The first season of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier may have brought Marvel Comics staples like Madripoor and U.S. Agent into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but there are still some key aspects of its heroes that are still only in comics. One of the most jarring omissions pertains to Sam Wilson's one true superpower, which made much of the Marvel Universe consider him to be a mutant, for a time.
Unlike the Redwing of the Disney+ series, the comic book Redwing is a literal bird who is also Sam Wilson's avian sidekick. The Falcon and his falcon share a deep connection with one another, which at one point was even suggested to be a literal mental link by none other than Professor Xavier himself. While it might sound like something that could have easily been explained away otherwise, the idea that Sam Wilson and Redwing's thoughts could be directly connected was expanded upon for several years.
In 1983's Falcon #2 by Jim Owsley and Mark Bright, Sam Wilson was identified as a mutant and subsequently attacked by a Sentinel. When Sam wasn't able to take the giant killer robot out on his own, he reached out to Redwing through their telepathic link, and together they formulated a plan to defeat their mechanical assailant.
But as CBR's Brian Cronin noted in 2011, there was already good reason to believe that Sam wasn't actually a part of mutantkind.
Prior to his encounter with the Sentinel, Sam Wilson's origin was revealed to have started with the Red Skull. In 1975's Captain America #186, by Steve Englehart, John Warner and Frank Robbins, Cap's longtime nemesis reveal his hand in turning Sam Wilson from a lowly criminal into the hero he is today by way of the Cosmic Cube. Apparently, this is also where Sam acquired his avian telepathy, which would eventually be expanded far beyond just Redwing to all birds.
The idea of Falcon being a mutant was explicitly denied by Marvel in a story in the Avengers' 2001 Annual, by Kurt Busiek and Ian Churchill.
During the events of 2015's All-New Captain America Special #1 by Jeff Loveness and Alec Morgan, Sam used his abilities to communicate with the Inhuman Bird People, who were then in conflict with the Inhumans of New Attilan. To protect his own people during Thanos' invasion of our world, Black Bolt had unleashed a Terrigen bomb which eventually reached Aerie, the home of the Bird People. Once exposed, the Bird People suffered monstrous transformations, and Sam's mental connection to them was the only thing that prevented an all-out massacre. Not long after this, Sam's powers were confirmed to extend to all birds when he called in all the help he could get in the fight against Hydra alongside Nomad.
With such a convoluted origin, and such a specific ability, it's hard to imagine this part of Sam Wilson's character will ever become a part of the MCU beyond the drone version of Redwing that he has now. If the MCU has proven nothing else, it's that Sam Wilson doesn't need superpowers to be a superhero, and he's had no problem wielding Captain America's shield without them