balar

To bleat — the sound a sheep or goat makes: la oveja bala en el corral. A simple, concrete animal-sound verb, part of the same family as ladrar (to bark), maullar (to meow), and mugir (to moo).

• Las ovejas balaban en el prado. — The sheep were bleating in the meadow.
• El cordero baló buscando a su madre. — The lamb bleated looking for its mother.
• Se oía balar a las cabras desde lejos. — You could hear the goats bleating from far away.

Specific to sheep and goats — using it for other animal sounds (a dog barking, a cow mooing) is a straightforward vocabulary mix-up learners make when they haven't yet learned the full set of animal-sound verbs.

Often confused with mugir.