Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
THE YARD — The nature of the rooster is often oversimplified to a "helpful or extremely annoying alarm clock."
Often roosters are portrayed as dum-dums that can't even get their "one job" of alarm clock right, but the fact is that roosters play an important role as the keeper of a flock. That's not to say no dum-dum roosters exist, but I digress.
Their main instinct is to protect the survival of the flock at all costs. This includes everything from finding food while foraging to keeping peace in the pecking order to attacking predators with their insane spurs.
Roosters are always on alert and will guard their territory, including and up to self-sacrifice to save its hens from a predator. And when danger is afoot, they use their voice to warn the flock that it's time to run for cover.
But no matter how vigilant any creature is, it's impossible to see everything all the time.
In this video, a woman's flock of chickens is peacefully pecking around her front lawn. She sees a hawk in the area, but the rooster does not, so she goes into "destroy my windpipes for the flock" mode.
She releases an unholy vocal blast that sounds like the scream a rooster banshee would make in a horror movie before stealing the souls of its prey. But the intended terror is the entire point for the chickens, and they almost immediately run for cover. It's truly amazing both entertainment-wise and evolutionary-wise.
In conclusion, a milkshake may bring all the boys to the yard, but a "hawk alarm" will make the yard a chicken ghost town. It's just too bad that the ducks don't speak "rooster scream."
