What are the world’s loudest birds? Here are 2 contenders

The University of Massachusetts Amherst said the bare-throated bellbird and the red-legged seriema are both contenders for the world’s loudest birds. The bare-throated bellbird, which lives in the Amazon, has a call of around 131 decibels. The red-legged seriema, which lives in a wide swath of eastern South America, has a call of more than 120 decibels. For comparison, 120-130 decibels is equal to a jet plane taking off or a chainsaw. Video via UMass Amherst.

Love wildlife and the natural world? Get the latest animal stories — as well as space and night sky updates delivered to your inbox.

What are the world’s loudest birds?

While the loudest birds might seem like the ones outside your window at sunrise, the University of Massachusetts Amherst shared two contenders for the world’s loudest birds. On September 29, 2026, researchers with UMass Amherst said two South American birds have calls that can rival a chainsaw.

The bare-throated bellbird, which lives in the Amazon, has a call of around 131 decibels. And the red-legged seriema, which lives in a wide swath of eastern South America, has a call of more than 120 decibels. For comparison, a chainsaw roars at about 120-130 decibels.

But the goal behind studying these noisy birds was not to find a world record holder. Instead, the researchers studied them because they were looking to see if physical traits could predict a bird’s loudness.

Plus, they wanted to know if a bird’s loudness is related to its ecological niche and specific social organization.

The researchers published their peer-reviewed study in the journal Evolution on September 29, 2026.

How do you measure the volume of a bird?

To measure the volume of any bird, it’s best to do it in their natural habitat. So the researchers, João C.T. Menezes and Jeff Podos of UMass Amherst, set out to measure the sounds from birds in their own backyard along with birds in Brazil.

For tools, the researchers used golf rangefinders, which operate like a pair of binoculars with a laser that measures distance, plus portable sound meters. That’s because if you hear a loud bird, it also matters how close or far away from you the bird is.

Altogether, the pair measured 123 different bird species for their study. And amazingly, 113 of those species had never had their volume catalogued before. Podos said:

We’ve been able to vastly increase the number of species for which there is amplitude data. This is basic, foundational research that no one else has managed to do on this scale, and it points to all sorts of other questions that would be fun to follow up.

Listen to the call of the bare-throated bellbird. Video via UMass Amherst.

Why are some birds louder than others?

Overall, they found a huge range of volume among the different bird species. For example, one of the softest-voiced birds was the little hummingbird, with a song at a decibel level of 64. That’s about equal to human conversation.

And at the high end of the scale were the bare-throated bellbirds and red-legged seriemas, with songs that register 120+ decibels. So they are the world’s loudest birds.

Unsurprisingly, the smaller bird is quieter while the larger birds are louder. The researchers think big birds with bulky muscles might allow for greater air compression for explosive volume. They also have wider beak openings.

But so far, the data did not support obvious reasons for why loudness would have an ecological or evolutionary purpose. Menezes said:

We now know some of the hows. Bigger bodies and wider beaks, but we’ve yet to discover the whys, and we probably need much more data from many more species to be able to tease out what’s going on on the ecological and evolutionary front.

Now, the researchers are ready to go back out into the field to test some of their hypotheses. Podos said:

You can’t do this kind of work in the lab, or by scraping data from the internet. You have to get out into the world, you have to pay careful attention to what you’re seeing and hearing, and anything you do in the field that forces you to observe more carefully is really fun.

It takes you back to the roots of why we do science in the first place.

Bottom line: Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst said the bare-throated bellbird and red-legged seriema are two contenders for world’s loudest birds.

Source: Evolutionary drivers of vocal amplitude in birds

Via UMass Amherst

Read more: Do birds have accents? Regional differences in birdsong

Read more: Will fall migration 2026 bring a billion bird night?