Bird Problem, I Need Advice!

So I was wondering if anybody on Ozbargain could help me out,

Every morning for the past month or so i've been woken up by this one bird.. I've gone out the front before and thrown shoes at it and what-not but it never goes away and I am sick to death of it. It would be classified as a heavyset on this website http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/finder

I do not have a recording of it but its squaks are long and have a tiny buildup at the start.. I can never remember exactly what it sounds like because im always half asleep.

Obviously im not expecting anyone to know exactly what bird it is but if anyone has any suggestions to what bird it could be so I could look it up on youtube and/or how to get rid of it it would be greatly appreciated.

I'm located in Yarraville, Victoria if thats any help….

EDIT: it only squawks at around 4-6am too.. no other time have I ever heard the devil of a thing..

Comments

  • +58

    KAAAKAAA KAAKAAAA, Is that what it sounds like?

    • Definitely not haha.
      Its more of a slight hoot a could of times then a loud and repeatitive squawk that I sometimes think is a mobile phone vibrating or an alarm of some sort..

      • +11

        Could it be more of a KA-KAW, KA-KAW…TOOKY, TOOKY?

        If so, you've got yourself an alien right there; you're gonna need Stifler for this one! ;)

    • +2

      That sound would be from the wattle bird.

      • +5

        You could be right!! its very god damn similar to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcxUndi2Lgg

        • then you have your bird. They start early in the morning, around 5am.

          There are different types of wattle birds. I'm not sure what type of bird you have in Vic.
          But in Sydney we have the red wattlebird. Which goes like This(youtube.com)

        • @edfrane: I have a red wattle bird who visits our back porch daily. Very friendly, trusting fellow. Barks very bloody loudly but is still a very cute bird. Never heard it make a sound in the early hours though, fortunately.

        • @waterlogged turnip:
          I have one well, and I just love them. they're just too cute.

          If I recall correctly, my one only bark early in the morning when she had chicks too feed. Otherwise they just start around 8am.

        • That would not be great outside the window at 4am. Love the caption "This bird has changed my life" LOL.

        • +5

          @sparkles:

          "This bird has changed my life…"

          That's what I tell people about my wife…

    • +6

      Oh Gosh. I burst out laughing in a quiet library!

    • +1

      Sounds like its got the flu…

  • +3

    We had a similar problem but it was a flock of birds in a tree on the nature strip in front of our place. They (like 20 of them) used to wake us up at 5am everyday right on the clock. Also during the evening around 5:30-6pm, we would arrive home to the same thing.

    I bought a plastic snake from our local $2 shop, climbed the tree as high as I could and coiled the snake around the trunk of the tree and nailed the snake right up there.

    Not sure if it was actually due to this plastic snake, but after about a week after the snake being placed in the tree, we realised that the chirping stopped. You could give that a try?

    I've also heard others have been successful with hanging cd's up on the branches. Apparently, the spinning reflection of the cd scares the birds.

    Good luck =)

    • Its really hard because the bird always chills on the powerlines…. But I may give the CD thing a go if I can't get any better ideas haha thanks!

      • try and get a rubber snake up in the powerlines where it usually hangs out, maybe?

    • -4

      Save some money - try the trouser snake first…

      • +13

        So you have bird problems too?

  • +2

    Put a cat on the lawn on the morning

  • +1

    Try using a " Supersoaker" (toy water gun). It workied for us to keep magpies off the porch….
    The water won't hurt the bird, just scare him……….

    • +23

      I would advise strongly AGAINST blasting at live powerlines with a super-soaker, OP.
      Unless you have a "super-death-wish".

      • +3

        what is the different when it is rain?

        • +18

          That your hands aren't attached to the rain.

        • The lines are coated in rubber. A water pistol ain't gunna do zip - holding it or not.

        • @realfamilyman: Normally only the drop cables to the home are insulated. The street HV cables are uninsulated and that's why possums always come unstuck when they cross between the active and neutral conductors.

        • Try pissing on powered security fences in farm areas, you'll know the difference pretty fast. :)

        • @shadowarrior: you are out of topic, we talking about using toy water gun blasting against the power line

        • @realfamilyman:
          "The lines are coated in rubber…"

          Absolute rubbish. The main lines that run down the street, are not coated in rubber. Why would you post something like that, if you're clearly not sure of the facts?

