Do human voices scare birds?

[Swather]

If you speak to a turkey and say, "Hey turkey!", it will bring him out of a strut [almost all the time].

If you or your designated shooter does not shoot after you speak to bring him out of a strut due to a gun problem or some other cock up, he is most likely to haul tail [in my experience]. 

[coyote1]

My phone stays off in the woods unless I am hurt and need help or taking a picture of a dead gobbler. 

Next time you have a bird within 15-20 yards ask him how he is doing, you will have your answer. I did this to a button buck last fall. He was 15 feet away, i got a very surprised wide eye look followed by a whitetail.

[ddturkeyhunter]

And once again part of all of this is what time of season it is and how much pressure this area has been hunted. More pressure more alert, to anything not natural.

[SinGin]

Fanning and rapping to turkeys is the newest and most effective method of killing wild turkeys.

But you needs to wear a full HECS outfit when you do it so the turkeys do not see the alpha and zeta rays of ultraviolence and toxic masculinity being emitted from your body.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26hjrwN_bg4

Turkey season can't get here soon enough

[Greg Massey]

I agree to disagree , yes in some ways voice's i'm sure can scare birds. But I've also seen birds coming into decoys that are fully committed with the fight or passion of love that you can just about do anything you want. Talking , making movement whatever .. How many birds have you shot with other gobblers in tow and after you make the shot and jump up those other birds are like trying to whip the flopping gobbler on the ground and you could of killed another one if legal or just had to run the other gobbler off... In a sense it's like the birds are in a trance or whatever you want to call it....

[Happy]

I once had a gobbler in full strut at 7 yards. I told him in a low voice he done messed up. He raised his head real quick. That was mistake #2.

[Spitten and drummen]

I wouldnt recommend trying this on a pressured public land gobbler. I dont think you will fare well.

[LaLongbeard]

I wouldnt recommend trying this on a pressured public land gobbler. I dont think you will fare well.

Right. I'm wondering were all these dumb turkeys are at. The ones I've found don't stand around listening to people talk.

[shaman]

Say me or a buddy have an important call to take while we are working a bird. If we are talking on the phone with a bird around will it spook him? I have heard it does not.

I have direct experience with this. About a decade ago, I went out on an afternoon hunt.  I had an extra day off work for some reason, but I remember there was a pending issue at our Cranston RI plant, and I told the guy to call me if he had trouble.  I'd just settled into a  setup, when he called. The ringer was turned down low, but while we were talking, a gobbler came in and busted me.  My guess is he was curious about the call and approached to check me out.

I really didn't mind that interruption.  It was the bargain I'd made to get out to hunt. However, the next instance was an unforced error on my part, and it came in the next hour.

I was working this narrow finger ridge.  The gobbler had skedaddled along the top, and I worked myself to the very end of the ridge.  I found a good place to setup, overlooking the creek bottom and started to call.  I immediately got a response from the gob, and he started coming in.  Just then, the phone rang again.  I'd forgotten to turn off the phone after the call from Cranston.  This time it was my mother-- just wanted to call and see how you were doing.  I was just telling her I was out hunting, and would call her back when I got in when I looked up and there was the gobbler standing on a log, looking at me at a distance of under 5 yards.

Drat! Bottom line:  both calls didn't scare the birds off, but it took my attention away from the game. It was the distraction that was my undoing.  I make sure my ringer is turned off, and I try my best to not take or make calls.


Another Angle:

I have two sons that I brought into turkey hunting.  One is now better at it than I am.  The other has gotten caught up with fatherhood and a job and such and has a hard time getting out.  However, I spent about 15 years guiding the two of them on their hunts, as well as teaching my best friend how to turkey hunt. The latter is partially deaf, and I have to get some volume to my whispers to get through.  What I can tell you about turkeys and their reaction to human voice is based on this.

