Mark Walter of Upper Mount Gravatt has contemplated moving because of a bird’s bothersome mating call.
The bothersome bird–called the eastern koel– has been whistling from out of a tree on almost every night of the week for the last two months and is driving neighbours mad. Colloquially known as rainbirds or stormbirds, the eastern koel’s call is usually more prominent before or during wet, stormy weather.
Mr. Walter has tried plastic owls and eagles from the hardware store, hitting a saucepan with a spoon, and using a pressure cleaner at the fence, to no avail.
“(The noise) comes between about 2.30am and 3am each morning and it literally goes for 24 hours a day,” Mr Walter said.
“It somewhat subsides between 7pm and 1am so we’ve started going to bed at 8pm.
“The only thing that drowns the sound out is if you put the stereo at full bore but obviously then you can’t sleep.
“I’ve researched what you can do online and still haven’t had any luck in stopping them.”
There’s not much hope for the situation according to David Niland of Birds Queensland.
“Generally what happens is the male finds a nest that they like and then they put a mating call out for any females in the area,” Mr Niland said.
“It generally starts about September or October and goes for two to three months.
“I’m afraid it’s probably a case of just waiting it out.”
