When it comes to avian noise-making, crested pigeons are the real party animal.

The crested pigeon, which looks like a NYC pigeon having a bad hair day (or sporting a really cool Mohawk) is Australia’s third-most-common bird. Its wings make a high-pitched whistling sound that is unmistakable, says Trevor Murray, a postdoctoral researcher who studies ecological neuroscience at Australian National University in Canberra.An individual bird’s wing-whistle is about twice as loud as the average songbird’s call—or 67.6 decibels at 5 meters away, in technical terms—but “if a large flock takes off at once, that can be quite deafening,” Murray says.
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