Red-tailed’s kee-eeeee-arr is used to represent all raptors, and more-
“Cry like an eagle” . . . you can just imagine it as you read the phrase. It must be bold. Maybe it should be the title of a song or a novel. The Colbert Report doesn’t use a real eagle cry. It would be a metajoke — a joke about the joke. This is because in reality an eagle’s cry doesn’t amount to much. They are tiny, a big embarrassment for such a grand bird.
In the movies, for certain scenes the actor’s body is often replaced by a “body double.” The double has the muscles, or breasts perhaps, that we expect the actor to have. In the movies when it comes to eagles, and raptors in general, they use a “bird cry double.” It is almost always the cry of the red-tailed hawk. You will know it by heart even if you have never heard one outdoors. It is so common, and it is used to represent many things. The cry often signifies that the scene has moved to the serious outdoors, where danger lurks.
Some other hawks have fairly impressive calls, but they don’t make as many as the red-tails. They don’t quite match up. In addition, using canned red-tail cries works for an outdoors challenged movie director who knows nothing about birds.
Salon Magazine has just posted an article that says this cry has become a a cliche or worse. Read Raptor porn: The ridiculous proliferation of the red-tail call. By Christopher Cokinos.
About The Author
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He has been a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and also its President. For many years he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
<p>//www.flickr.com/photos/viscountsin/9554734135/in/photostream/</p> The red-tailed hawk has a very distinctive cry which is often described as a
kree-eee-ar, and its vocals are often used in the film and television industry to create a generic sound effect for all raptors. It's no wonder the screech is used so often -- the iconic sound is pretty epic, and this is definitely not a bird to be messed with. Watch as Marley, a hawk who was rescued after being hit by a car, greets her handler with an intimidating call.
28 July 2021 Have you heard this pathetic sound
recently? If you track it down you’ll find a young red-tailed hawk, possibly on the ground, calling as if it is in distress. There may be two of them walking around, jumping down from a perch, looking at their feet, and making the most heart-rending sounds. Despite their tone these juvenile hawks are not hurt. They are crying wolf.
In late July young red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) in southwestern Pennsylvania have been out of the nest for four to eight weeks. Their parents have taught them everything they need to know about capturing and killing prey but they lack experience. To gain it their parents drop them off at a fertile hunting ground and leave for the day. Their parents will return with food, but not right away.
Left alone the youngsters play at catching prey (video below) and progress from hunting insects and invertebrates to capturing small mammals. It takes weeks to make this kind of progress and they won’t do it if their parents are nearby.
Like any kids, they get impatient when it goes slowly and whine as loudly as possible. Sometimes they perch prominently to do it. “Come back! I want food now!”
Don’t worry when you hear or see a “distressed” juvenile red-tailed hawk. It’s crying wolf.
(photos and video of two hawks by Jim Funderburgh, video of one hawk by Christopher Booth on YouTube)