        • @andyken: Nope am not. Your hands are connected to the water gun (and have to be 100% sure there's no metallic part in the gun, your hands are not wet, the gun has 0 leak), your legs are connected to the ground, the gun is connected to the water, the water is connected to the live wires (unless you are 100% sure there is never a direct stream from your water gun to the live wire, and the above conditions in the previous bracket), you are heading towards a good old fried human scenario.

        • @johnno07:

          That your hands aren't attached to the rain.

          Thanks for the belly laugh! You've done two services today. Saved someone doing something stupid and made people laugh!

        • +2

          No idea what the true answer is, im not exactly going to try it.

          My understanding is that water is not exactly a great conductor, im guessing it would need to be a pretty steady stream.
          But when it rains everything is wet why doesnt the electricity arc down the wet line down the pole to the earth?

        • @shadowarrior:
          Thought it could arc even without a direct stream.

        • @shadowarrior: water blast gun is not like continuously steady stream water

        • +2

          Rain looks like a line of water but is actually just droplets moving fast enough to appear so. They cannot form a connection between you and the powerline because of this, even if you are standing directly under a powerline and getting hit by the same rain drops.

          Without getting too technical, electricity needs firstly, a path to travel through and secondly, somewhere to end its journey. Also electricity will try to take the 'easiest' path of conductivity. A droplet cannot create a path as it is a touch and go thing. Any insulation (such as rubbercoating or an air gap) will be a block in the path.

          Powerlines can be insulated, but not always depending on usage/ratings etc. If the line was not insulated and you pointed a running hose at these while standing on the ground you'd probably get a thorough shock. Insulation might also not be enough (electricity can travel through air if strong enough) so if the insulation is too thin it might allow a path and there is also no guarantee the insulation isn't damaged. So I wouldn't recommend hosing even an insulated line (unless you were floating in mid air and not touching anything but the line hence not allowing a path for the electricity to travel).

          Underground electrical cables are normally insulated better than over head cables so that in the event of flooding waters there less chance for electrocution via these means. There are occasionaly government warnings released not to approach fallen lines during the rainy season. This is because the rain has pooled up on the ground and is touching the wires. This can become a very nice path to any human who decides to wander in and would be quite the same as if you tried to hose down a line.

          But back to the main point, the difference with rain is that the rain drop cant touch both you and the wires at the same time. They look like streams but they aren't.

          Sorry for the story.

          Edit: I might add after reading some comments below that a bird on a line won't get shocked because electricity needs to travel from "high to low". This also adds to the fact that the bird is floating in air touching nothing but the lines and not creating a "path" for the electricty— but the bird infact does create a "path" back to the same wire through each foot. The bird stands with each leg on the same line on open wires but because the voltage at each foot is the same level (and there is also a much better path being the wire itself to travel) the bird is okay. If the bird were to stand with one leg on one cable and the other leg on one of the neighboring wires it would be a different story.

          Occasionaly when you notice the power blinks out a couple times for a bit could have been caused by something like a snake crawling up and trying to cross between the lines hence touching both of these at once. A wet tree branch falling across the lines might also cause something like this.

        • +1

          @Myrtacaea:

          We don't teach power systems to the general public because misinformation can be deadly.


          Lines get hit by lightning, lightning likes to arc and wet people standing below power lines are nice paths. Freak accidents happen.

          Never count on insulation working. Even if someone is floating in mid-air, unless they are in a water bird their hose is connected to the ground.

          Streams of water in air generally become droplets very close to the outlet. Still don't hose power lines. It's not worth the risk.

          The bird problem isn't that simple. Birds survive because of the path of electricity though the body and how close the legs are together. Electricity through the legs and groin generally misses the heart. If they had their legs further apart they would draw more current, potentially causing the flow of power deeper into their chest cavity, closer to their heart.

          Branches don’t need to be wet to cause a fault.


          You write with authority. I removed many corrections about power lines from my response as they could be misunderstood by non-experts.

        • @This Guy:

          I'll take note of your use of "We" and assume that you do write with authority.

          I'm not sure why you replied to me but thanks. I was just offering my thoughts after googling a particularly interesting topic that I am partially aware of, along with many others as an answer to the question raised on why rain is different from a hose stream of water and a couple others I saw. I was in no way trying to educate or mis educate anyone on the matter or encourage anyone to do anything dangerous. It would be nice it if my comment sparked an interest in people to further research the matter as one would not expect a single post in a forum unrelated to the topic to be the end of all knowledge on the matter.

