Scientists identify two of the world’s noisiest birds – and they’re as loud as a jackhammer

There are two new contenders for the world’s loudest bird – and scientists are not being quiet about it.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that the bare-throated bellbird and the red-legged seriema both create songs at amplitudes above 120 decibels, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Evolution .

“The nearest comparison in everyday sounds would be a jackhammer,” study co-author and evolutionary biologist João C.T. Menezes told CNN. He conducted the research as part of his PhD, along with his former teacher, biology professor Jeff Podos.

The egregious noise of the two birds competes with that of the white bellbird , which was found in 2019 to screech at volumes of up to 125 decibels and was crowned by Guinness World Records as having the loudest bird call.

Since the bare-throated bellbird is a close relative of the white bellbird, the researchers “had a hunch” the species would be high in the ranking.

Its shout was recorded at 122.4 decibels when measured from a standardized distance of 1 meter (3.3 feet), averaged over a 20 millisecond time block – a sound pressure that is 800 times that of the quietest species they recorded, the dusky-throated hermit, a species of hummingbird, which has a call of 64.1 decibels, according to the study.

Which of the loudmouths actually takes the title of “world’s loudest bird”? It depends on the criteria you chose.

For example, it was a bare-throated bellbird that achieved the loudest call out of all individual birds, with a call reaching a peak volume of almost 131 decibels across 1 meter.

However, if you average the noisiest calls made by all the birds studied, over a 20 millisecond time block, then the red-legged seriema is the loudest at almost 121 decibels among two birds. But then, if you take the average of the peak volume that the calls of the birds reached at any given moment, the white bellbird comes out on top, measuring 127 decibels across six birds.

The world’s loudest bird “depends on how one defines ‘loud,’ underscoring the difficulties in measuring loudness,” evolutionary biologist Catherine Sheard, an interdisciplinary fellow at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland who was not involved in the study, told CNN.

The loud calls were identified after researchers measured the vocalizations of 123 bird species in Massachusetts and Brazil between December 2018 and January 2025. The calls of 113 of those species had never been recorded before, according to a statement from the university.

Recordings of the volume of birds’ calls has been limited due to operational challenges in the field. For example, researchers need to know how far away a bird is when making a call because distance affects how loud the call sounds. Yet, you might hear a bird but not see it, and then when you see it , the bird flies away or “stops singing altogether out of shyness,” Menezes said.

However, the authors of this study were aided by using laser range finders, which are tools golfers use to find how far the hole is, Menezes added, enabling them to measure the volume of the birds’ songs and the distance at the same time.

After correcting for background noise and distance, the researchers could compare the sound readings and compare them in relation to data on different birds’ body sizes and open beak widths.

They found that larger species and species with broader mouth openings tended to sing louder.

The researchers think this is because “bigger birds have bulkier muscles, which are capable of creating greater internal pressures, which ultimately generate louder sounds,” Menezes said, “and then broader mouths allow more energy to radiate into the environment.”

Yet, some birds can sing louder than animals much bigger than them, such as elephants, lions or bison, which indicates another mechanism is at play that allows birds to be loud that is yet to be discovered, the researchers noted.

Courtesy of Dr. Randler

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They were also not able to conclusively say what environmental and evolutionary factors have led some birds to shout more loudly than others.

For example, bellbirds live in forests and are polyamorous, so the researchers predicted they would make louder calls to communicate across dense woodland that obstructs their view and mate with as many birds as possible, Menezes said. However, loud red-legged seriemas are “strictly monogamous” and typically live in open habitats, so do not have the same reasons for being loud, Menezes added.

Despite recording the amplitude of many birds’ calls, “it’s such a tiny fraction still,” Menezes said, adding that “there’s so much to answer yet.”

“It doesn’t surprise me that even a relatively modest survey of volume has newly identified some very loud birds,” Sheard said. “As fieldworkers continue to collect more data on avian sound, I would predict that even more ‘loudest’ birds will be identified in the future.”

