Switzerland - Geneva city - 2am Oct 13 2022 - is this a bird? (1 Viewer)

[Quentin King]

Early yesterday morning I was awoken for the second time in the past couple of weeks by a creepy screeching sound outside my bedroom window in Geneva. This time I got up and recorded it, first as a video and then as audio only. It continued for about ten minutes and it was really loud at times.

I live on the fifth floor and there are some tall trees about 5m from the window. My ears told me that the source of the sound was roughly the same level as me, in the trees. It definitely wasn't coming up from ground level. So I'm assuming it's a bird, though I've never heard anything like it. At the time, I guessed it was a screech owl or a nightjar, but I've since listened to recordings of both, and neither sound like it.

I'm stumped. Is it a bird and if so what?

Here is a link to the video: 2022-10-13 2am Is this a bird?

The audio recording from a minute later is attached.

Thanks, Quentin

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello Quentin,
welcome to birdforum!

Your animal is a Stone Marten (Martes foina, Steinmarder),

see here:

 

[Butty]

Macaws? Some mammal?

 

[Quentin King]

Hi Alexander!

Brilliant! Thank you so much for solving the mystery. So just because it was up a tree, doesn't make it a bird.

 

[anita121]

I got fooled by a squirrel recently - don't worry you're not the only one! (who knew squirrels can bark?! It was staring down at me while I hunted for the mystery bird until I finally put my binoculars to it and noticed its mouth moving when the noise happened!)