About 6 months ago I started to notice just how often that damned red tailed hawk screech would play in movies and the more I heard it the more I realized that it's used in almost every single film out there. One series that really flogged it to death was The National Parks: America's Best Idea by Ken Burns. Now it's gotten to the point where it is so pervasive in any film featuring nature and such a cliche that I end up rolling my eyes every time I hear it.

The Wilhelm scream scream is funny because it's an inside joke. This damn hawk is just annoying. I was just watching Last of the Mohicans and as they pan across a British fort that has just had the you know what beat out of them you hear the hawk screech twice. How many birds would actually hang around an area with canons, guns and explosions going off for days on end?

Just had to get that one off my chest. I need to get out more. :) Any other sounds that are used so often that they are cliche as opposed to being effective?

Here's a funny compilation of the Wilhelm Scream.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbYsoEasio

Why not do a bit of a joke on it by having the bird screech twice, then a couple of shots fired. The viewer's mind can fill in the rest.

Andrew

Notable that you correctly identified the ubiquitous call being from a red tailed hawk. The typical shot of an eagle swooping down to scoop up a fish invariably uses the red tailed hawk call because the eagle call is just not very inspiring. Kind of an inside joke to those who know raptors but actually it's pretty misleading to show video of one bird with the call of another.

Rich

Does "The Colbert Report" use it as part of their open, or is that a 'new' eagle screech?

Donald looks like a falcon, but does he sound like one?

Hulu - Saturday Night Live: The Falconer: Vegas (http://www.hulu.com/watch/76441/saturday-night-live-the-falconer-vegas)