Thread: What is this animal?

We have an animal that lurks around the back of our house after dark, and I'm not even sure what it is. (Could've worded that better...)

I only know it by it's sound. As close as I can get phonetically, it goes, 'tok,tok,tok', sometimes in groups of three 'toks', sometimes four, sometimes five. There is a slight gap between the groups of toks.

Wifey says it's a bird, and she's probably right, but I leave open the possibility that it could be a lizard or a frog.

It's doing it now, it begins at dusk and goes through pretty much continually until the early hours. It's quite loud, and when it first appeared, a coupe of months ago, it would keep me awake if it was near our bedroom window. Now I'm familiar with the sound, and it doesn't bother me.

It moves around during the night, at various locations out the back of our house. I have only heard one at a time, so either several of them strictly take turns, or there is only one.

When it's near the bedroom window, I can hear that the first few toks, if it has a rest from tokking for a minute, have less volume, as if it needs to rev up to full tok.

Does anyone have any idea what it is?

........

Thanks for the reply, but it's not a toukay, I'm familiar with their call, and this is much more staccato. Unless toukay's have several calls... It doesn't ever call 'toukay'.

Greater Cougal | Centropus sinensis ?

Large-tailed Nightjar
Caprimulgus macrurus
Tok-Tok Bird,

large tailed nightjar (caprimulgus macrurus): info fact sheet, photos

Originally Posted by Gipsy

Greater Cougal | Centropus sinensis ?

I have a pair of those knocking around my garden at the moment but I only ever hear them during the day, normally early in the morning.

Are they also nocturnal?

Its a tookay. When we stayed in Pattaya during the floods my kids were mortified of it and I did not sleep well the first week or so. Armed with the a Maglite flashlight I went a hunting after a few nights. The more you chase it and piss it off the less it goes Too Kay, took, or even too, it gets tired. It finally came in the house freaked the kids out, got caught, and moved a few kilometers away. Only one as well.

Toukay.

our back of the house toukay does 4 touk...ayys before tailing off at nightly intervals of an hour or so

pain in the ass

AO ^^^
Didn't you know they are sought after?

Tokay Gecko for Medicines – TokayGeckos.org

You should have caught it and put it on ebay.

Originally Posted by quimbian corholla

Originally Posted by Gipsy

Greater Cougal | Centropus sinensis ?

I have a pair of those knocking around my garden at the moment but I only ever hear them during the day, normally early in the morning.

Are they also nocturnal?

Likewise they are quite noisy.

Originally Posted by quimbian corholla

Are they also nocturnal?

At dusk and dawn they make the most noise (var. chiangmaiensis), but disturbed or hearing the call of a distant neighbour, they sometimes 'defend' their territory in the middle of the night...

Originally Posted by Thormaturge

You should have caught it and put it on ebay.

I did one of the above two things correctly then. I caught it. Then I drove it closer to Sukumvit rd from the dark side, released him in a wat. They dont sleep or wake up early anyway.

Cold be a Seppo counting down to when they go bankrupt.

does it sound like this??

Originally Posted by Kurgen

Cold be a Seppo counting down to when they go bankrupt.

Or an Englishman crying out cause he's the only dentist left on the island.

Originally Posted by ChiangMai noon

does it sound like this??

Not a gecko, but a tookay.

Routinely - the third and fourth calls sound suspiciously of: fvck you

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

Not a gecko, but a tookay.

you are sharp tonight rs

Originally Posted by YeesipSam

We have an animal that lurks around the back of our house after dark, and I'm not even sure what it is. (Could've worded that better...)

I only know it by it's sound. As close as I can get phonetically, it goes, 'tok,tok,tok', sometimes in groups of three 'toks', sometimes four, sometimes five. There is a slight gap between the groups of toks.

I got a Tokay in my house who sounds like that, he doesn't make the usual sound like that video.

Originally Posted by Gipsy

var. chiangmaiensis

could it be this bird, the common koel.

they are common in thailand and have a distinctive and very loud call.

in thai the bird is called nok gaa-waow

A wealth of replies. Thanks to all. Very interesting.

It is definetely, ...without a doubt,...a Large-Tailed Nightjar. (Also known as the Tok-Tok Bird). Cheers to Dillinger for the YouTube vid. That is the sound.

As it no longer keeps me awake with it's tokking, it is welcome in the garden.

I now know we also have a Greater Cougal keeping us company. Cheers to Gipsy.

I'll check out some more YouTube vids to try to find out what else we have lurking in the area. I can hear them, but rarely see them.

Thanks for the replies.

I have a freaking Ga Whoo bird that wakes me up every morning. If the wife gets up early enough she will blow a plastic bag up and pop it scaring the thing away.