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Vox

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If you’ve seen any remotely creepy movie, you’ve heard a loon wail: that mournful, nearly human ooo-ooo-oooo. It pops up whenever a movie needs to convey melancholy or trepidation, often accompanied by a full moon or some fog. But for the most part, loons have no business being in the background of those scenes.

With the help of some internet birders, we took a deep dive (pun intended) into the world of loons to explain how Hollywood misuses this bird call — and why the wail is so haunting in the first place.

To learn more about loons and what you can do to help protect them check out the Loon Preservation Committee (https://loon.org/) and the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation (https://www.adkloon.org/).