Most people think of a rooster when they think of a weathervane. The rooster weathervane is one of those stock images of the world that people immediately associate with a certain word. Perhaps it is because it is one of the most used objects on a weathervane or perhaps it is because cartoons and the like have always placed roosters as the subjects of weathervanes. Whatever the case may be, the rooster is not seen as often as he once was. The weathervane has gone from the artistic and aesthetic to the simple and pragmatic.

Only a few centuries ago the rooster weathervane was one of the ways to tell which way the wind was blowing. A simple little concept was used. The little rooster was able to move with the wind. It was placed on a cross piece that had the four wind directions clearly marked. When the wind blows the rooster moves in the direction that the wind is blowing and shows you the way by way of the crosspiece. Simple enough and easy to understand. For those who needed a little more information, the rooster was replaced with the windsock. The actual direction was not that important as long as you knew what the direction was. The windsock, however, was more concerned with the speed of the wind.

These days, however, the rooster weathervane and the windsock have been replaced by the banal and the pragmatic. Simple little arrows that have been perfectly designed to move in even the slightest wind are attached to electronic recording devices. The devices measure the wind speed and direction to a fine detail and communicate it to the people who want to know. It is all very fine and good but the magic has gone out of the weathervane.

Luckily there are people in the world who still believe that the aesthetic should win over the pragmatic. Rooster weathervanes, in fact all sorts of weathervanes, are still being made to this day. Those with the artistic touch can turn nearly any creature or object into the subject of a weathervane and allow it to proudly stand up in the air and show those who care which way the wind is blowing. Even better, there are some ingenious folks who connect these traditional weathervanes to those selfsame electronic recording devices so that the old weathervanes can compete with the new 'devices for measuring wind speed and direction.'

No matter what anyone says, the new-fangled devices are not weathervanes. If it is not a rooster, a horse, a ship, or some other creation that stands across a cross piece with the four winds marked then it is not a weathervane. The rooster weathervane is probably one of the most classic and recognizable items in the world. Forever may it stand crowing the wind direction to those who want to know. It does not need technology to tell you which way the wind is blowing. It just needs the wind.