Why do eagles scream? Most of the times when I hear a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) screaming, the eagle is by itself and appears to be signaling its location to its mate. This past Monday, though, I spotted a Bald Eagle couple perched together on an osprey nesting site not far from their nesting location. The eagles seem to enjoy hanging out at this location that gives them a clear view of the tree in which the nest is located.
I am posting this little sequence of photos out of order, because the first image best tells a story, although it is not completely clear what that story is. The female eagle, the larger of the two, is on the lower level and seems to be screaming at her mate who is perched higher on the pole. A moment earlier they were both on the lower level and both eagles appeared to be calm, as you can see in the second image. Then the male hopped to the higher level and the female began to scream.
In the final shot, the female has turned away and the male is now screaming. Was he responding to his mate or was he screaming at something else? I guess you can connect the dots of this story in any way that you like.
As I was doing a little research on screaming eagles I came across a fascinating National Public Radio (NPR) article entitled “Bald Eagle: A Mighty Symbol, With A Not-So-Mighty Voice.” The article posits that most people have an incorrect idea of what an eagle scream sounds like and blames Hollywood. According to bird expert Connie Stanger, “Unfortunately for the bald eagle, it has like a little cackling type of a laugh that’s not really very impressive for the bird” and in most movies the sound of the eagle is actually dubbed by a Red-tailed Hawk. (I imagine a hawk in a sound booth with headphones dubbing over the eagle’s calls.)
If you click on the link above and then click the button on the website called “57 Second Listen,” you can hear a short clip of the NPR broadcast that includes both the call of the eagle and that of the Red-tailed Hawk. As for the question in the posting’s title, I personally like to think that it was a conversation, but acknowledge the distinct possibility that they were individually responding to a commonly-perceived threat. I think that my interpretation allows for more creative possibilities as I try to imagine the domestic conversations of a Bald Eagle couple. 🙂
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
This is a terrific post, Mike! I love your descriptions and your theories about what is really going on here… So fascinating. I also heard that NPR piece a while back, and now, every time I hear an eagle call, I think about how oddly weak and high-pitched it is, considering the bird’s majestic persona.
Thanks so much for your comments. I am usually happy enough to be able to identify the presence of an eagle when I hear its call that it never strikes me that it is incongruous with its appearance. It’s a bit like the voice of Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight boxing champion. The first time I heard the high voice with a lisp, it didn’t seem to match his appearance, but I got used to it and didn’t think twice about it.
Nice Mike! Does make you wonder about the possibilities of their “call”!
Interesting. Last summer, while I was sitting on my balcony, I watched two eagles swoop along the river. I was wondering why majestic birds like that had such smaller bird cries.
I love watching some of the performance TV shows like The Voice and America’s Got Talent and am often amazed at how often the singers’ voices don’t match how we expect them to sound. I guess it says more our preconceptions and biases than we would generally be willing to admit.
Until now, I had never heard the Bald Eagle cry. I have heard the call of the Red Tail Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk, and the Aspire. Just another reason why Ben Franklin may have had a better national bird suggestion.
It is always cool to hear what “normal” is for other folks, kenne, in terms of wildlife sightings. I am used to seeing and hearing bald eagles, red-shouldered hawks, and red-tailed hawks–it is clear that geography really matters. It is kind of a shame that I was not more into wildlife some forty years ago when I was stationed at Ft Huachuca, south of Tucson, for more than three years.
The first thing that came to mind was the 101st Airbourne, known as “The Screaming Eagles.” I was curious how they got their name, and found this:
“According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the 101st Airborne Division’s Screaming Eagles nickname originates from their insignia – a bald eagle on a black shield. An eagle named Old Abe – in honor of President Abraham Lincoln – was the mascot of a Wisconsin regiment during the Civil War. The 101st Division, which was formed as a reserve unit in Wisconsin shortly after World War I, included Old Abe as part of the division’s insignia.”
You can see a photo of the regiment and Old Abe here.
Thanks for sharing the info about the 101st and the link. When I was in the Army, I knew only a little about the 101st, so I learned a few things about the unit history. However, even back then I could identify the unit patch–it is one of the boldest and most easily identifiable unit patches in the Army.
Interesting to learn about the Hollywood dub, good to know. I’ve seen and heard RTHs calling and never connected that their calls weren’t similar. Hollywood strikes again!
That is so fascinating about the sound eagles make. I have not, to my knowledge anyway, heard a bald eagle. However, we have a red tailed hawk that is resident in my backyard and I regularly hear his screech. My kids and I have definitely commented in the past that he sounds like an eagle. Well, turns out we’ve been duped by Hollywood!
I am pretty sure that is not the only way that Hollywood has duped us. I guess it is good sometimes, though, to challenge our ideas on how someone/something “should” act based on his/her/its appearance.
Oh I have absolutely fallen into movie-making traps before and I am certain I will again. Once I have peace and quiet, I will need to google and listen to an actual bald eagle cry.
There is a link in my blog to a short NPR report that has both the hawk and the eagle. 🙂
Thanks!
It might be fun to build a conversation around this, Mike. I fear the male will be come up
on the short end of that.
I agree with you there, Dan. I suspect she is complaining to him about not gathering enough materials so she can renovate the nest. 🙂
He’s probably yelling at the delivery driver from Nest Depot.
Michael,
On multiple occasions over several years I’ve heard a pair of eagles talking to each other in the form of gutteral almost growls. At first it seemed to be a sick crow sound, then I realized it was the eagles having a conversation. I’ve never seen this kind of sound mentioned as eagle sounds. Surely I (and my wife) aren’t the only people to have heard these sounds. Have you ever encountered this?
Thank you,
Bill Wade
I have never been close enough to hear sounds like that, though that doesn’t mean it wasn’t happening.