diff --git a/Doc/library/email.header.rst b/Doc/library/email.header.rst
index 65e2d0367fd7684..66e63560bb8dbb5 100644
--- a/Doc/library/email.header.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/email.header.rst
@@ -155,6 +155,19 @@ Here is the :class:`Header` class description:
       charset of ``'unknown-8bit'`` are decoded as ASCII using the ``'replace'``
       error handler.
 
+      This does not decode :rfc:`2047` encoded words that appear in the header
+      value itself. For example,
+      ``str(Header('=?utf-8?q?Caf=C3=A9?='))`` returns the string unchanged.
+      To decode a raw header string, use :func:`decode_header` and
+      :func:`make_header`::
+
+         >>> from email.header import decode_header, make_header
+         >>> str(make_header(decode_header('=?utf-8?q?Caf=C3=A9?=')))
+         'Café'
+
+      Alternatively, messages parsed with the :data:`email.policy.default`
+      policy decode their headers automatically.
+
       .. versionchanged:: 3.2
          Added handling for the ``'unknown-8bit'`` charset.
 
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2026-11-03-20-00-00.gh-issue-61707.Hd5rSt.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2026-11-03-20-00-00.gh-issue-61707.Hd5rSt.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000000..2dad88cc5a0c588
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Documentation/2026-11-03-20-00-00.gh-issue-61707.Hd5rSt.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Clarify that :meth:`email.header.Header.__str__` does not decode :rfc:`2047`
+encoded words, and point to :func:`email.header.decode_header` and
+:func:`email.header.make_header` for decoding raw header strings.