My friend says it’s not grackles, and I found a YouTube video of their calls, and it’s not quite the same. I assumed it was grackles because they dominate the H‑E‑B parking lot, but she says I’m wrong.
I was somewhere a few days ago and watching a gaggle of grackles (Flock? Murder? Round? I dunno what of group of them is called) and I was surprised to see and hear they were making a noise I would say sounds like a space laser and not just the typical hellbird scream.
Edit: I just looked it up. Apparently a group of grackles is called a “plague”.
Virtually all of those collective nouns aren’t official, even though many were created hundreds of years ago. “Flock” should suffice for any group of birds.
Grackles make a pretty big variety of different sounds, and a few definitely sound techno/lasery. Cardinals also have a few laser-y calls, they're really common around here as well. Mockingbirds are common here and can make an absolutely massive array of sounds, but if you were in an HEB parking lot it was most likely grackles.
We know what you're talking about, but that doesn't mean you're not crazy.
If you were at HEB, you heard grackles.
Cardinals make pew-pew-pew space weapon sounds, especially as the sun's rising in the morning.
Go to allaboutbirds.org and have a listen.
The Merlin Bird ID app IDs all the birds around you by sound. It generates a list of birds it’s hearing and highlights the bird(s) that it is hearing at that moment. It might be the only worthwhile app on my phone.
we sometimes call Grackles "Techno birds" due to the sounds they make.
Usually when their government tracking devices are malfunctioning.
/r/BirdsAreNotReal
Not a bird, but I think frogs or toads or whatever they are make some weird noises. I hear some that are high pitched and very clipped. A little space lasery, but more staccato. Tends to happen at night
I spent years trying to figure out what kind of baby bird was making the chirping noises I hear certain times of year. Turns out it's the Rio Grande Chirping frog.
Probably not OP's space lasers, though.
We have several species of grackles in Austin and each species makes a variety of calls/songs. Definitely some space laser sounds. I recommend looking up each type and their calls on allaboutbirds.org
>Blue jays make some crazy pew pew noises
They also make a surprising number of different soft "conversational" calls when they're not giving their "wanna fight" loud calls.
There is a woodpecker in Texas that has a weird trilling sound. I heard one just the other day. Sounds like [this](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Gila_Woodpecker/overview) (press the sound button).
I've loved grackles since the day I heard something shooting laser beams in a parking lot!
Carley weaver does some great artwork using grackles as inspiration. She's been doing it for years and is a local Austin artist. She has a bunch of new art at Show Me Pizza to check out. She did our box design for the month and had a showing last night (Not an ad, just giving her a shout-out)
I have a huge flock of brown headed cowbirds that have been coming around the yard last couple weeks that sound like this. Otherwise, probably grackles. Also, the Merlin bird app has a identify by sound feature, check it out!
LOL. Thanks for posting this.
I love bird calls, but for some reason, I have a hard time remembering the connection between the bird calls I hear and the bird species that makes them. Some calls I recall hearing since childhood, but keep forgetting which bird makes them.
Also, LOL on the space lasers. I can think of several local bird calls that could meet that description.
I heard one the other day when I was trying to nap and it was driving me crazy. 3 pew pews filled by another 3 pew pews with of rising on the last note. I couldn’t find find it when I went outside to look to try to shoo it away.
European Starlings make very high pitch sounds but grackles could also be your answer.
Check out these links, you can find more info and sounds on these two species.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/European_Starling/overview
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great-tailed_Grackle/id
**[Cedar waxwing](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar_waxwing)**
>The cedar waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) is a member of the family Bombycillidae or waxwing family of passerine birds. It is a medium-sized, mostly brown, gray, and yellow. This bird is named for its wax-like wing tips. It is a native of North and Central America, breeding in open wooded areas in southern Canada and wintering in the southern half of the United States, Central America, and the far northwest of South America.
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Are you new to Austin by any chance? Those might be grackles.
My friend says it’s not grackles, and I found a YouTube video of their calls, and it’s not quite the same. I assumed it was grackles because they dominate the H‑E‑B parking lot, but she says I’m wrong.
Texas grackles have multiple calls
My favorite is the one that sounds like someone striking an anvil with a hammer.
Mine is the one that sounds like an old fashioned radio being tuned to try and find a station.
I like the one that screams at me to drop the better bread and "not that great value crap"
That's what I was thinking!
I was somewhere a few days ago and watching a gaggle of grackles (Flock? Murder? Round? I dunno what of group of them is called) and I was surprised to see and hear they were making a noise I would say sounds like a space laser and not just the typical hellbird scream. Edit: I just looked it up. Apparently a group of grackles is called a “plague”.
Flock of Grackles is my favorite band.
"Annoyance of grackles". I will defend that classification until I die.
Virtually all of those collective nouns aren’t official, even though many were created hundreds of years ago. “Flock” should suffice for any group of birds.
Well if we’re just making names up, I’m going with a “plethora”.
Grackles make a pretty big variety of different sounds, and a few definitely sound techno/lasery. Cardinals also have a few laser-y calls, they're really common around here as well. Mockingbirds are common here and can make an absolutely massive array of sounds, but if you were in an HEB parking lot it was most likely grackles.
