me so crazy as I doubt I would be actually able to make it move along, though if I could....all the better! Sorry it isn't much to go on and it may seem odd to bird lovers that it's driving us so crazy but it really is....many thanks for any help!

  • LH433 said:
    The sound is bizarre, almost like the noise that the giant bird makes in the Pixar film UP.

    I had to look this up as I'd never heard of the film. Now I've listened to "Kevin" my wild guess would be a Jay.

    Anything like it? Obviously a recording would make life easier.

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    Tony

    My Flickr Photostream 

  • Not a jay unfortunately. It could be an owl, it sounds a little like a long eared owl but a lot lot louder and more regimented. I’ll try and take a recording tonight.
  • I just heard basically what amounted to this. Strange noise, I thought it was an alarm clock or counter too. Happened 30 seconds to a minute apart. Sounded somewhere between a bap bap bap and beep beep beep. I thought it was on a youtube video but it wasn't. It was a bird in the tree outside. Urban, central scotland. Nothing posted in this thread has sounded anywhere close.
  • I believe the bird you are hearing is a lapwing - it sounds like an electronic alarm, or like a child's toy laser gun!

    I know that this answer comes 8 years after the question, but I found this forum post when desparately trying to identify the noise myself, and having figured it out, I wanted to share the knowledge.
  • Along the same lines is this the bird being described and if so, what is it? Best through headphones.
    https://youtu.be/kwMFzrkIbuQ

    Thanks
  • Palwin, the bird you've recorded is a Great Tit. There are some other birds in the background but this is the dominant one.
    Incidentally, if you want something identified or to ask a question it's usually better to start a new thread than add it to an obsolete one where it can get lost.

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    Tony

    My Flickr Photostream 

  • Hi, I have the exact same problem. The exact same one. I've recorded the bird's sound in a small audio file. Please check and let me know.
    I'm almost sure MrsB also has the same sound.

    Link: https://voca.ro/1ivGmVpp073D
  • It's a Great Tit

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    Tony

    My Flickr Photostream