Yardbird is a very old English and New American term for an ill bred game cock.
As far back as the 1600's or earlier in England nobles fought game roosters. These were carefully bred gamecocks, the offspring of highly bred hens mated to winning well bred roosters.
In order to train these roosters, the nobles would take
the rooster at 1 year old to one of many country farms. The bird would be turned loose in the barnyard and left there for 1-2 years to grow and mature. There would always be hens at the barnyard that were of
unknown breeding. The hens would lay their eggs out in the weeds and hatch out chicks from
the rooster. The males would grow up and
of course appear to be gamecocks but would either not be game or would be very inferior.
These roosters were referred to as "Yardbirds". The term grew to mean a person of bad breeding, a convict, a lowlife.
This is the true story of "Yardbird" as a deragoty term.
