Let’s start at the beginning.
Bird language is one of the most powerful nature awareness tools I have ever experienced.
I’ve been successful at using bird alarms to get closer to owls, hawks, bears, wildcats, raccoons, etc…
My goal is to help YOU do the same! And along the way I believe that you will also dramatically change the way you relate to all of nature.
Are you ready to take your first step into the wild world of bird language? Click play and let’s get started!
I kept this first video super short and sweet…
But don’t worry! We’re going to get much more advanced in upcoming videos.
In the meantime – Here’s how you can get the most from today’s lesson…
- Go outside and start watching birds
- Leave me a comment below
– Let me know who you are
– Where are you from?
– How did you get interested in bird language?
– What questions do you have about bird language?
I’m Holly Daigle in Idaho- mom to 4 adult sons. I passed my life long love of nature on to my boys when they were young. My youngest son has always spotted more wildlife than me and has great recall of bird songs. I’ll have to ask him if he knows the difference between songs and calls!
Hi Holly, that’s excellent. Bird language is a great activity to get kids engaged with nature 🙂
Hi, im Jared and i come from the beautiful, faidinkum ,Australia. My interest in birds go back many years as pets or out in nature. But i’m interested in learning about bird songs because one species here downunder has me amazed with its communication with its babies, the bird is the northern masked lapwing, a plover species. I saved a plovers chick stuck in our back yard. The parents were not happy with me touching its chick and i was dive bomb with two adult plovers screaming with their harsh call. I released the chick but its parents were not around, so i found a recording of the masked lapwing “Alarm” callm online and played it loud in the paddock nexed door to get its parents to attack me LOL, i then released it and ran before they actually hit me, ouch, but the parents called their baby and it ran to them, amazing, right?. I love the bush stone curlew aswell as Emu’s and cassowary’s. any how great tutorial and thanks.
Hi Jared, that’s a great story. It’s a good demonstration of how bird language really works in the field.
Pay attention for that alarm call because now you know what to listen for. You can use that sound to locate other types of wildlife that threaten the Lapwings. Very cool.
Hi I’m 9 and what got me into bird speak well I don’t know but I want to Learn it 🙂
Hey Brody, good stuff. I recommend spending lots of time outside watching and listening. Developing your observation skills will help you learn 🙂
Hi I m Praveen from Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development, Banaras Hindu University, India. I have a bit interest in birds and other wildlifes because of their habitat near my home and hostel. I love to watch their activities.
My question is can we artificially produce birds sounds to give them some kind of directions?
Thankyou.
Hi Praveen, it is possible to mimic birds and elicit certain responses.
A lot of birders will make sounds like psh psh psh to draw in a distant bird they can’t quite see. It mimics an alarm call.
If you play audio recordings of bird song during spring, you can elicit territorial responses from sparrows and probably many types of songbirds.
I wouldn’t encourage doing too much of this unless you have a good reason. It’s not exactly ethical to disturb birds from their normal routines. Remember, they are living in a survival situation.
It’s also possible to communicate a feeling of comfort & safety by mimicking feeding sounds & behavior. It’s possible to reduce or eliminate how fearful birds are of you by doing this so you cause less alarms.
I hope that helps!
Hey my name is Nadav, I live in Israel. I herd about bird language from a friend of mine and from than I started to listen more carefully to birds.
My wish is to understand better what the birds says.
Thank you for your wonderfull knowledge that you sher with us (:
Hi Nadav, that’s great. Keep listening and let me know what you discover!
Hi –
I am John from Gig Harbor, Washington. In 1961 I took a required bird class in college and have been hooked ever since. My wife & I have taken a couple guided birding vacations and have been amazed at the ability of the indigenous guides to talk to birds and once I was able to join with my guide and call in a bird that we had spent several hours looking for. Thanks for your mentoring, what a great thing to do.
Hi John, that’s awesome! Glad to have you joining our bird community 🙂
Hi Brian-
I’m David from Denver Colorado. Ive been a huge fan of crows ever since they started to show up in a graphic novel series written by Neil Gaimen called the “Sandman”. I love how smart they are and would really like to have one “imprint or if that’s not the correct word then “bond” with me. Figuring out how to communicate with them seemed like the place to start. Thanks for doing this!???
I grew up with odd understandings of birds. A couple of years ago I started raising chickens in my backyard, and many of those odd understandings got cleared up, lol. We have some birds of prey in our area, and last year I started watching them more. Then I learned that crows help keep the area clear of birds of prey, and then we had a small flock of crows and a raven (who now has a mate) start to move into this area. I’ve wanted to encourage the crows, make friends or whatever, but by the time I hear them they’ve passed by already. So I’ve been wanting to learn more about the crows.
And now, I’m preparing to whistle train my pups, but I worry about how that will affect the local birds. So I’m currently thinking that if I learn more about birds and their communications, I might be able to find a way to avoid disturbing them too much.
