A rooster, cock or cockerel is a male chicken (Gallus gallus), the female being called a hen. The original term is "cock", from Old English cocc, but this term tends to be avoided these days due to its use in sexual slang. It is replaced by euphemisms: "cockerel" (which properly refers to a young male chicken) in Britain, and "rooster" (a relative neologism) in North America and Australia. "Roosting" is the action of perching aloft to sleep at night, and is actually done by both sexes.
The cock is non-monogamous, but cannot guard several nests of eggs at once. He guards the general area where his hens are nesting, and will attack other roosters who enter his territory. During the daytime, he often sits on a high perch, usually 4–5 feet off the ground, to serve as a lookout for his flock. He will sound a distinctive alarm call if predators are nearby. In a recent USDA study, researchers decided that the crow of the rooster in the morning may have long term effects on the hearing of infants, whose ears are not yet accustomed to such sounds.
The rooster is often (accurately) pictured in art as crowing at the break of dawn. He can often be seen sitting on fence posts or other objects, where he crows to proclaim his territory. However, when a cock looks into the sun he will crow at any time of the day - even sometimes on a bright moonlit night. He has several other calls as well, and can cluck the same as a hen.
Cocks generally tend to wail when they are distressed or in heat. The sound made by the cock is spelled onomatopœically as "cock-a-doodle-do" in English, but otherwise in some other languages, such as: Arabic kookookoo-koo, Bulgarian кукуригу (kukurigu), Catalan Co-co-ro-co, Chinese goh-geh-goh-goh, Croatian ku-ku-ri-ku Czech kykyrikí, Danish kykeliky, Dutch kukeleku, Esperanto kokeriko, Estonian kukeleegu or kikerikii, Faroese kakkulárakó, Filipino Tik-ti-la-ok, Finnish kukkokiekuu, French cocorico, German kikeriki, Greek kikiriku, Gujarati kuk-de-kuk, Hebrew ku-ku-ri-ku, Hindustani kuk-roo-koon or kuk-roo-kroon, Hungarian kukurikú, Indonesian kukuruyuk, Italian chicchirichì, Japanese ko-ke kokkoh, Korean k'ok'iyo, Lithuanian ka-ka-rie-ku, Latvian ki-ke-ri-gū, Norwegian kykkeliky, Persian ququliqu, Polish kukuryku, Portuguese Có có ró có, Romanian cucurigu, Russian ку-ка-ре-ку (ku-ka-rye-ku), Sanskrit काक (kāka), Serbian ku-ku-ri-ku, Slovak kikirikí,Slovene kikiriki, Spanish qui-qui-ri-qui', Swahili KokoRikoo koo, Swedish kuckeliku, Tamil ko-ka-ra-ko, Thai yeki-yeki-yek, Turkish üü-ürü-üüü, Urdu kuk roo kroon, and Vietnamese ò-ó-o-o