Hollywood Has Gone To The Birds

0:00This is Bird Noir. Some of Hollywood's most iconic beasts, a much of their signature sound to the squawks, tweets, and even hisses of birds. Take Stephen Spielberg's 1993 classic. To Jurassic Park. To create these mournful calls from the Barakiosaurus, sound designer Gary Rydstrom slowed down the hunks of geese. What about the velociraptors unnerving hisses?

1:00Well that is an angry goose. In Jurassic World, Gen 2 and Emperor Penguins also contributed to the raptors' vocals, giving it that playful, chittery sound. In the Prisoner of Azkaban, the Hippogriff's scream is actually a limpkin, whose high-pitched call earned it the nickname the crying bird, or in the sci-fi film Arrival. To create the language of the aliens, New Zealand-based sound designers David Whitehead and Michelle Child recorded local birds and lowered their pitch, then added some other animals and instruments like bagpipes and digery doos. Ironically, Alfred Hitchcock didn't use any birds for the soundscape of his classic

2:02horror film, The Birds. Instead, the sound of those murderous seagulls was made using an early synthesizer called the Trautonium. Hitchcock claimed couldn't find any real birds that sounded spooky enough, but that's all he would for you. For Bird Note, I'm Mark Broom-Hell. Bird Note needs your help to crown the winners of our 2026 photo contest. Visit birdnote.org to explore the stunning images from our top 20 finalists in the General Bird Photography category, and cast your vote for your favorite through Friday, April 12. Bird. Your vote helps decide the winner. Head to birdnote.org now.