Strange Nighttime Sound

Turn up speakers.
Taken at about 9:00pm next to the stream behind the cabins at forestry camp. We are at about 9,000 above sea level in Roosevelt National Forest in Colorado.
The whooping sound is the Common Snipe, a small secretive bird that nests in vegetated streambanks. The sound comes from the male's wings as he flies straight up into the night air to attract females. You might also hear a robin chirping, a magpie, and common nighthawks in the background.
It was dusk when I took this and unfortunately too dark to see anything.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• night sounds
• strange sounds at night
• nighttime sounds
• strange sounds
• strange bird sound
• mystery bird
• pingree park
• wilsons snipe
• snipe
• American robin

[spindalis79]

It's a Wilson's Snipe "Winnowing". The name has been changed and Common Snipe now only represents the old world counterpart. Go to Xeno canto dot org and type in Wilson's Snipe.

[CamillaCalamity]

@spindalis79 Wow that is cool! I never knew that fact about the Wilson's snipe. As a birder I should have known! but I'm not very well travelled. There are many (clearer) recordings of the Wilson's snipe that sound just like these did when I was standing out in the willows. Thankyou for sharing that bit with me :)

[raconteuseflower]

are you sure that its called a common snipe? Ive recorded a similar noise a few nights ago and i was scared because i didnt know what it was. I googled common snipe and their sounds; it didnt sound anything like in this video though :(

[CamillaCalamity]

@raconteuseflower I'm sorry to hear that there aren't any easy-to-find recordings of them. This might be one of those things you have to go on the Audubon Society website for. But yep, I am positive that this is the common snipe. They sound weird in the dark and I too was spooked until I got closer and saw that it was a little bird making the noise. I asked one of my instructors (this was a natural resources summer field course) and he said it was the common snipe, one of the birds we learned.

[impact360]

I like the recording but that's not strange,

this is strange...

youtube.com/watch?v=X4DpHkWuOm­Q

[CamillaCalamity]

@impact360 By strange I mean mysterious and interesting :) Thanks and yeah I've heard that one. I used to live near a drag racing speedway and the sound in that video sounds just like the rocket cars warming up. That sound travels far!

[eamb81]

tue tue

[Romulo282838]

Hyena or little monkey... :)

[dahliael55]

It's a Common Loon probably

[SolidSubstance]

bird is the word!

[IndigoCat17]

It is some kind of bird

[SharkKid42]

interesting