If it’s on the recording and it’s identifiable, you’ve bagged it and it’s beautiful. Mark Pearson, nocmigger, Filey, Yorkshire.
This library documents bird calls heard during astronomical night (i.e. during the period when it is properly dark) in South-east Queensland. These include all calls, including birds on the ground, although we have attempted to provide interpretation of whether each of the vocalisations is given in a nocturnal flight context, i.e. suggesting the bird is on migration or at least moving from one local site to another. For now, the behavioural context of many of these calls remains a complete mystery. Each species has a page, which contains examples of the call types it is known to give. Unknown calls are multitudinous and we are gradually organising these into groups and have given them interim codes or names to help us remember them as we continue annotating new data. If you have opinions or information on any of the unidentified birds, please reach out to Richard Fuller on
Some recent detections across the project, excluding several species unlikely to be migratory, such as Masked Lapwing and Bush Stone-curlew.
| Night of | Highlights |
|---|---|
| 07 Jun 2026 | moorhen or swamphen (3), Fan-tailed Cuckoo CHIREEE (2), duck sp harsher quack flight call (2), Australian Wood Duck IDENTITY CALL (1), Dusky Moorhen (1), Shining Bronze-cuckoo CALL (1), Unknown Bird Wingbeats (1) |
| 06 Jun 2026 | Silvereye LINEAR CALL (11), Dusky Moorhen (5), Fan-tailed Cuckoo CHIREEE (3), Unknown Bird Wingbeats (2), low down-up (1) |
| 05 Jun 2026 | Galah CHET CALL (30), Dusky Moorhen (2), Brown Honeyeater pew pew pew (1), Shining Bronze-cuckoo CALL (1) |
| 03 Jun 2026 | Silvereye LINEAR CALL (49), Dusky Moorhen (27), moorhen or swamphen (12), quark (7), low buff-banded rail-like (4), Buff-banded Rail preenk (2), low cluck (2) |
| 31 May 2026 | Dusky Moorhen (26), Silvereye LINEAR CALL (17), moorhen or swamphen (7), Unknown bird call (5), Australian Wood Duck IDENTITY CALL (3), Unknown Bird Wingbeats (2), Fan-tailed Cuckoo CHIREEE (1) |
If you would like to contribute recordings or annotations, you can download the current contributor package and the current label text file below. The label text file contains the current call type codes so they can be copied and pasted directly into Audacity labels.
Because many Australian species have never previously been studied in this context, we are currently unsure about many of the identifications, and have assigned an evidence level reflecting the strength of supporting information. See the accounts for each call type on the species pages.
Confirmed
The call has been directly linked to the species through unequivocal evidence, such as a photographed or visually observed bird producing the sound. This category also includes vocalisations that are highly distinctive and have been reliably documented and attributed to the species across multiple independent sources (e.g. published recordings, reference libraries), such that confusion with other species is effectively excluded.
Strong
The call closely matches well-documented vocalisations of the species in structure and acoustic characteristics, and no plausible alternative species provides an equally good explanation. Minor uncertainty may remain due to lack of direct confirmation or incomplete knowledge of potential confusion species.
Probable
The call is consistent with the expected vocalisations of the species, but one or more plausible alternative species or explanations cannot be confidently excluded.
Tentative
The call shows some features consistent with the species, but the evidence is weak, ambiguous, or incomplete, and identification is uncertain.
Unresolved
A distinct call type has been recognised but the species producing it is currently unknown.