The Amazon's White Bellbirds Shatter Record For World's Loudest Bird "Song"
"Most male birds try to attract mates with elegant gestures. Seabirds bob their heads and flutter their wings, while peacocks fan out their beautiful feathers. However, the white bellbird, endemic to the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, dispenses with the pleasantries and cut to the chase by shrieking in its prospective "date's" face at a deafening 125 decibels (Db)— the loudest bird call ever recorded. To put it in perspective, that is 40 Db higher than the safe hearing range for humans! Prior to this, the honor belonged to another Amazon-dweller — the aptly-named screaming piha — which has a peak recorded "song" volume of 116 Db.
Mario Cohn-Haft, one of the study’s authors, first became familiar with the loud birds through his expeditions in the mountains of the Brazilian Amazon. “We could hear them all over the place, they’re kind of the soundtrack of these forests,” says the ornithologist at Brazil's National Institute of Amazonian Research. “They give out these loud ringing sounds that sound like someone banging on metal, like a blacksmith.”
To find out how loud the bird actually was, he and Jeff Podos from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, trekked to the mountains of the Amazon rainforests in northern Brazil in December 2018 and then again in February 2019. What they discovered was fascinating.
The pigeon-sized white bellbirds begin their courtship with a slightly gentler shriek that averages about 116 Db. Upon attracting their potential mate's attention, they ramp up their effort with the deafening 125 Db "song." What was bizarre was that the male began by singing its first note with its back to the female and then turned suddenly. "It's really dramatic. You see this bird spinning around, and he's got his beak wide open," Podos said. "And he blasts the second note right in the place female would have been had she not been smart enough to back off."
Please Note: The above information comes directly from their website. Click here to read more.
"Most male birds try to attract mates with elegant gestures. Seabirds bob their heads and flutter their wings, while peacocks fan out their beautiful feathers. However, the white bellbird, endemic to the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, dispenses with the pleasantries and cut to the chase by shrieking in its prospective "date's" face at a deafening 125 decibels (Db)— the loudest bird call ever recorded. To put it in perspective, that is 40 Db higher than the safe hearing range for humans! Prior to this, the honor belonged to another Amazon-dweller — the aptly-named screaming piha — which has a peak recorded "song" volume of 116 Db.
Mario Cohn-Haft, one of the study’s authors, first became familiar with the loud birds through his expeditions in the mountains of the Brazilian Amazon. “We could hear them all over the place, they’re kind of the soundtrack of these forests,” says the ornithologist at Brazil's National Institute of Amazonian Research. “They give out these loud ringing sounds that sound like someone banging on metal, like a blacksmith.”
To find out how loud the bird actually was, he and Jeff Podos from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, trekked to the mountains of the Amazon rainforests in northern Brazil in December 2018 and then again in February 2019. What they discovered was fascinating.
The pigeon-sized white bellbirds begin their courtship with a slightly gentler shriek that averages about 116 Db. Upon attracting their potential mate's attention, they ramp up their effort with the deafening 125 Db "song." What was bizarre was that the male began by singing its first note with its back to the female and then turned suddenly. "It's really dramatic. You see this bird spinning around, and he's got his beak wide open," Podos said. "And he blasts the second note right in the place female would have been had she not been smart enough to back off."
Please Note: The above information comes directly from their website. Click here to read more.
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