I recently moved from Longview to Dallas and there’s a type of bird I keep hearing that I don’t recognize from back in East Texas. Its call is a hooting sound, somewhat like an owl but only four hoots. It’s a diurnal bird though. I’ve seen some unfamiliar black birds around here that look somewhat like ravens so it might be one of them, but I haven’t seen and heard one of them at the same time. I know this isn’t much to go on but I figure someone will probably have a guess. I’ve been looking up birds that are native to North Texas and listening to their calls on Youtube and none are even close. Any ideas?
Mourning dove?
Check out the sounds for the White Winged Dove
Or the Eurasian Collared Dove
Those sound very close. It’s not the Eurasian Collared Dove but it could be one of the other two, or another type of dove. I’m pretty confident it’s a dove now.
Listening to it more, I’m sure I’ve heard the Mourning Dove back in East Texas, but the ones here are a little different. The White Winged Dove sounds a little closer to it.
If the range maps in my Sibley guide are still accurate, you’ve got three dove species in your area: the Mourning Dove, the White-Winged Dove, and the Inca Dove. And the Rock Dove, but I’m assuming that you wouldn’t be asking about that species.
Next time I hear one, I’ll try to get a recording of it. I can’t remember exactly what I heard, but I know that white-winged dove call is very close. That’s likely it.
I just walked outside and there happened to be two of them calling. Yeah, it’s the White-Winged Dove or something that sounds identical to it. They’re very common here, yet I don’t remember hearing any around Longview. On the other hand, I remember hearing the Mourning Dove call often there, but not here. It’s good to know what both are.
Former Dallasite. Almost positive it’s a dove, their song quite ubiquitous there.
As far as the black birds are concerned, they are undoubtedly crows or grackles, and can be either fish crows or American crows, or common grackle or great-tailed grackle (boat-tailed is found only along the coast.)
I heard a bird call I’d heard before but couldn’t identify last week and spent several minutes tracking down the bird. It was a Mockingbird. :smack:
I love you, Mockingbird, but you tell me nothing! You tell me nothing! 
I’m thinking it was a grackle. I’m pretty familiar with crows and it didn’t look like them. It seems like one was toying with my dog, flying from one side of the yard to another to get him to chase it.