          I dont write with any authority. None at all. This is just how I write - lots. I can understand if it may sound that way but there is none intended - at least no more than anyone else replying to the matter. I don't feel the need to add a disclaimer to the bottom of any forum comment I happen to write nor do I feel the need attempt to explicitly display any authority or to redact any information because this is the internets.

          The scenarios I provided were supposed to be simplistic or magically impossible scenarios that weren't intended to cover each and every point or detail and I was not trying to encourage anyone to hose a powerline. If anything I was trying to create an interest in the topic. I did not want to go into too much detail with the bird scenario (or any scenario for that matter) because it would become too technical and makes my own eyes glaze over, which is exactly why I kept it simple. I used wet branch to portray the scenario better as to how easily this scenario can happen as most people probably wouldn't consider a dry branch to form a carbon path all the same.

          I was originally going to write more about safely touching lines without insulation but I won't now, even though it is a very interesting topic.

          Thank you for saving the childrens of the internet with your swift and informative reply, but I dont believe it to be a good thing to hold back on the education of people and instead teach them just to avoid or fear these things. I understand there are dangers involved but information such as contained in my original comment is going to be available everywhere, be it a forum post or an enthusiast website and I would rather make the topic not sound like something so scary. But that's just my opinion.

      • -1

        Potential hazard, yes, but isn't this the whole 'what happens if I piss on an electrified fence" myth?

        • +4

          I can assure you, that's no myth…

        • +1

          @StewBalls: it all depends on how far away from the source of the stream. after a certain distance the stream turns to a series of drops thus the power can not flow to the old fella..

        • +5

          It's a myth that it's a myth.

        • @StewBalls: I'd always wondered how they got "stewed"…

      • If the line was live, the bird would be dangling not dancing.

        • +13

          If the line was live, the bird would be dangling not dancing.

          wow, way to not understand electricity

          heres a vid you need to watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_1T2_l43Xo

        • +1

          Have to complete the circuit to change state from dangling to dancing. Even you can dance on live power poles as long as you don't complete the circuit.

      • What? Every time it rained our power would go out.

        Insulators holding the power line from the frame get soaked every time it rains. If water was the great conductor your making it out to be, then High Voltage lines would short to earth every time it rains*

        .

        .

        .

        .

        *well they do, but only a tiny bit, because water is a lousy conductor. Don't touch wet power poles.

  • +3

    That's nothing, last year i had the pleasure of finding out what a Cuckoo was.

  • Bird finder link broken.

    Maybe ignore it and change rooms until the bird moves on. Cheeky shit just wants a reaction.

    Have you just moved in? Maybe a previous owner fed it, which is so wrong. Or a neighbour and they aren't there or no longer feed it.

    • -6

      Fixed it~

      I wish I could change rooms :( My only other option is the laundry..

      I've lived here for around 10 months now and its only just started its rant.. it might be a seasonal thing.. i hope..

      I'm contemplating getting someone with an air rifle to help me out..

      • Does the bird look anything like a baby eagle? is it being feed by magpies?

        • Nope, im thinking from the posts above its definitely a wattle bird..

      • +2

        Use a NERF gun. They're cheap and your neighbours shouldn't call the police on you for firing one over their house.

  • -1

    So I was wondering if anybody on Ozbargain could help me out,
    Every morning for the past month or so i've been woken up by this one bird.

    wake up earlier?

  • +17

    You need to make friends with the bird. Invite him round for a beer, and ask him what is troubling him so. Did you ask him if he was "OK" the other day, for example, on that designated national day? I bet you didn't.
    Also, just FYI, shooting him with an air-rifle is illegal, if he is an Australian native. Not to mention being a bit of a red-neck/bogun/loser tactic.
    I also have another ingenius solution. If he is a wattle-bird, you could plant a large grove of wattle trees, about 100 metres from your house. Wattles grow relatively fast, so in 6 short years or so, the grove will have grown to a size likely to lure him away from your house.

      • +2

        LOL @ >"chucking up a metal mesh over the bird and electrocuting it somehow…"

        That does give me another, more realistic idea though. Have you thought of enlisting the services of Cat-woman? Being of the feline persuasion, I assume she hates birds, and would not be the type to worry about the legalities of the situation.

      • +4

        dude you are mentally disturbed

        • +2

          I am.. due to this bird..

