Do wild birds scream murderously???

I live in a leafy suburb of a city, right near a park and for the past year or so, and quite often at around 4-5 in the morning I have been woken by the sounds of screaming. It sounds so much like a female scream and it never fails to scare the sh*t outta me when it happens. As we have a decent size garden and are surrounded by trees I am thinking it could be some kind of wild bird. However, the little research I have done on the net doesn’t mention a bird that sounds like a woman in grave danger! Can anyone shed any light on this for me please?

It is probably a hawk of some type. Your post does not give a city, so I can’t really pin don which hawk you hear. I have indicated some links to enature.com below. The links take you to pages describing Hawks, their habitat, and a sample of their call. I hope that helps you!

Treetop Walkway: The New Bird’s Eye View At Kew Gardens

Havahart Critter Ridder 3141 Animal Repellent, 1.25 pound Granular Shaker $8.04 Havahart(R) Critter Ridder(R) repels groundhogs (woodchucks), dogs, cats, raccoons and squirrels. Also works very well as a skunk repellent. Critter Ridder(R) Animal Repellent contains the scent and taste deterrent ingredients of oil of black pepper, piperine and capsaicin. These active ingredients irritate animals when they touch or taste the product. This patented, effective animal repellent is …

Green Light Organic Lawn & Garden Insect Control Spray With Spinosad – Quart 41140 $19.99 Green Light Spinosad Lawn and Garden Spray The Green Light Spinosad Lawn and Garden Spray is a water-based organic lawn and garden spray concentrate that is not harmful to beneficial insects. The formula controls fire ants and is a vital component of organic fire ant control, beetles, caterpillars, worms, fleas, flies, leafminers, spider mites, thrips, and other insects. . Fermentation-derived ins…

Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants, Updated and Expanded $6.87 With the accelerating pace of development and subsequent habitat destruction, the pressures on wildlife populations are greater than ever. But there is a surprisingly important and relatively simple step toward reversing this alarming trend: Everyone with access to a patch of earth can make a significant contribution to sustaining biodiversity.There is an unbreakable link between native plant spec…

Native Plants of the Northeast: A Guide for Gardening & Conservation $21.15 If you’ve always wanted to garden with native plants, this book is for you. With entries for nearly 700 species of native trees, shrubs, vines, ferns, grasses, and wildflowers from the northeastern quarter of the U.S. and eastern Canada, its comprehensive horticultural coverage is unsurpassed by any other single volume. The natural ranges of many of the plants discussed extend beyond the Northeast…

The Book of a Thousand Poems $18.95 A collection of poems by writers ranging from William Blake and Henry W. Longfellow to Emily Dickinson and Robert L. Stevenson, arranged by topics such as “The Seasons,” “Nursery Rhymes,” and “Lullabies and Cradle Songs.”…