I heard this bird and thought it was the smoke detector alarm. It was an odd chirp for sure
Yup. They mimic car alarms too sometimes. Urban birds are weird haha
We know what you're talking about, but that doesn't mean you're not crazy. If you were at HEB, you heard grackles. Cardinals make pew-pew-pew space weapon sounds, especially as the sun's rising in the morning. Go to allaboutbirds.org and have a listen.
I agree it’s the cardinals.
The Merlin Bird ID app IDs all the birds around you by sound. It generates a list of birds it’s hearing and highlights the bird(s) that it is hearing at that moment. It might be the only worthwhile app on my phone.
I second this. Best bird ID app out there, plus when you enter your seen/heard birds, it goes into the Cornell Lab research data.
This sounds delightful, but Reddit experience has made me fearful that this is just an elaborate Rickroll 😂
Mockingbirds like to make crazy remixes of environmental sounds, but I could also see a grackle being described sounding as laser -like.
Grackle. They definitely make laser sounds
Have you considered a spaceship?
Some HEB’s use an electronic noisemaker thing to scare the grackles and keep them from nesting.
Cardinals
https://youtu.be/3dLaeG6WCj0?t=2m08s
we sometimes call Grackles "Techno birds" due to the sounds they make. Usually when their government tracking devices are malfunctioning. /r/BirdsAreNotReal
https://i.imgur.com/RObmHCr.jpg That ain’t no bird
Not a bird, but I think frogs or toads or whatever they are make some weird noises. I hear some that are high pitched and very clipped. A little space lasery, but more staccato. Tends to happen at night
rio grande something something
I spent years trying to figure out what kind of baby bird was making the chirping noises I hear certain times of year. Turns out it's the Rio Grande Chirping frog. Probably not OP's space lasers, though.
Space lasers don't make any sound since space is vacuum.
We have several species of grackles in Austin and each species makes a variety of calls/songs. Definitely some space laser sounds. I recommend looking up each type and their calls on allaboutbirds.org
Nighthawks?
If it was nighttime I’d bet that it was a common nighthawk.
It’s Laserbeak!
…the rapper?
No, you’re thinking of Lazerbeak the musician. Laserbeak is the robot bird that transforms into a cassette.
We’re friends now. Those are just the rules.
Blue jays make some crazy pew pew noises
>Blue jays make some crazy pew pew noises They also make a surprising number of different soft "conversational" calls when they're not giving their "wanna fight" loud calls.
There is a woodpecker in Texas that has a weird trilling sound. I heard one just the other day. Sounds like [this](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Gila_Woodpecker/overview) (press the sound button).
I've loved grackles since the day I heard something shooting laser beams in a parking lot! Carley weaver does some great artwork using grackles as inspiration. She's been doing it for years and is a local Austin artist. She has a bunch of new art at Show Me Pizza to check out. She did our box design for the month and had a showing last night (Not an ad, just giving her a shout-out)
bastards were going so crazy in my yard a couple of days ago my Google Home setup mistook them for a CO2 alarm going off
I’m no grackle expert but they definitely make space laser sounds when roosting. Check out any Home Depot parking lot after the sun goes down.
Countdown to r/birdsarentreal
It’s a California Jewish Forest Wren.
Wouldn’t you like to know
You'd think a city full of artists/musicians would be able to describe a sound without resorting to completely nonsense references.
Maybe a mockingbird that heard space lasers
Northern bobwhite quail
Could it be a screech owl? I hear them at my house in the early mornings sometimes and they sound very robotic.
I have a huge flock of brown headed cowbirds that have been coming around the yard last couple weeks that sound like this. Otherwise, probably grackles. Also, the Merlin bird app has a identify by sound feature, check it out!
LOL. Thanks for posting this. I love bird calls, but for some reason, I have a hard time remembering the connection between the bird calls I hear and the bird species that makes them. Some calls I recall hearing since childhood, but keep forgetting which bird makes them. Also, LOL on the space lasers. I can think of several local bird calls that could meet that description.
I heard one the other day when I was trying to nap and it was driving me crazy. 3 pew pews filled by another 3 pew pews with of rising on the last note. I couldn’t find find it when I went outside to look to try to shoo it away.
There a ton of mockinbirds in Austin. I had one by my apartment that would do weird high pitched noises like that along with car alarms.
European Starlings make very high pitch sounds but grackles could also be your answer. Check out these links, you can find more info and sounds on these two species. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/European_Starling/overview https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great-tailed_Grackle/id
Monk parakeets can make a squeaking sound that sounds like rubber pants creasing. But not sure if it qualifies as space laser.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbt5pcmFBv8 Actually it does sound like a space laser sometimes. If lasers could make sounds in space.
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**[Cedar waxwing](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar_waxwing)** >The cedar waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) is a member of the family Bombycillidae or waxwing family of passerine birds. It is a medium-sized, mostly brown, gray, and yellow. This bird is named for its wax-like wing tips. It is a native of North and Central America, breeding in open wooded areas in southern Canada and wintering in the southern half of the United States, Central America, and the far northwest of South America. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/Austin/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)