It is, writes Forrest Wickman at Slate, tongue planted in cheek, "one of the greatest mysteries of recent cinema." Make that "was," because Wickman has cracked the case of a strange bird goof in the first Charlie's Angels movie. Wickman is a newly converted birder, which is why the scene "haunted" him, he writes. As the Angels are talking to Bosley via radio transmitter and trying to figure out where he is being held, a bird at his cell window begins to sing. "A pygmy nuthatch!" exclaims Cameron Diaz's character. "They only live in one place: Carmel!" All ends well. Except, everything about the scene is wrong: The bird shown isn't a pygmy nuthatch, it's a Venezuelan troupial; pygmy nuthatches do not live only in Carmel, California; and the song isn't that of a nuthatch—"It's an unknown third bird whose identity has, until now, befuddled birders for years."
Wickman investigates, talking to screenwriters and even the director, and he now has all the answers. We'd recommend reading the original piece, but a quick recap follows: It turns out the original script called for an i'iwi to sing, a bird that lives only in Hawaii. That would have worked for plot purposes, but as the movie progressed, the setting had to change from Hawaii to California. The best guess is that somebody, a bird novice, then pitched "pygmy nuthatch" because it sounds funny, and it stuck. But animal-protection rules make it all but impossible to use an indigenous American bird in a movie, so the handler settled for the foreign troupial. Finally, the actual song of a pygmy nuthatch is not as distinct as was needed. In a nifty bit of sleuthing, Wickman uncovers the actual recording that was used in the film: It's a thick-billed fox sparrow. (Read the full piece.)
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