Turkeys do not like a normal human voice, but they seem largely ambivalent to sotto voce, AKA whispering.  In guiding the uninitiated, I've found I've been able to get fairly distinct in my conversations with those I'm guiding. However, once one or the other of us adds our vocal cords to the mix, the jig is up in a hurry, and this can be at quite a distance.  When the boys were young, sometimes they would forget themselves. 

SuperCore, my best hunting buddy, went from zero to success in just one season.  However, he's had somewhat spotty luck in the succeeding years.  His problem is that he can't hear how much incidental noise he makes, and it can be quite a racket. What I had to do was stay as close to him as possible and really crank up the volume to give him coaching.


Angle #3

We do our best not to bother each other with unnecessary chatter, but we do carry walkie talkies for emergencies and simple logistics.  We have a special code.  Whispering  "Sierr@ -Tango-Foxtrot-Uniform"  translates to "Cease all transmissions. I've got game in sight."    So far whispering this has not busted up any plays, although it happens quite rarely.  During turkey season, we normally only use the walkie talkie to let the others know we're coming in, or to let them know a shot was successful or not.

[Cut N Run]

About the only time when turkeys hear me talk is when I whisper "Kill Him!" to whoever is hunting with me.

My best friend was hunting with me on Opening Day of 2014 at a place I'd thoroughly scouted the weeks before the season.  I knew where the birds were using and I killed a nice gobbler in the first hour of daylight.  I got on the radio and told my buddy to come set up with me, because there were more birds around and they'd probably get closer at some point. The surrounding cutover was so thick, there was no way we could move into it quietly, or unseen. He hustled over my way on a skidder road and set up in the tangle of laps and tree tops I was behind. At the sound of a distant train whistle, one gobbled a few hundred yards north of us 20 minutes after my buddy got there.  That bird initially responded to my calls, but got quiet fast and seemed like he pretty much ignored them after that.  I called again a couple of times about 15 minutes apart and got zero audible response.  About an hour later, my buddy was telling me that they were probably henned up and we had likely just got courtesy gobbles back.  Right then, about thirty five feet away, I saw 2 pair of legs with spurs walking on the other side of a downed tree that wasn't all the way on the ground.  It was a pair of silent gobblers that I just could see the tips of one's fan and the white crown of the other gobbler's head through the branches.  My buddy was set up slightly ahead of me, looking straight ahead to the northeast and I was facing him looking northwest across his back, so he couldn't see the approaching birds behind to his left.  I whispered probably too loud "Get ready" and my buddy could tell by the urgency in my voice that I was serious & not just messing with him.  The birds definitely heard me whisper and while the trailing bird threw his head up, the strutter gobbled at the sound. My buddy slid the safety off about as quiet as one can.  The subdominant gobbler followed the strutter and I clucked on a mouth call to bring the strutter's head up.  My buddy smoked the strutter at 21 yards and he was even bigger than the one I shot 90 minutes before. 

I'm positive both birds heard me and may have heard my buddy's voice too.  While one was cautious, the other was so amped up, he probably would have gobbled at almost any sound.  I guess it depends on the situation, the ambient noise in the area, and how jacked up the gobbler is as to what their reaction to human voice may be.  I got two different reactions from separate birds in the same instant.  So, who knows?

Turkey season doesn't come around often enough for me to be spending it talking or taking phone calls when I'm out hunting.  I'll be saving the conversation for back at the truck, the ride home, the barbecue joint, or swapping stories in camp over my beverage of choice.

Jim

[tomstopper]

Most Definitely. I was always taught that patience, silence and stillness are the most important things when turkey hunting.

[trad bow]

If a turkey hear's my voice while I'm hunting then I gotta wonder why I'm talking to myself.

[RutnNStrutn]

Everything scares them. Unless your hunting urban birds that hear people all day I can't believe a human voice would not scare a bird.

[yelpaholic]

I tell a lot of them Good Morning  right before the boom . Haven't had one yet that didn't react to the greeting.

[Clydetaylor1]

I leave my phone in truck.