Whether on ESPN or CBS, it’s hard not to thing about the broadcast of The Masters without the always-memorable aspects of it. Yes, the voices of Scott Van Pelt and Jim Nantz are always welcome, as is the iconic score for the tournament that plays often. But fans are also accustomed to hearing the Masters bird sounds.
Bird sounds are virtually ubiquitous when it comes to The Masters and the broadcast. Whether it's a shot of the leaderboard in which they are trying to have sound in the silence, or even while the players on the course and walking and the broadcast is going between shots, you can hear the bird sounds echoing throughout the property. It's something that fans recognize immediately each year in The Masters.
One problem: Many patrons who have been to Augusta National Golf Club haven't said much about the bird sounds on the grounds.
This has led to a number of conspiracies over the years that The Masters is essentially pumping in fake bird sounds to add to the ambience at Augusta. That's obviously led to us getting to the bottom of it by the time we've reached 2025 and have access just about everywhere in golf like never before. We're here to answer the question once and for all: Are The Masters bird sounds real or fake and are they actually live birds (which, surprisingly, might be the crux of all of this).
Masters bird sounds: Are the sound real or fake — and are the live sounds?
This investigation has been ongoing over many years. Shane Ryan of Golf Digest dug deep into the matter and concluded that many players, media members and even patrons who have attended the tournament at Augusta National don’t recall seeing a lot of birds. That doesn’t mean they aren’t real, but it does cast doubt that the Masters bird sounds aren't authentic and, in fact, are actually fake.
However, recently, there have been rumors that the Masters bird sounds are real in a sense but just not completely authentic.
These rumblings suggest that, while they might not be live birds chirping all the time at Augusta National, the bird sounds that are piped into the broadcast were recorded at the iconic golf course and then added in production. Essentially, what you're hearing are The Masters bird sounds — that just might not have been the exact time those birds were chirping. They just happened to b making sounds and singing on the property at one point and were recorded.
That seems like, perhaps, the most likely definitive answer. There are too many trees on the property for there not to be any birds. More importantly, so much about The Masters is made to feel authentic, so it would fit right in to have real bird sounds recorded on the Augusta National grounds.
So that's where we're at. It's not fake bird sounds but it's also not live bird sounds either. While we may never get definitive clarification there, that's what all of the evidence ultimately points to.
Other fake noise accusations and scandals in sports
While The Masters bird sounds might not be fake per se, pumping in fake noise wouldn't be completely unheard of in sports. Perhaps the most famous example came in 2014-15 when the Atlanta Falcons were found to be pumping fake crowd noise into their stadium in order to create a better home-field advantage. That ultimately cost them a 2016 NFL Draft pick after they were caught and found guilty, so to speak.
However, the Falcons aren't alone. Bill Belichick said this past season while appearing on ESPN's Manningcast during Monday Night Football that the then-Peyton Manning-led Indianapolis Colts would also pump fake crowd noise in whenever Belichick and the New England Patriots played there. Meanwhile, this past college football season, Alabama Crimson Tide broadcaster Chris Stewart accused the rival Tennessee Volunteers of using fake crowd noise at the Vols home stadium, Neyland Stadium, for their Third Saturday in October rivalry clash.
Having fake bird sounds at The Masters would be far less damning than any of those instances, of course. Luckily, as we covered, that's not something we wholly have to worry about with what's most likely going on at Augusta National.