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Ornithological Sleuths Expose an Extremely Specific Nosferatu Anachronism

Nothing gets past the artist formerly known as film Twitter. The home of the internet’s most detail-oriented and discourse-fueled movie nerds recently uncovered a loony, anachronistic bird call in Robert Eggers’ Oscar-nominated film Nosferatu.

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The notion that a blink-and-you-miss-it North American bird call appeared in the German-set Nosferatu was first posited by X user Yuribeast in response to a post pointing out the use of anachronistic designer furniture in The Brutalist. Yuribeast followed up their assertion with a clip pinpointing the bird call in question, one from the serendipitously named Common Loon. However, Yuribeast soon learned that they were far from the sole occupant of the central sliver of the cinephile/armchair ornithologist Venn Diagram when fellow bird nerds flocked to the comments with yet another pedantic clarification.

Unlike the post about The Brutalist‘s designer furniture faux pas that kicked off this discussion, the appearance of a nonregional bird in Nosferatu would technically constitute an anatopism as opposed to an anachronism. However, a correction from fellow bird enthusiasts helped set seasonal anachronistic boundaries on the bird call. While Common Loons are predominately regional to North America, many of Yuribeast’s commenters pointed out that the bird can likewise be found in Germany, where Nosferatu is set. The bird is more often referred to as a Great Northern Diver in Europe, but, according to Yuribeast, this distinction actually transforms the bird’s brief presence in the film from an anatopism into an anachronism. “Winter is still the wrong season for [Great Northern Diver’s] to be doing breeding calls so being annoyingly pedantic wins again,” Yuribeast triumphed.

Despite not going by the name Common Loon in Europe, folks on X still had a great deal of fun with the bird’s North American moniker. As Nosferatu explores the depths of Lily Rose-Depp’s Ellen Hutter supernatural affliction and perceived madness, the Common Loon made for an easy joke about the frequently-convulsing object of Nosferatu’s twisted affection.

Yuribeast was far from the only X user to push up their glasses and flex their hyper-specific expertise in response to Zoë’s original post about The Brutalist. From Marty McFly’s anachronistic guitar in Back to the Future to John Wick pumping his own gas in New Jersey, movie nerds had a heyday airing the minor (and sometimes major) film inaccuracies that have stuck in their craws over the years.


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Tara McCauley
Contributing Writer
Nerd at large, Tara McCauley's happiest playing or writing about tabletop role playing games. Tara joined The Escapist in October 2023 as a freelance contributor. She covers such TV shows as Fargo and games/fandoms like Dungeons & Dragons. In addition to The Escapist, Tara has gushed about her favorite pop culture topics at CBR, MXDWN, and Monstrous Femme. When she's not writing or rolling dice, Tara can be found catching up on her favorite sitcoms, curled up with a horror comic, or waxing poetic about the WNBA.