I’m Barbara, I live in Whitefield, NH USA. I love all birds and I used to feed them. The more I learned about crows the more interested I became in them. Out of all the birds they are the best! When I lived on an isolated piece of land on the edge of the woods I decided to feed the crows every day. I would prepare a banquet of leftovers everyday. Then doing my best I would make crow calls and 10 or 6 crows flew in and perched in the trees until I walked back to my deck or went in my trailer to watch them from the window. Almost every morning they were in my backyard, and I’m thinking the reason was because they were raising babies near by. This way they could stay close to their nest while they filled their bellies and fed the babies One summer they actually brought their fledglings to my back yard to feed them. Around fall time their group thinned out. Some stayed and I fed them through the winter for 3 or 4 years.
Hi, my name is vishnu,19 years old . Im from India, Kerala. What made me so interested in bird watching is that one day i was watering some trees in our garden and i heard a bird calling .The calling started getting stronger and i knew that something was wrong and when looked around i saw ababy bird, just hatched maybe a couole days old lying on the ground, but the parents couldnt lift the baby of the ground. So i watched the parents and after 10 minutes the parents came down to the ground and it picked a earthworm from the ground and flew to their nest, which was located on a short tree, which was a few feet away from me. There were 2 babies in the nest. So i picked up the fallen baby and put it in the nest. Thats how i got engaged in bird watching.
And pardon my english.
Brian,
I’m slowly working through the many gems you’ve left for us to discover in your videos and in this website. Thank you so much for them!
Through children and grandchildren there’s been a constant enjoyment of animals, insects, spiders, and plants. Now there’s the opportunity to pursue these lifelong interests, along with weather. The excitement keeps me smiling and watchful when outdoors. Though limited somewhat physically and in a very small town, I will be looking at what I share this environment with, respectfully.
Hello, Brian.
My name is Christine. I live in a small country town in the province of Quebec, Canada. My love (and respect) of nature and wildlife is what started me on the path of wanting to learn bird language. Well, also the fact that I’ve had a couple of crows that kept coming to visit me once I really started to pay attention to the birds outside my bedroom window, and that I’ve been feeding. This began about two years ago. I’ve even gotten “gifts” left on my front porch. I’ve had so many different types of birds visiting our only tree; I can gaze out my bedroom window and watch them all day. I stumbled on your “What’s That Crow Saying” book on Pinterest, clicked on the link, and found your website. I look forward to learning more, thank you!
Hey Brian! My name is philip, I’m a refrigeration mechanic in Washington state. I was curious about why this crow couple kept cawing and cawing incessantly. And I stumble unto your page, I’ve been really interested for a long time in understanding what calls, when I was younger I spent a lot of time outside listening figuring and lol trying to communicate back to birds. I am really interested in going and living in the forest for a extended period of time, andto understand bird language to be able to either locate animals or know when animals/other humans are about. I really really admire the work that you’ve done and the knowledge you have accumulated.
Hi, I’m Fable, I’m 14 and in New York State. I got interested in bird language after doing various survival skill trainings with The Children of the Earth Foundation. I currently have too many questions about bird language to list here, I want to learn as much as I can. My long term plan is to go completely off grid, which is one reason amongst many that I am interested in bird language and other survival skills.
Thanks for sharing Fable! It’s awesome to know about your passion for this topic. Bird language can definitely be a huge area of study with endless questions to chase down.
What would you say is your biggest challenge or goal when it comes to bird language?
Hi, I’m Kevin. I’m from Chattanooga, TN. I was talking to a friend that is studying Jon Young and was completely intrigued. I live in a suburban area and spend little time outside (summers are especially hot and humid in the American South). I’m just realizing how out of touch with nature I really am. We have a lot of robins, mocking birds, red birds, and hawks throughout the entire year. I saw peculiar behavior from about 25 circling hawks the day after my conversation and decided to take steps to learn myself.
Thanks for sharing Kevin! It’s amazing how much we can discover just by having that intention to watch & listen. Keep getting out there and I know you’re going to make some amazing discoveries!
Hi! I’m Vasanth from India. I’m interested in knowing bird’s language as I came to know from an epic story where there’s a specific art for learning bird’s and animal’s languages. So, I’m here
Hi
Christian from Norrköping, Sweden here. I find this interesting because im interested in survivalism and I also teach science at a local outdoor school. I have been looking for a resource to better understand what the birds are actually gossiping about 🙂
Hi Christian, bird language is a great fit with survivalism and outdoor education as I’m sure you already know. Let me know if you get stuck anywhere or have questions!
I am listening to an owl many nights and found one of your online notes helped me confirm what kind of an owl I was listening to. It was so helpful to have the sounds repeated online to be sure.
I feel that animal communication is unappreciated by so many and it is nice to have a site to go to where others are also interested.