So Just How Loud Is A Rooster's Crow?
More and more suburban and urban areas are starting to allow small flocks of backyard chickens, but quite a few are still banning roosters- claiming the crowing as an annoyance to neighbors. So I decided to find out just how loud a rooster's crow really is.
First, you need to understand how sound is measured- all sounds are measured in decibels.
So what's a decibel?
A decibel is a unit used to measure the intensity of a sound by comparing it with a given level on a logarithmic scale- a unit of measurement that indicates how loud a sound is. The human ear can hear sounds in the 0-140 decibel range. Less than zero decibels, the sound still exists, but we humans can't hear it. 140+ decibels can cause immediate pain and possible permanent damage to the ears, while exposure to a noise above 180 decibels will kill hearing tissue. Prolonged exposure to sounds above 85 decibels can also cause hearing loss, if hearing protection isn't worn. A rooster's crow is around the 130 decibels range. A hen's cluck is around the 60 decibel range. Of course how close you are to the sound makes a difference in how loud it sounds, (which is why people who own roosters don't go deaf- most are not in close range of the crow), but prolonged exposure is more dangerous than shorter exposure. Hearing damage is not just dependent on loudness, or decibel level, but exposure time to that level is an important factor regarding permanent hearing damage. Pretty interesting, huh?
Decibel noise levels:
- Above 140 decibels - gun going off, fireworks, rocket launch, aircraft carrier
- 130 decibels - average rooster crowing, jet engine
- 120 decibels - police siren, thunder, chainsaw
- 110 decibels - rock concert
- 100 decibels - helicopters, planes, motorcycles
- 95 decibels - violin, drilling
- 90 decibels - a dog barking, yelling, train whistle, lawnmower
- 85 decibels - saw, mixer
- 80 decibels - alarm clock, doorbell, telephone dial tone, dishwasher
- 70 decibels - loud television, vacuum cleaner, piano music, passing cars
- 60 decibels - hens clucking, normal human conversation
- 55 decibels - coffee maker
- 40 decibels - cat meowing, wild birds
- 30 decibels - background noise, whispering
- 10 decibels - a leaf falling, breathing
- 0 decibels - near total silence
"To find out how loud a rooster crows, a team of scientists from the University of Antwerp and the University of Ghent, in Belgium, attached microphone recorders to the heads of three roosters to measure the sound at its source," according to Discover Magazine.
"As it turns out, at point-blank range a rooster crow can pass 130 decibels, which is roughly the same acoustic intensity you'd get from standing 50 feet from a jet as it takes off. One recorded crow reached 143 decibels, comparable to standing in the middle of an active aircraft carrier," according to Science Magazine.
Well, how does the rooster crowing inside the coop not deafen himself and the hens? The answer is pretty fascinating. It seems that when a rooster cranes his neck, opens his beak and prepares to crow, the action causes soft tissue to cover a quarter of the ear canal and half of the eardrum, protecting him from hearing loss. Also, unlike humans, chickens can regrow hearing cells, so it's possible that if the crowing does damage their hearing, they can continually repair it.
So as you can see, a rooster's crow is...pretty loud. Most who aren't allowed to keep roosters point to the fact that a rooster isn't any louder than a barking dog - but that's underestimated.
A rooster is much, much louder.
More like a jet engine.
Check out these links and give some credit to these awesome people:
https://www.newsweek.com/roosters-a...s-insanely-advanced-ears-protect-their-787043
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-loud-is-a-rooster-crow.416735/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/142-decibels.1341643/#post-21997637
https://www.backyardchickens.com/posts/20960602
