AMAZONAS, Peru — Scientists have found the world's loudest bird, and its screech is enough to damage the hearing of the female mate he's trying to seduce.
The white bellbird, native to the Amazonian mountains, has a squawk that can reach up to 125.4 decibels, according to CNET.
According to the CDC, a car horn at 16 feet and sporting events like football games can reach up to 100 decibels. Rock concerts can get up to 105-110 decibels and firecrackers and gunshots can get 140-150 decibels.
In findings published Monday, scientists Jeffrey Podos and Mario Cohn-Haft went into South American forests to record what this bellbird sounds like. The two also found that when a female bellbird gets close enough to a male looking for a mate, the male will sing his loudest yet, "blasting its final note directly at the female."
The study says the female bellbird has to take a couple of steps back to avoid ear damage from the male's deafening shriek.
The bird that held the previous record, the screaming piha, had a screech around 116 decibels. The bellbird is even louder than howler monkeys, which are known for their throaty, bellowing call.
Video provided to the New York Times shows a male bellbird showing off two different types of songs. The first sounds like a piercing siren. The second sort of sounds like a synthesizer turned up really loud.
While the first song is longer and more elaborate, Podos said in the findings that the second is short, intense and "at its peak, the amplitude of a pile driver" around 125 decibels.
Cohn-Haft calls the birds "the soundtrack of the mountain" and "you can hear them from a mile away." The Brazil Birding Experts say the call is "strange, metallic, kind of alien."
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