      • Hmmm, chucking this metal mesh thing over yourself may also solve the problem.

        Earplugs would be easiest all round.

  • +3

    Sympathies. About a year ago we gained a keen insight into why, despite the illegality involved, some people are driven to extreme measures.
    Until you have actually experienced just how unrelenting and maddening it can be, you really can't relate.

    Thankfully, for us, it lasted for less than a fortnight before they moved on to spread the 'love', but we had a murder (an apt collective noun if ever there was one) of crows move into surrounding trees and then call to each other, incessantly/demonically, for couple of hours everyday from the crack of dawn.

    By the time they departed, I think everyone living in houses near the trees were driven to the very brink of losing their sanity.
    God, it was awful.

    Rambutann, I'm sure that even just one bird 'on a mission' can easily do similar damage after a month. Sympathies, again.

    • +1

      Similar sort of thing - a fella down the road had a big tree, where hundreds/thousands of small birds congregated during certain times of the day - they made the most deafening sound. Even as passers-by, we found it unbearable. He eventually solved the problem by chopping down the tree. Then peace and quiet returns :-)

  • My god I thought you were going to turn out to be my neighbour or something. Same problem here, but a currawong and at 4.30 every morning for the last month. Not a direct problem for us as we put earplugs in but our 3 year old is regularly woken up by it and a tired toddler is not a happy one. And of course he wakes us.

    We have a super soaker style thing going on but all it does is keep it from the trees closest to our apartment. It still chills in the wires.

    The only thing I've thought of is that it's quite likely to eat some food off our balcony. Crush up some sleeping pills into some mince and no more waking up early for him. Sadly my sense of decency prevents it.

    Seriously though. On reading up about I found that there are two issues at this time of year 1- we are on the cusp of daylight savings so soon the 5am calling will be 6am. And 2- it's breeding season so most birds have a tendency to be louder and more active than usual.

    Last year we had butcher birds, noisy minors the year before. Now this……

    Good luck!

    • +2

      i really like currawongs. they are not noisey like crows. they line up at my place for a feed every morning.

      • I love Currawongs' songs!

  • BB gun solves most bird/rat/pest/gf problems

    Use blasic BB's, metal tends to break the skin

    • and where does one suggest I find someone that sells BB guns..? lol

      edit: upon a quick google I have found that im gonna have a baddd time trying to find one in Melbourne

      • +13

        upon a quick google I have found that im gonna have a baddd time trying to find one in Melbourne

        more like: upon a quick google you have now been blacklisted by ASIO. Expect a visit soon ;)

        • +6

          And now that you've warned him, you can expect 10 years in gaol.

    • +3

      Ozbarbarian

  • +19

    tl;dr lives in australia, complains about abundant wildlife…….

    • +9

      This.
      Just suck it up. I have kookaburras, plovers and sulfur crested cockatoos early in the morning at mine. I used to hear them, but I don't even notice them anymore.

      • I am jealous of you.

        I have been trying to attract birds to my yard and balcony but I think my neighbor a few houses down spoils the market but laying out giant trays of food for them in the morning! grrrrr.

    • +3

      WTF?

    • +4

      "…i believe it is legal"

      Jesus Ippers, why would you post crap like this, given that you clearly have no idea what you are on about? Why wouldn't you at least take 2 minutes to check that what you "think", is actually true, before posting it? But I am genuinely interested; what gave you the idea that it was OK to kill native Australian wild-life, as long as you did it quickly?

      The fact is it's illegal to kill any Australian mammal or bird, without a permit.

    • +4

      Stuns me how little regard some people have for a life. we are so used to killing for the sake of convenience.

      I had a neighbor wanting to pour hot water over ants minding their own business in the yard the other day, it's like any nature intruding on the human domain is the enemy. The truth is we need nature/other species to survive and we should respect and be happy that anything an make a go of it when we have covered whatever we can in concrete and poisons for our own aesthetics.

      • +1

        I assume you don't eat meat or milk or eggs or honey or wear leather or wool or silk or fur or go to aquariums or zoos or circuses or have pets?

        • Surely you understand the difference between killing for convenience and killing and farming for survival.

          You can respect life and still be a carnivore. Not sure what you find difficult in the concept.

          I have pets and they are the ones who have taught me respect for life as I can see how they would be tormented if I was cruel to them.

