Noisy bird....Help!

Question

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!

Robcol · Answer

Hi, MrsB, like you this is my first post on the forum (Gulp!). I was thinking about your description of the call and the location close to woodlands; could it be a Nuthatch that you were hearing? There call is repetitive and quite strident. If you go to the Bird Identifier section and listen to the Nuthatch recording, that might help.

chubbykipper · Answer

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.