世界上叫声最大的鸟类又有了两个新的竞争者——科学家们对此也颇有微词。

马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校的研究人员发现，裸喉钟鸟和红腿叫鹤的鸣叫声振幅均超过 120 分贝。该研究于周二发表在《进化》杂志上。

“日常生活中最接近的声音大概就是电钻了，”该研究的合著者、进化生物学家若昂·CT·梅内塞斯告诉CNN。这项研究是他攻读博士学位期间与他的前任导师、生物学教授杰夫·波多斯共同完成的。

这两只鸟的叫声极其刺耳，与白钟鸟的叫声不相上下。2019 年，人们发现白钟鸟的叫声高达 125 分贝，并被吉尼斯世界纪录认证为叫声最大的鸟类。

由于裸喉钟鸟与白钟鸟是近亲，研究人员“预感”该物种的排名会很高。

研究表明，从 1 米（3.3 英尺）的标准距离测量，在 20 毫秒的时间段内平均，这种蜂鸟的叫声记录为 122.4 分贝——这一声压是他们记录到的最安静的蜂鸟物种——暗喉隐蜂鸟（一种蜂鸟）——的 800 倍，暗喉隐蜂鸟的叫声为 64.1 分贝。

这些聒噪的鸟儿中，哪一只才是真正的“世界最吵鸟”？这取决于你选择的评判标准。

例如，在所有鸟类中，裸喉钟鸟的叫声最大，其叫声在 1 米范围内达到了近 131 分贝的峰值音量。

然而，如果取所有研究鸟类在20毫秒时间段内最响亮的叫声的平均值，那么红腿叫鹤（两只鸟）的叫声最大，接近121分贝。但是，如果取鸟类在任何给定时刻叫声峰值的平均值，白钟鸟则位居榜首，六只鸟的平均值为127分贝。

世界上叫声最大的鸟“取决于人们如何定义‘响亮’，这凸显了测量响度的困难，”苏格兰阿伯丁大学的跨学科研究员、进化生物学家凯瑟琳·谢尔德（Catherine Sheard）告诉 CNN，她并未参与这项研究。

研究人员在 2018 年 12 月至 2025 年 1 月期间，对马萨诸塞州和巴西的 123 种鸟类的鸣叫声进行了测量，从而确定了这些响亮的叫声。据该大学的一份声明称，其中 113 种鸟类的叫声以前从未被记录过。

由于野外作业的种种挑战，对鸟鸣音量的记录一直受到限制。例如，研究人员需要知道鸟鸣时的距离，因为距离会影响鸣叫的音量。然而，你可能听到鸟鸣却看不到它，等你看到它时，它却飞走了，或者“因为害羞而完全停止鸣叫”，梅内塞斯说道。

梅内塞斯补充说，这项研究的作者借助了激光测距仪，这种工具是高尔夫球手用来测量球洞距离的工具，使他们能够同时测量鸟鸣声的大小和距离。

在校正了背景噪音和距离之后，研究人员可以比较声音读数，并将其与不同鸟类的体型和张开的喙的宽度数据进行比较。

他们发现体型较大的物种和嘴巴张开较大的物种往往鸣叫声更大。

研究人员认为这是因为“体型较大的鸟类肌肉更发达，能够产生更大的内部压力，最终产生更大的声音，”梅内塞斯说，“然后，更宽的嘴巴可以让更多的能量辐射到环境中。”

然而，研究人员指出，有些鸟类的鸣叫声比比它们体型大得多的动物（如大象、狮子或野牛）还要响亮，这表明还有另一种机制在起作用，使鸟类能够发出响亮的声音，而这种机制尚未被发现。

承蒙兰德勒博士惠允

哪种鸟的鸣叫声最悦耳动听？一项新研究给出了答案。

他们也无法最终确定哪些环境和进化因素导致一些鸟类的叫声比其他鸟类更大。

例如，钟鸟生活在森林中，实行多配偶制，因此研究人员预测，它们会发出更响亮的叫声，以便在视线受阻的茂密林地中进行交流，并尽可能多地与鸟类交配，梅内塞斯说。然而，红腿叫鹤是“严格的一夫一妻制”，通常生活在开阔的栖息地，因此它们发出响亮叫声的原因与钟鸟不同，梅内塞斯补充道。

尽管记录了许多鸟类鸣叫的振幅，但梅内塞斯说，“这仍然只是很小的一部分”，他还补充说，“还有很多问题需要解答”。

“即使是规模相对较小的音量调查也能新发现一些叫声非常响亮的鸟类，这并不令我感到意外，”谢尔德说。“随着野外工作人员继续收集更多鸟类叫声数据，我预测未来会发现更多‘叫声最大’的鸟类。”