The mating call of the Brazilian white bellbird (Procnias albus) is the world’s loudest. Averaging at 125.4 decibels, it is beyond the level (85 db) considered safe for human ears. The birds have unusually thick and developed abdominal muscles and ribs, which researchers say is important in producing mating calls of such volume. While singing the males swivel dramatically so as to blast the song’s final note directly at the females. Researchers are wondering why the females willingly stay close to the males as they sing loudly. They think that the females are trying to assess the males up close, though at the risk of damage to their hearing systems.
Biologist Jeff Podos at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Mario Cohn-Haft of Brazil’s Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia described the record-breaking finding in a paper published in the journal Current Biology.
The researchers wrote that its calls are so loud, they wondered how white bellbird females listen at close range without damaging their hearing.
The feat is all the more impressive given the species’ size: they’re about as big as doves, weighing about a quarter of a kilogram.
The males are distinguished by a fleshy black wattle adorned with white specks that falls from the beak, while the females are green with dark streaks and wattle-less.
Picture Credit : Google
