BIrd call that sounds like a human voice

[hank franklin]

We were on a Jacks Fork gravel bar the past weekend and was awakened maybe 3 or 4 a.m. by a very eerie bird call of some kind. It sounded like a human female voice, in a kind of mournful tone. It repeated itself several times. It woke me with a start and at first I thought it must be a girl or young woman singing. But upon hearing it repeat itself several times I figured it was a bird call of some sort and went back to sleep (thankfully). Back home I googled it and the best I can come up with is some kind of great horned owl call. However none of the calls I listened to really seemed to mimic it.

I am not a believer in ghosts honestly but if you trust gut instinct then my gut instinct here was I heard some kind of ghost. I know that might be out there but just sayin. Of course nature on its own terms has a way of playing tricks on you. Or tricks you've never seen before. So I guess it's more likely I heard an owl that sounded like a ghost.

Whatevs.

Anyone who has heard anything similar I'd love to hear about it.

HANK

[MOPanfisher]

I wouldn't hazard a guess at what you heard.  But some critters are just not very good at making the noises they are supposed to and some humans are very good.  Most of the nature sounds at the MDC nature centers are actually made by a guy named Ralph Duren i believe, he is creepy in the array and quality of animal sounds.  Maybe you were camping.near one of his favorite spots.

[J-Doc]

Bobcat. Not a bird.  

It's an alarming sound. First time I heard one, I had no idea what it was.  Looked it up on YouTube and found the exact sound. Try that and compare. 

[fishinwrench]

Cranes have a vocabulary and arry of voices that will blow your mind.  One of the river stretches I float fairly often has a heron/crane rookery that I go by alot, and in the past I have heard the following... .

Dinosaurs fighting.

Girls being violently raped.

Old women laughing hysterically.

Chris Farley puking.

A manatee having an orgasm.

So I'm gonna take a wild guess here and say that what you heard came from the voicebox of a crane or heron.

[DownStream]

Mrs. Bigfoot?

[Ketchup]

Jack Links filming another Sasquatch commercial?

[Greasy B]

I have always attributed mysterious human like sounds to wild cats, owls or flying monkeys. On the one occasion we did find what was making the noise it was a dog suffering slow tortured death. The dog was on JF. 

[Mitch f]

This would be scary as hell at night, but it doesn't sound quite like what you were describing.

 

Maybe it was one of these owls:

 

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

Chupacabra

[Al Agnew]

Great horned owls have a really weird little call that is so totally different and out of character for a big, mean, hooting bird that it's a shock to associate it with them. it sounds like a fairly loud, high-pitched, short "ehh". One year we had one that liked to perch on the roof of the house about midnight in the spring when we had windows open and give that call. Took us a while to figure out what it was.

Barred owls make a bunch of sounds...Mitch's video link only touched upon them. We talk to them here at the house all the time, and one year I think I had their language partially figured out. The typical who-hoo-hoo-hoo, who-hoo-hoo-HOOAW, is saying, "Hey, I'm here, anybody out there?".  It's answered the same way, "Yep, I'm here, wanna get together and chat?" After a couple more agreements, they start flying toward each other, and when they get close, one goes, "WHO-aw", which is "I'm here, where are you?" The other one answers, "Who-hoo-hoo-HOOaw." "Here I am, come a little closer." Then "who-HOOO, hoo-hoo-hoo-HOO-aw". "How the heck are you?" "Who...hoo...hoo...hoo-HOO-awwww." "Fine, and you?" From there, they go into a whole reportoire of hoots and screams and trills, which is where I lost the gist of what they were saying, but they usually included me in the conversation anyway. A lot of times all this goes on while Mary and I are sitting in the hot tub, and they end up perched in the trees over our heads.