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The male bare-throated bellbird (*Procnias nudicollis*) is the latest contender for the title of the world’s loudest bird: a 2026 report says its mating call can exceed 130 decibels. The claim is striking, but it is not yet a confirmed like-for-like comparison with the white bellbird, whose 2019 call was measured at about 125 decibels. And “drown out a rock concert” is an analogy—not the result of a controlled contest between a bird and concert speakers.
Which bird is the loudest?
It depends on which measurement and study you mean. A report published by Science News in October 2026 describes the male bare-throated bellbird as a contender for the record, reporting that its mating call can top 130 decibels. The report attributes the finding to behavioral ecologists João Menezes and Jeff Podos and an anatomical analysis published in Evolution on September 29, 2026.
The earlier, widely cited record belongs to the white bellbird (Procnias albus). In a 2019 field study, Jeffrey Podos and Mario Cohn-Haft measured white bellbird mating songs in the Brazilian Amazon. Their paper reports that white bellbirds were more than 9 decibels louder than screaming pihas, corresponding to roughly triple the sound pressure level. The study is available through PubMed.
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What do the reported decibel figures mean?
Several figures are associated with the white bellbird, but they are not interchangeable descriptions of one measurement:
| Figure | What it describes |
|---|---|
| About 125 dB | The common summary of the white bellbird’s 2019 result. |
| 125 dB peak re 20 μPa at 1 m | The white bellbird figure given in a 2021 review’s table and discussion. The review is by Jakob García-Rutledge and Peter M. Narins in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution: “How Loud Can You Go?” |
| 125.4 dB (A-weighted) | The value listed by Guinness World Records for the white bellbird’s call. |
| More than 130 dB | The level Science News reported for the bare-throated bellbird in October 2026; the accessible report does not establish the exact metric or reference distance. |
Decibels describe sound pressure on a logarithmic scale; perceived loudness is a different concept. A sound-pressure figure alone does not tell you exactly how loud a call seems to a listener. Measurements can also differ by weighting standard, distance, recording context and whether a reported value is a peak. The 2021 review discusses why such differences make comparisons between animal vocalizations difficult.
Why does the bellbird call so loudly?
The call is part of courtship. In the 2019 white bellbird study, a male facing a female on the display perch sang only its louder song type and turned toward her. Podos and Cohn-Haft proposed that females may face a trade-off: sampling males at close range while also protecting their hearing. That is a proposed explanation, not evidence that the females were observed to suffer hearing damage.
There is no single established explanation for why bird species differ in call volume. In the 2026 Science News report, Menezes said, “We weren’t able to find an overarching pattern that applies to birds in general,” referring to possible explanations for variation in bird call volume.
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Could a bird really drown out a rock concert?
The phrase makes a memorable comparison, but it should not be read as a universal or controlled result. Concert sound levels vary with venue, distance from the speakers and measurement conditions. National Geographic’s 2019 coverage of the white bellbird compared its call to standing beside concert speakers, but that is an analogy, not evidence that a bellbird outperforms every concert at every listening position: “Listen: This could be the loudest bird on Earth.”
The new “over 130 dB” report makes the concert comparison vivid, but the missing measurement details prevent a precise comparison with the 2019 white bellbird figure—or with a concert sound level. A fair comparison needs the species, sound-level metric, reference distance, recording context and whether the figure is a peak or another measure.
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