Bird of the Week: White Bellbird

There is a very, very specific reason we chose this bird.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling juuuuust a little off recently. I can’t quite put my finger on why. It’s probably not because of anything going on in the news, though!

Anyway, for today’s Bird of the Week, I was looking for a bird that might reflect my unsettled, grumpy mood—a mood I suspect many of you are feeling too. And boy, did I find one.

Meet the white bellbird.

Hector Bottai

You will, I’m sure, have noticed three things about this bird. One, it is white. Two, it has that whatever-it-is dangling off its face. And three, it appears to be screaming.

Hint: that last part is why we’re here. But first, some little factoids about the other stuff.

The white bellbird is indeed white, as the name suggests! Or the boys are, anyway. The female bellbirds are green. Is it a sign of the patriarchy that this bird is named after the color of only the male half of its population? Yes, it is. It is also a sign of the patriarchy that Cornell’s authoritative eBird site describes the gender differences thusly: “All-white male is unmistakable; mostly green female is best identified by chunky proportions and long, sloping head profile.” Hi, I’m an unmistakable white bellbird, please meet my chunky, slope-headed other half. Rude!

The white bellbird mostly lives in the mountains and forests of the Guiana Shield, an area stretching across multiple countries in northwestern South America that comprises one of the most important ecosystems in the world. Because its habitat is so remote, researchers don’t seem to know too much about it. Apparently it eats fruit?

That dangling thing is a particularly ostentatious version of the wattle that so many birds have. The World Wildlife Fund describes it as “a dark-gray, fleshy spike with small, white feathers,” which I love. When it’s trying to attract a mate, the wattle extends. No comment.

And here is where we get to the really good part, the reason why this bird is today’s Bird of the Week.

THE WHITE BELLBIRD IS THE LOUDEST BIRD IN THE WORLD.

Yes, I had to scream that sentence. And it’s true! In 2019, Current Biology published a study with the delightful title “Extremely loud mating songs at close range in white bellbirds.” The study found that the call of the white bellbird was three times louder than the call of the screaming piha, which had previously held the title of loudest bird. How loud are we talking about? Around 125 decibels—similar to the noise at a concert, and not too far off from the volume an airplane makes. Seriously. It’s so loud that it passes above the human pain threshold. And this is from a bird the size of a pigeon!

Let’s take a listen. And brace yourself.

Holy hell. It’s like the emergency sound on your phone, except a bird is doing it, and it’s louder. Let’s hear another one.

Unreal. But it’s real! How is that sound even happening? From the CBC:

[Researchers] found its chest to be five times thicker than most birds the same size, due to muscular development that may help produce the call.  In addition the shape of the beak in the open position is similar to the flared end of a trumpet, which is designed to help amplify the sound. 

Amazing. This bird is so loud that the scientists watching it were stunned that the female birds could stand to be anywhere near it. From a press release about the Current Biology study:

"While watching white bellbirds, we were lucky enough to see females join males on their display perches," said Jeff Podos of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. "In these cases, we saw that the males sing only their loudest songs. Not only that, they swivel dramatically during these songs, so as to blast the song's final note directly at the females."

"We would love to know why females willingly stay so close to males as they sing so loudly," he says. "Maybe they are trying to assess males up close, though at the risk of some damage to their hearing systems."

“I knew he was the one when he made me deaf.” What a world we live in.

By now, I hope you understand why the white bellbird is so appropriate for our current situation. I can’t think of any better response to the state of things than a record-breaking, bone-shattering, earth-quaking screech. In the call of the bellbird, we find ourselves.

A reminder: you can check out our complete Bird of the Week list here, and get in touch with your bird suggestions (angry or not) at hello@discourseblog.com.