That’s a loon. And right now, he’s doing something called wailing. But this is probably not the first time you’ve heard that noise. Here it is in the movie 1917, as they enter the enemy trench. In the third Harry Potter movie, as they climb out of the whomping willow. In Rick and Morty, when Rick uses his intergalactic toilet. You’ll find it whenever a scene needs to feel a little moody. "They feared it." Or eerie. Or just remind us that we’re in the great outdoors. This specific bird call is all over movies and tv shows. But, it really shouldn’t be. If you ever find yourself on birder twitter, you’ll find a lot of angry tweets like these: "Can someone please tell movie makers that loons are not, in fact, the only bird out there?" "Hello I am a nature scene in a movie - doesn’t matter whether it’s habitat appropriate or not — I’m a Common Loon call." "Have you ever noticed loon calls in impossible locations in movies & TV? ...in a jungle?" SOHL: Watching the movie Harriet. Only 20 minutes in but I’m giving them kudos. They were not lazy! No loon calls yet. Can you read the first reply on that one? SOHL: Oh, myself? SOHL: No! Why, Harriet! At about the one hour 20 minute mark... they throw in calling loons. That's Terry. He's a research geographer. But more importantly, he moonlights on twitter and his blog, as DakotaBirder. He mostly posts beautiful pictures of birds. And points out when Hollywood uses their calls incorrectly. SOHL: As a birder you just you just can't-- you can't help but notice. That's because the loon is a very particular bird. They’re also called “divers”. Because they’re really good at diving, thanks to their dense bones and enormous feet. They’re also good at something called penguin dancing. And scooting across lakes at astonishing speeds. This is a map of the common loon’s range: They mostly stick to Canada and the northern US -- where there are plenty of lakes for them to hang out in. But, they do migrate. Passing through other US states on their way to winter along the coasts as far down as Mexico. And here’s a very unscientific map of all of the places I found a common loon call in movies and tv. SOHL: I certainly wouldn't expect a common loon in Hawaii or in Bolivia or in South Africa. And geographic location isn’t the only thing Hollywood gets wrong. A loon might be found in California. But not during the summer. Like Becky, in Finding Dory. "Lads, meet Becky." And unlike what this clip from the TV show Rome implies... ...you'd never find a loon in the desert. SOHL: No, they need water. And quite a lot of it. SOHL: If you've ever seen a loon try to fly, it takes them a little while to get going. They’re actually really clumsy on land. So, you also wouldn’t find them in the Vietnamese jungle. Like in the movie Platoon. And then there’s this clip, from Kubo and the Two Strings. "Golden heron." SOHL: That happens a lot. it's one thing to use the wrong bird call as a background noise it's another to actually show a picture of the bird and use a wrong call. And even if those were loons that movie takes place in Japan. Which, is at least on planet Earth. Unlike Avengers: Infinity War. SOHL: The big baddie, Thanos, he returns to his home planet. SOHL: And so they pan to an overview of the planet and the first noise you hear is a common loon. SOHL: It just ruined the moment. Some credit a 1981 movie called On Golden Pond, as the first to use loon calls. "The loons!" "The loons." "Oh look, I've spotted the loons!" It did feature a lot of loons. But they used them correctly. It’s set up north, on a lake, during the summer. Really, it’s hard to tell which film kicked off Hollywood's loon obsession or when. But it’s pretty easy to figure out why. SOHL: I mean, it is a scary sound. I mean, it is just weird. It's unusual. In some Algonquin lore, loons are messengers and supernatural companions to legendary hero, Glooskap. In 1864, naturalist slash philosopher Henry David Thoreau said the loon’s call was “singularly human”. And in 1913, John Muir, another elaborately bearded naturalist slash philosopher called it “strange, sad, mournful and unearthly”. But the loons aren’t sad when they’re wailing. They actually have four calls. There’s the hoot. The yodel. The tremolo. And the wail. These two are both used during stressful situations. When another bird is overstepping his bounds. Or when some other threat is looming. If a loon ever looks at you like this you should probably back away. The hoot is mostly for chatting to fellow loons up close. And the famous wail, it’s basically just the loon equivalent of a game of Marco Polo. A way of saying “Hey! Where is everybody?” But to human ears even the calmest wail sounds remarkably melancholy. I’m no musician, so I enlisted a few of my coworkers to help explain why. Like Dave, who’s editing this video. And Charlie, who hosts the podcast Switched on Pop. As well as Vox’s Creative Director, Joe. Who sent me this video of his interpretation. JOE: Now let me show you what it looks like in Melodyne. They helped me turn the loon wail into one of these, a chart showing pitch over time. In this section, you can see that the loon makes a jump between two notes. In complicated musical terms, this interval is close to a major third but it also bends into a minor third right at the end. JOE: So it starts in a major and ends in a minor which is extremely funky. And the loon doesn’t just jump from note to note like a lot of chirpy birds. Instead, the notes sort of slide into each other a feature that Charlie pointed out you'll also hear in blues and soul music. Singers like BB King and Muddy Waters and songs like "Feelin' Good" by Nina Simone. "Birds flying' high, you know how it feels" So it’s no wonder the loon wail is Hollywood’s favorite bird call. It's a shortcut to a feeling, enhancing a moment's melancholy, or tension or sheer remoteness. SOHL: On the few occasions that I have heard it in real life, it really is unforgettable. SOHL: It's just so unlike any other bird call. SOHL: It's hard that first time you hear it not to have goose bumps. It just is such a haunting, unusual sound. There is a lot more to learn about loons. They return to the same lake year after year They do this weird foot waggle and nobody really knows why. And they carry their cute, fluffy babies on their backs. And their populations are dwindling due to pollution, human disturbance, and climate change. According to one model, the loon is on track to lose about half of it’s range by 2080. If you want to learn more about loons, or what you can do to help protect them I've linked some organizations devoted to their conservation in the description of this video. Back To Top