          I have a dog and I don't believe anything could love you as unconditionally as a well treated dog.

          I don't really find you comment even relevant to mine. I spoke to killing for convenience and aesthetics.

          I'm sure some would disagree but while I have no interest in zoos or circuses I don't see any reason why the animals can't be happy if well treated.

        • rambutann, from your vote I have worked out the problem you are having. The bird both smarter and wiser.
          Perhaps it's role is to help you learn patience and tolerance to help you on a very long path to enlightenment. It may even some sort of karmic emergency intervention.

  • +46

    What sort of a cruel, heartless pric* thinks about killing or hurting a bird just because it's singing? What right do you have to the space more so than the bird?

    Get some earplugs and toughen up. I hope someone bigger than you treats you the same way if they ever have a problem hearing you communicate.

    I hope you don't have kids.

    • +2

      logs in to upvote this comment

    • +3

      Creates account to upvote this comment.

    • -1

      Agreed. He ought to be thinking about cooking it for dinner or pet food. For the non-vegans/vegetarians among us, that ought to resolve the ethical objection.

  • +3

    Get a bird bath out there.

    We have a bird bath in our back yard and get a wide variety of birds. Each type seem to arrive on a a roster lol.

    While this might sound crazy and counter-intuitive… you may end up attracting other birds which naturally make your yard less attractive to the noisy bird which is annoying you.

    Look on Gumtree for a cheap concrete bird bath. Nice and big and sturdy.

    Can't hurt to try it. Then get rid of the bath once the noisy bird has well and truly moved on (and the other birds will also move on). We've got our bath 'out of action' at the moment because a few ravens have started coming on a daily basis with huge bits of food they've found elsewhere, dumping it both on our lawn and in the bath. So the ravens have now disappeared (as well as the other nice birds unfortunately), but I'll give it a few more days and get the bath going again… the nice birds will surely return as they always do. The ravens and their gross chicken bones and bread rolls… well.. hopefully not.. lol

  • +5

    Not sure if ozbargain would be the best place to get advice for something like this.

    You might not be aware but most of us dont sleep…

    On the other note i can show you where you can buy a cheap set of ear plug:

    http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1Pair-Travel-Sleep-Snore-Noise-He…

    • You might not be aware but most of us dont sleep…

      +1

      • +4

        I hang upside down from the ceiling during daylight hours.

  • +1

    I have other bird related problems. We have miner birds that live in the corners of our roof. Actually under the colourbond. Had a guy look at it who wanted 3k to fix, said the builders didn't attach the colourbond far enough down to the corners and he showed us how he could life up the prices. Said this was common on project homes. We thought the price was over the roof so didn't go ahead. Rather, we got someone in to gutter guard after breeding season was over for $200. This didn't work, the birds ripped it up after about 3 weeks into the next season, however they resettled into a different corner which isn't near our room so not quite as annoying. Tl,Dr, birds under colourbond, what do?

    • +2

      Have you looked at Gutter Whiskers? http://www.gutterwhiskers.co.nz/

      It took about $600 of gutter whiskers to stuff every gutter around my new house with them, but since then I've had no animals in my roof (had a problem with rats getting in and setting up Fight Club above my bedroom).

      • Thanks, that looks viable! How long have you had them? Any sign of ware?

        • Only about 5 months, so too early to tell how they'll hold up.

    • Under the colourbond? In through the crevices in the profile? try this? http://www.renovateforum.com/f232/colorbond-corrugated-fille…

    • the price was over the roof

      hehe

  • +4

    in truth, i actually find it quite peaceful and comforting waking up to birds singing (noises) especially on sunny mornings. You should be thankful your not waking up to a crazy barking dog (previous house) or constant 24/7 car horns (egypt). :)

    • In case you'd like to put it as your phone alarm: youtube link(youtube.com)

  • +4

    Laser pointer worked well for me for a bunch of ravens (the ones the size of a small child).

    It took many times but eventually they decided it was better to nest somewhere else.

    • +2

      Thats a damn good idea!

    • When I was a young kid growing up in Singapore, those ravens were classified as pests. The government would hire shooters with shotguns, cordon the place off and get rid of them.

      My parents were very disturbed about how fascinating I found it.

      • +3

        My parents were very disturbed about how fascinating I found it.

        Tell us more, Dexter…

        • +1

          SSSShhh…don't reveal my identity..it is called a secret life for a reason..

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