What alarm call does a rooster make to scream - HAWK! ?

[lurky]

My rooster makes a sound like a sissy as he runs to hide behind the hens at any sign of danger

 

[ChooksChick]

I don't have a roo, but my girls always make a trill-like whirring high-pitched noise. Whoever sees it first does it and they all duck and cover or freeze, depending on where they are, and make the noise very quietly amongst themselves. It's clearly an alarm.

Today one of my girls comes barreling across the yard a gazillion miles an hour clucking like someone was skinning her alive, and I looked up to see a bald eagle curving overhead- we aren't far from the river that runs through town and we always have them this time of year. It scared her to death! Funny thing is, when she got under the playhouse, she started ba-gawking as if she'd just laid the largest egg, EVER! The other girls calmly ducked under a shrub and whirred.

**Edited because I'm a grammar nazi.

 

[Judy]

I heard the egg song from the woods where one lone hen was. Went over there and saw a fox running off. The rest of the flock was near the coop; she is the omega and it was not unusual for her to go off alone.

She's not only still with me, she's not the omega any more.

I could not tell the difference between this alarm call and the standard egg song.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Henry'schickens :

My BO roo is awesome too! He has 20 ladies to care for and I too know when somrhting is not right when I don't see movement outside. I don't hesitate anymore, when all is silent, I run outside yelling and my arms flailing (I'm sure I look like a lunatic). Then sure enough several hawks are flying away.

 

[vermontgal]

When I listened to the recordings of the "Ground predator alarm call" - it also sounded to me a lot like the egg song.

We humans must be missing something, including, potentially, the lower frequencies. It does sound different, but I'd need to pay extra close attention to know exactly how.

 

[colby318]

I listened to the vocals, too! Weird! My roo has a throaty growl that freezes everyone. Like a low trill. I can mimic it and the birds run like heck. They crain their necks up high, high, high! So I must be yelling fox instead. I haven't heard the one for the hawk from our birds. We've lost a couple from hawks so maybe I should have them listen to the 'puter.

 

[harvey]

Hello,

You can hear a RR rooster hawk alert call in this video at 3:09.

 

[Year of the Rooster]

These stories are amazing! I wonder when my roosters will start acting serious

Mine do the "Hawk" warning way to often. If one or several hens starts flying or is running while flapping their wings they will make this growling screech kind of thing. And if they see a cat or dog or something they will make a weird cluck, almost like the egg song. Seriously though, they'd do it all the time, even when I throw something like a pinecone in the air. I mean really... how does a pine cone look like a hawk?

 

[gritsar]

I just watched the you tube video of the rooster's hawk alert. Thor's doesn't sound much like that at all. Thor's is - hard to describe - deeper and sharper than that.
Also, Thor and my previous alpha roo Zeus take their cues from the crows alot of times. If the crows are just flying around making alot of noise, just being crows the roos pay no attention.
There's a certain ruckus the crows can make that really gets my roo's attention and causes him to round up the girls. Every time I've seen this happen I'd paid closer attention and it turns out the crows are chasing a pair of eagles that nest nearby. How the rooster can tell one crow noise from another I'll never know, but I've seen it happen!

 

[allisojo]

I wonder how much of it is flock specific. I don't have a roo, but I have two very jittery BOs and two very alert (and noisy) RIRs (along with the rest of the girls). The jittery BOs will make a call that sounds a lot like the "ground predator" call when they're separated from the rest of the flock. The noisy RIRs will make a throaty growl when I come out to give them treats every day. The funny thing is that not one hen responds to the jittery BOs' calls for "help," but every bird comes running when the RIRs announce that I'm coming with treats. Shows you what motivates them!