Wak-wak
Also known as: Wakwak · Night bird of prey (folk description) · Bird form of the aswang (overlapping usage)
Definition
The wak-wak is a vampiric creature of Visayan and Mindanao folklore, usually imagined as a woman who transforms into a bird-like being at night and announces herself with a distinctive “wak-wak” cry. It is said to prey on the sick, the dying, and unborn infants, feeding on blood and viscera. Uniquely, its cry sounds loud when it is far away and faint when it is dangerously near.
Identities
| Database | Identifier |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | Wak-wak |
| Wikidata | Q7961228 |
| DBpedia | N/A |
Also Known As
- Wakwak
- Night bird of prey (folk description)
- Bird form of the aswang (overlapping usage)
Examples and Analogies
The wak-wak is the winged cousin of the manananggal, sharing night flight and hunger for human prey, but distinguished by its avian form and telltale call. Its inverted-volume cry is a signature device like the banshee’s wail signaling death, but flipped to confuse victims about distance. In some tellings it is the pet or transformed shape of an aswang, paralleling how the sigbin serves its keeper.
Usage Scenarios
Village tradition uses the wak-wak to explain night birdsong heard near sickrooms and to enforce vigilance over the ill and pregnant. The creature appears regularly in horror films, anthologies, and mythology compendia, often paired with aswang and manananggal. Regional storytellers perform the cry to delighted fright in children’s folklore sessions.
Strategies
Protective folk measures include salt scattered on rooftops, garlic hung at windows, sharp metal instruments such as scissors left open near the bed, and prayer through the night. Families sit with the sick in shifts so no vulnerable person is left unguarded. After an suspected wak-wak cry, neighbors cooperate to locate and repel the creature’s roost.
Security and Safety Measures
Night cries attributed to wak-wak are produced by actual nocturnal birds and bats, so householders are advised to secure roofs and windows against intruders and animals rather than panic. Care of the seriously ill should continue with proper medical attention despite supernatural framing. Community reactions should avoid targeting individuals suspected as the creature’s human form.
Historical Context
Spanish-era chronicles and later ethnographies of the Visayas recorded night-flying, flesh-eating beings among native beliefs, which the wak-wak elaborates. The inverted-distance cry motif appears in shared Austronesian vampire-bird lore across island Southeast Asia. Cinema and komiks in the late twentieth century fixed the wak-wak’s image in national pop horror.
Challenges and Controversies
Folklorists debate whether wak-wak, ek-ek, and manananggal bird-forms are distinct beings or regional names converging on one myth. Ornithological explanations, such as nightjars and owls, account for many heard cries. As with other aswang-adjacent beliefs, accusations against suspected persons have historically caused social harm.
Related Topic
Manananggal