The bald eagle ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus ) is one of the most recognizable animals out there, one of its most distinctive traits (besides its white head) being that powerful screech featured in TV shows, movies, and America memes alike… or at least, that’s what we’ve been led to believe. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.
It turns out that bald eagles don’t actually sound like that at all. As the Cornell Lab of Ornithology explains in what is, frankly, an absolutely brutal take, “For such a powerful bird, the Bald Eagle emits surprisingly weak-sounding calls.”
Instead of the raspy scream that we’re all familiar with from the media, bald eagles instead make high-pitched whistling or piping sounds. These usually gi