How did that bird get there?

A list of impossible birds that can be seen or heard in the wrong place in Movies and TV shows. Also, birds that are mis-identified in films, or that are uttering the wrong bird's voice.
The person responsible for the wrong voices is identified in the credits as the Foley Editor.
An interesting assortment of Movie Goofs of all types can be found [HERE]. Enter a movie title in the search box, and scroll down to "Goofs".

(Please [SUBMIT] any additions or corrections for future inclusion in this list)


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    There are several ubiquitous offenders, which appear out of range and/or habitat in films that are too numerous to mention:
  • Common Loons A virtual certainty that any Louisiana bayou will be infested with Common Loons, which never vocalize during a season when they occur in the southern US. Other examples: Key West in "Crisscross", Panama in "Sniper".
  • Red-tailed Hawk is heard screeching in virtually every outdoor scene in the western US. It's a Bald Eagle in Homeward Bound, and it's in England in Ladyhawk, just to name a few.
  • Cactus Wren Everyone in Hollywood is familiar with the rattly chuckle of the Cactus Wren, a bird of the southwestern desert. Foley editors do not realize that they are unknown in Illinois corn-fields, where they can be heard in Chevy pick-up commercials. Other movie examples: Maine, in Shawshank Redemption.
  • Eastern Screech Owl never occurs west of the Rockies, and in the Spielberg film, the bird was as unlikely in California as E.T. himself. This owl can be heard in many films for inappropriate night-time effects.
  • Gulls do not normally occur on remote islands. So any true Gull would be out of place in, say, Hawaii.
    Gulls are restricted to continental land-masses and offshore islands.


    Some specific movies that were ornithologically challenged:

