What bird sounds like an eagle?

The fierce, descending scream that movies and TV give their eagles is a Red-tailed Hawk, a hawk you can hear over fields and highways across the country, often while it soars. A real Bald Eagle sounds much smaller: a weak, staccato run of chirping whistles, kleek kik ik ik ik, with a cadence a bit like a gull. If you heard thin whistles from a big bird over a lake or river, it may also be an Osprey.

Listen: the Red-tailed Hawk, the voice of movie eagles

The Red-tailed Hawk's cry is a rasping scream written as kree-eee-ar, and it is often compared to a steam whistle. It is the stock sound effect for large birds of prey on television and in films, used for eagles and for other raptors even when the bird on screen is something else entirely. So if the sound in your yard matched the movie, the bird is almost certainly a red-tail.

Red-tails call often while hunting or soaring, and they get loudest when annoyed: a predator or a rival hawk crossing into the territory sets them off. Up close they also make a croaking guh-runk, and young hawks give a wailing klee-uk when they want food. They breed across most of the continent and spend the winter from southern Canada southward, so in most of the country you can hear one in any month. Look for the singer on a fence post, a telephone pole, a hay bale or a tree beside the road; Missouri's field guide calls them highway hawks for good reason.

What a Bald Eagle really sounds like

The national bird of the United States has a voice that does not fit the poster. Its call is a string of weak, staccato chirps and whistles, kleek kik ik ik ik, with a rhythm somewhat like a gull's call. Young eagles sound harsher and shriller than adults, which may be the closest an eagle gets to its movie reputation.

The best time to hear one is winter. Bald Eagles gather at open lakes and rivers in the northern United States, at places with plenty of perches and plenty of fish, so a cold-weather walk along a river or lake that has not frozen over is your best chance to hear the real thing.

The Osprey, the other big whistler over the water

If you are near water and hear a big raptor whistling, the Osprey is a strong candidate. Its voice runs to descending chirps, rising squeals and a loud, clear whistle, often given in a series and sometimes in reply to another osprey. Like the eagle, it sounds thinner than you would expect from a bird that size. Ospreys hunt by flying over lakes and rivers, hovering a moment and then plunging feet first after fish near the surface. In North America most breed along both coasts, inland through the Great Lakes states and the northern Rockies, and across Canada and Alaska. They often nest on telephone poles, cell towers and platforms built for them, and they put up with people well enough to nest beside busy highways, ports and marinas.

How to tell which one you heard

• One long scream, falling. A single hoarse note that slides down for two or three seconds is a Red-tailed Hawk, wherever you are.
• Fast, thin chirps. A quick, stuttering run of weak whistles near big water, especially in winter, is a Bald Eagle.
• Clear whistles in a series, over water. Chirps and rising squeals from a bird hovering over a lake or sitting on a pole platform point to an Osprey.
• Where the bird is. Red-tails are the ones on roadside poles and fence posts. Ospreys hunt over lakes and rivers, and wintering eagles gather at open water.

When the bird is calling repeatedly, record it. Warble can listen and name the bird, so you can check whether you are hearing the real voice of an eagle or the hawk that Hollywood hired for the job.

Questions people ask

Warble is a game, not a field guide. Facts about birds on this page come from the sources above.