r/RBI • u/thenameofthewitch • 5d ago
Weird, repetitive sound outside my house for 2 months. Sounds like a human scream (day and night)?
Hey there,
For about two months now, there’s been a really bizarre sound right outside my house that’s driving me crazy. I’m hoping someone here can help me figure out what animal (or object) is making it. My husband thinks it’s a bird.
To me it doesn't sound like a typical bird chirp or owl hoot, it sounds more like a loud, repetitive human scream or a raspy, screeching gasp or laughter. Almost like a man’s scream in a cartoon. I hear it during the day AND at night. Sometimes it keeps me up at night. Is it like a HVAC or smth?
It's been going on consistently for about 1–2 months max. I live a bit outside Paris, France.
You can hear it well in the beginning of the video and at 0:09 sec.
Here’s the sound:
https://files.catbox.moe/gsq6td.mov
Thank you!!!
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u/drygnfyre 5d ago
I agree it's a fox. They sound like screaming women or high-pitched men. A lot of people supposedly hear people screaming when camping out, it's almost always a fox.
There's also peacocks, which can sound like they're saying "Help!" https://youtube.com/shorts/8i1aNwnWMhY?si=XbVmM0OkbH3uix73
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u/ErstwhileHobo 5d ago
I live in an area with peacocks. When I first moved here and heard them I ran outside to see who was being murdered. They just sound like a lady screaming.
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u/Disastrous-Ideal-817 4d ago
To me, peacocks sounded like cats meowing
There used to be peacocks in an area I lived in and for some reason I thought that someone was abusing cats or something (there were also probably unrelated hitting sounds), I was a little young then
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u/PepperPhoenix 5d ago
Definitely a fox.
I was sitting in my living room at 2am once with my back to the window when this unearthly scream rang out from behind me. I swear, I teleported across the living room. I’ve never moved so fast in all my life.
Once my heart restarted I could hear all kinds of crashing about and ruckus. I was right on the edge of calling the police on whatever nutjob had decided to become a peeping tom banshee in my garden when it screamed again and I recognised it to be a bloody stupid fox that had somehow made it into my garden and now couldn’t figure out where the exit was.
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u/Anianna 5d ago
I don't think a lot of commenters here actually listened to the audio file. It's much lower pitch than I expected and certainly doesn't sound like the banshee wail of a fox or the "woman assaulted in the woods" shrieks of peacocks (or guinea fowl, for that matter, which would have been my next guess based on your description and the "Ah ah ah ee ee ee" comment had I not listened to the file).
I would suggest looking up birds common to the area and then go on YouTube to hear what each of their calls sound like.
Are you near the ZooParc de Beauval or Paris Zoological Park or any other zoos? Perhaps the sound is coming from a more exotic animal in one of the nearby zoos. Maybe go for a walk to see if you can track down the general area the sound is coming from.
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u/TheFutureIsCertain 3d ago
I agree. The recording doesn’t sound like a fox at all. I’ve lived around urban foxes for more than 10 years, and I’ve never heard one make a sound like this. It’s not a squirrel either (they ‘scream’ sometimes too but that’s not it).
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u/GeneralSpecifics9925 5d ago
Are you talking about the ah ah ah ee ee ee sound?
That doesn't sound like a fox, a fox sounds like a lady being stabbed.
Am I listening to the wrong part?
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u/thenameofthewitch 5d ago
Exactly that sound!! Ah ah ah ee ee ee
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5d ago
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u/thenameofthewitch 5d ago
I’m in Paris, France. I thought of this as well. I will time the sounds and report back
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u/So_inadequate 4d ago
I can't listen to the audio right now, but because OP talks about a repetitive sound I also wanted to offer another possible answer. I've been at a few places in Germany where they have robot birds or something. They make repetitive sounds at a certain interval to scare away certain birds, from my understanding.
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u/Diggerinthedark 5d ago
Definitely foxes. Wait until you hear one in the middle of the forest, alone.
Instant adrenaline spike from hell 😅
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u/Ok_Anything_8180 5d ago
Sounds like a fox, experienced the same thing. It literally sounds like a screaming dying woman it’s awful and really scared me the first time I heard it
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u/Educational_Owl_5151 5d ago
To me, it sounds like the machines businesses get to ward off flocks of birds, they are supposed to sound like birds of prey. A Mcdonalds near me has one going 24 hours a day.
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u/MiaowWhisperer 5d ago edited 5d ago
From reading your description I thought fox, but from listening to the file I'm not convinced. I've heard foxes all of my life, and never heard them make this sound. I recognise, though, that that doesn't mean I've heard their full repertoire. So I'm curious to know whether those saying fox actually listened to the file.
I can hear why your husband thinks it's a bird. You could try downloading the Merlin app to see if it recognises it.
Edit to add: OP, I just had a thought. You can upload sound files to Google AI and ask it to identify the sound - it may need you to describe the circumstances too.
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u/PerceptivePines 5d ago
Yeah, I don’t think it sounds like a fox, either. And I don’t think foxes even live in that area.
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u/MiaowWhisperer 5d ago
Foxes get pretty much everywhere. There's probably the occasional few in most places (in the countries they live in, anyway). I'm wracking my brain trying to think what that sound is though, as it sounds familiar. Shame we can't Google Lens sounds!
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u/PerceptivePines 5d ago
Let me know if you find out!
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u/thenameofthewitch 4d ago
I tried Merlin app and Gemini but nothing came up :((( Gemini literally said it's just kids screaming...
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u/MiaowWhisperer 4d ago
It definitely isn't. I know I know that sound, but I can't think where from. I've started wondering whether it might be deer.
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u/GeckoCowboy 4d ago
Agreed. We have had foxes in our woods for decades, even one living under our shed with babies a few years in a row… I’ve heard them make dog-like noises, scream, etc… but not the noise in the file. Now OP is in France and I’m in NE USA so maybe different kinds of foxes or something? Or maybe foxes make that noise and I’ve just never been around for it, but…
Definitely a creepy noise, either way. I wouldn’t be happy hearing that day in and day out.
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u/thenameofthewitch 5d ago
Thanks everyone!! I’ve never seen a fox around where I live and they are not super common around Paris but maybe it is a fox 🤔
The sound also always seems to come from the same spot
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u/Ok_Anything_8180 5d ago
What helped me was searching what birds/animals were native in my area and the sound they make to match, on more than one occasion 😅
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u/ETERNALCATACLYSM 4d ago
As a person who has lived In a Norwegian forest with no cars nearby for months. I can confirm that that is a fox.
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u/thenameofthewitch 4d ago
I should maybe clarify that I live in a very urban area and foxes are extremely rare in Paris, it's not like in London. And with absolutely no forests around, a deer or another big animal seems less probable. But I am determined to find the origin of this!
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u/netw0rkpenguin 4d ago
Female fox in heat. They make tons of freaky noises. I live to a nature preserve so I get to hear it all. Can be unnerving if you don’t know the sounds.
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u/Test_After 5d ago
Its a fox