  • Alien vs. Predator Antarctic scenes show Humboldt Penguins, a temperate species that never wanders south of the 42nd parallel.
  • Apocalypto The Cattle Egret makes an apperance in the Mayan empire, some 400 years before its actual range expansion from Africa to the Americas.
  • Arthur and the Square Knights of the Round Table features a knight with a Harris' Hawk. How this Texas bird got to the filming location in Australia is anybody's guess, but impossible in Arthur's England.
  • The Birds II: Land's End A common Starling is identified by an 'expert' as a Black-naped Tern.
  • Blind Fury features a GI slogging through the Vietnam jungle with a Red-bellied Woodpecker in the background.
  • Blood Diamond . Among the oddities in Sierra Leone are Cactus Wren, Downy Woodpecker, Black-throated Green Warbler and Bobwhite.
  • Braveheart Audible American Wood Thrush, before America was discovered.
  • Caracara The title bird is a Harris' Hawk.
  • Carousel This old musical was one of the first offenders, adding in the sound track of a Mockingbird in the Maine setting.
  • Charlie's Angels (the movie) An animatronic hybrid in Bill Murray's cell is heard on the phone by Cameron Diaz, who identifies it as a Pygmy Nuthatch and concludes that he must be in California, the only place that species occurs. This species utters a variety of pips and chips in a group chorus, that would be difficult to identify without a habitat context, and not loud enough to be picked up in telephone background. Further, the Pygmy Nuthatch is equally common in Arizona, and occurs in any montane pine stands from Mexico City to Vancouver. Viewers have found 38 other hilarious [GOOFS] in this amazing film.
  • Cold Mountain Filmed in Romania (not Appalachia), features Hooded Crows and other European birds.
  • Color of Paradise. This Iranian film features an American Wood Thrush,very loud, in the final scene on a Persian beach.
  • Dances with Wolves Virtually all birds are old-world species, including Ringed Turtle Doves flushing out of an old fort. Also, a Canada Goose sound track accompanies a shot of Sandhill Cranes flying.
  • Ethan Frome In a mid-winter scene in Maine, a summer migrant Vireo can be heard, probably a Red-eyed.
  • Ever After A North American Alder Flycatcher can be heard during lunch wih the Queen of France.
  • Finding Forrester A nice close-up of a Yellow Warbler is called a Connecticut Warbler.
  • Gettysburg House Sparrows can be heard. They are normal at the filming location now, but the battle of Gettysburg pre-dated the arrival of that introduced species to the location.
  • Ghandi The Koel is commonly heard in much of India, but shouldn't have been in the South Africa scenes.
  • Girl with a Pearl Earring Vocalizing migrant Swallows in mid-winter.
  • Godfather A scene in Italy, where a North American Towhee can be heard singing.
  • Ghose and the Darkness Barred Owl, Boreal Owl and Common Nighthawk make an African appearance.
  • Gothika The audio man thought a startled Owl needed wingflap sounds, defeating evolution.
  • Great Gatsby The story took place before the depicted western House Finch had been introduced to New York.
  • Green Mansions Takes place in South America, but there is an African Crowned Crane in one scene.
  • Jungle Book Set in Southeast Asia, where Mexican Paurauque can be heard.
  • Jurassic Park. On an island off Costa Rica, the call of the Amazonian Screaming Piha can be heard.
  • Karate Kid III The girl in Massachusetts nursed an injured Harris' Hawk far from it's Texas range.
  • Kinsey Through binoculars in Centrel Park, NYC, the young Kinsey views a South American species--can someone identify it?
  • Love and Death on Long Island A Eurasian Collared Dove can be heard while John Hurt is walking down the street in a Long Island town.
  • Mary Poppins Mary is proud to show off her London nest of Robins: American Robins!
  • M*A*S*H (TV episode) California Quail can be heard during the Korean War. The movie was filmed at Malibu State Park, California.
  • Milagro Beanfield War The audible Barred Owl is nearly 1,000 miles out of range in New Mexico.
  • Milk Money Set in suburban Pittsburgh, a flushed bird is called a Glossy Ibis which occurs only in coastal backwaters.
  • Murder She Wrote (TV episode) On a trip to Ireland, there must have been a California Quail stowaway.
  • Northern Exposure (TV episode) Birdwatchers see a Black-capped Chickadee, and report success in their quest for a Grey-headed Chickadee, which they are afraid (on TV) to call by its then-current name, Siberian Tit.
  • On Golden Pond In Maine, the voice of a Chuck-Will's-Widow , a southern cousin to the Whip-poor-will.
  • Parent Trap (Remake) Fiancee on the California lake seems to have found an African Turaco out there.
  • Pearl Harbor A Western Scrub Jay can be heard at the golf course in Oahu.
  • Pollock Wood Thrush vocalizing as if it were breeding, although the trees are already bare for winter.
  • Proximity. Not a bird, but how about the guy doing surveillance from his car, looking through the wrong end of his binoculars?
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark The South American setting features the voices of Willow Ptarmigan (American Arctic), Kookaburra (Australia) and Capercaille (Europe).
  • Raising Arizona somehow also raises a Mourning Warbler in the southwestern desert.
  • Robin Hood in Tights The Bluebird portrayed in Sherwood Forest was actually a Wesern Scrub Jay.
  • Romancing the Stone Jack says he traps Parrots and Cockatoos in Colombia, but the latter occurs only in Australian region.
  • Squirm (MST-3K) Various non-North American vocalizations in Georgia. Also, a stock-footage shot of a bird in a nest feeding young, clearly not an American species. Looks like a Bell's Vireo with a longish black bill, possibly a female Asian Iora or White-eye.
  • Sugarland Express Greater Kiskadee can be heard somewhere not far west of Houston, Texas.
  • Survivor (TV episode) On an Asian island, the voice of a tropical American Oropendola can be heard.
  • Thin Red Line Australian Rainbow Lorikeets on Guadalcanal.
  • Swamp Thing, presumably taking place in a southern American swamp (filmed in South Carolina), features the voices of Yellow-headed Blackbird, Canyon Wren, Cactus Wren, and the voice of a Buteo coming from two flushed Egrets.
  • Thirteenth Warrior This Norwegian story, filmed in British Columbia, complete with chestnut-backed Chickadee, Hermit Thrush and Varied Thrush.
  • U-Turn The depicted Vultures are not a North American species.
  • Vertical Limit Still another Red-tailed Hawk in the soundtrack, this time associated with a very fake Golden Eagle.
  • A Very Long Engagement An Albatross figures in the central theme, but they keep showing a Gannett.
      TV Commercials:
    • Maxwell House Coffee commercial featured birdwatchers who needed a coffee-break after the excitement of seeing a Red-wing Blackbird, which was re-edited and changed to a Great Horned Owl.
    • Planters Peanuts commercial showed an Acorn Woodpecker which a man in the cabin called "Drycopus pileatus"...or Pileated Woodpecker
    • Windex commercial featured an interaction between the window of a very American-looking house and a Pied Crow, a bird of Africa.

      (DISCLAIMER: Many of these are based on reports by contributors, and I have not personally confirmed all of them.)

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