Spotted across Pasadena and in the San Gabriel Valley, just northeast of Los Angeles, hundreds of peacocks have been seen standing in homeowners’ lawns, on rooftops, and casually sauntering down city sidewalks.
'Tuttle says the birds “sound like babies being tortured through a microphone, a very large microphone.”'
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/06/06/los-angeles-county-peacocks/
I have lived in a neighborhood with peacocks/peahens. Their cry is indeed unignorable. Their beauty, should they descend upon my block, would nonetheless outweigh the shortcoming of their voices. Unless I was working a night shift.
In a similar vein, I have heard cats in heat yowliing, and sounding like a baby being harmed. Scared the hell out of me the first few times.
@estherschindler yes they do. At 5:00 a.m. in the morning, it sounds worse.