Am I crazy? Is a neighbor's rooster learning to crow from our rooster?

[sealer39]

Our Brahma cockerel has a distinctive, low-pitched crow. I've not heard another like it...until yesterday, when he crowed, and there was a faint echo of his crow through the woods. It happened a few times, but we're building a little homestead, I'm exhausted, so I chalked it up to losing my mind.

Until this morning, when it happened again. My Brahma crowed, and someone answered from the distance with an identical crow. Is it possible neighbors have a cockerel learning to crow from ours?

We're on the side of a mountain in a rural county, and roosters are very much allowed. I thought we knew everyone who got new chickens this year. We haven't heard of new roos in the hood. So while it's confusing there's a crowing sound coming from the direction it's coming from, it's downright extraordinary it sounds just like ours.

Do roosters mimic each others' crowing styles? If nobody answers this post, I'll have to don the ghillie suit in the a.m. to find this mystery chicken for my own sanity. TIA

Well, I’ll tell you how to get the answer to your question. Just get one of these:

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Well, I’ll tell you how to get the answer to your question. Just get one of these:

Okay, that's awesome. Thanks for that.

 

[andi-bird-girl-080]

So they sounded just alike?

yep almost exactly the same until about two weeks ago now he makes his own crow noise

 

[HiEverybirdy]

yep almost exactly the same until about two weeks ago now he makes his own crow noise

That's wild!

 

[Three Little Bunnies]

I noticed roosters crow off each other. My pet rooster will crow when I watch homesteading videos that have rooster sounds in the background. When I used to have other roosters running around outside, one would start and soon enough they all would follow. I think its territorial or just them letting other roosters know that they are out there.

I videoed my two roosters crowing and played it for them. They listened a few times then started competing with the video!

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Update: Echoing ghost rooster has been AWOL since I posted this. So that's really a non-update. I still think the rooster exists, but the wind direction changed, which makes a big difference in the soundtrack here.

Anywho, I eliminated one other possibility I hadn't mentioned. We have an almost 8-week-old Easter Egger cockerel in a coop adjacent to the Light Brahma. I had vaguely wondered if he were learning to crow...this early, without moving his head, so quietly he sounded like a distant echo...you can see why I didn't mention it.

He removed all doubt this morning with his a first crow attempt. It's obvious he won't be mimicking the dulcet tones of the Light Brahma. He sounds like a kazoo. I thought it was a chicken in distress. Nope, just a proud baby rooster.