I've always took it as the opposite. Chriping is just noise with no real threat (most chirping birds are not a threat to humans). It's just someone being friendly with their banter usually in a making fun of you type context.
Maybe it's regional but definitely was fighting words when I grew up in Alberta. If you were bantering with your friends we'd just call it "bullshitting", "talking shit", etc...
I'm not into sports so I don't really know that angle but I did have a roommate in Ottawa who got into a fight outside of a bar because "some guys were chirping" him.
