# Frightened chickens

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightened-chickens/755528>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [May 24, 2016, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightened-chickens/755528 "2016-05-24T06:08:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frightened-chickens/755528/1 "2016-05-24T06:08:15Z")

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Rather than messing up someone elses question, let me note that …

[How come parrots, etc., talk but chickens don’t?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2062/how-come-parrots-etc-talk-but-chickens-dont) by SDStaff **Colibri** , 1/7/2003.

Chickens aren’t silent because they are chicken. As is well known, [Chicken Little- The Sky is Falling - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO04VXBIS0M), when chickens are frightened, they rush around yelling like the sky is going to fall down:

This is their method of alerting the flock to danger.

In contrast, ducks are silent when frightened. When a duck is in danger, it ducks down behind the rushes, in the hope that the danger will happen to some other duck.