April 30th at Swan Lake: Introduction to Bird Language with Jenna Rudolph
What can the birds tell us when we listen closely?
On Sunday, April 30th 2023 at 8:30 am, we gathered at Swan Lake on the territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. There were ten curious people looking to learn more about the language of the birds. To begin the gathering I shared my story of learning about bird language from the book What The Robin Knows by Jon Young.
In 2017 I moved from Victoria to London, Ontario to begin my PhD at Western University, and ended up living a short walk from a remarkable place called the Coves, a refuge for an astonishing amount of avifauna right in the heart of the city. My efforts to simply learn the alarm calls of three beginner species—Dark Eyed Junco, American Robin and the Song Sparrow—were truly humbling and really shifted the ways I listen to animal voices. Further, these experience helped me to find a profound sense of connection to the living Earth. I found a tucked-away sit spot and visited it very regularly over the course of the first years of my degree. After returning to Victoria, I’d always wanted to connect with others interested in bird language, so a few months ago I endeavoured to organize this introductory workshop.
After briefly telling my story, I let Jenna Rudolph of Soaring Eagle Nature School take over. As she explained, bird language uses a framework for human distinctions between meaningful bird sounds, what is called the Five Voices of the Birds—
Song
Companion, or contact, calls
Juvenile begging
Territorial Aggression
Alarm
The first four of these vocalizations form what bird language folks call “the baseline.” This is a useful term for describing the typical behaviour of birds in an area when there are no predators or threats in their field of awareness. When the baseline is disrupted by the presence of, for example, a Cooper’s Hawk or a Barred Owl, the birds will signal this by making an alarm call. We can notice these alarms and they can signal to us the presence of this intruder long before it becomes apparent to our human perception.
Certain songbirds may even give us detailed information about the species of hawk, or whether a traveling coyote is hungry or not. After we discussed this rough schema, Jenna highlighted that while some of these teachings come from the work of the writer and naturalist Jon Young, he has been called out for the appropriation of Indigenous stories without proper consent, and for profiting from the way these stories have been shared. The now defunct organization 8 Shields, in which he played a central role, is from what I can gather donating their remaining money to an Indigenous-led non-profit. Other organizations, such as the centre for relational education, Weaving Earth, continue to teach bird language with a commitment to “understanding the differences between cultural appreciation, appropriation, and misappropriation.”
Before we left to have some time to sit on our own and listen for these differences in bird vocalization, Jenna described different ways of notating bird activity quickly by the use of four letter bird species codes and symbols for if the bird was seen, heard singing or alarming, and in what direction. Everyone was encouraged to find a system which worked for them, whether by writing mnemonics for bird speech or by drawing out the shapes of the sound.
We then walked as a group to a familiar spot at the confluence of the trails out to the dock, into the forest, and back to the Nature House. Each participant was invited to find a spot to sit and make their notes in-between designated periods of time marked by a crow call. I walked just a short distance to a nice bench which overlooks the marsh and lake, and on the way there I saw a white-tailed bunny hop away into the thickets behind the bench.
My notes are a rushed scramble that I’m not sure anyone else could make sense of, but they tell a story of many interesting encounters—the male Chestnut-Backed Chickadee who hopped up to a branch very close to me as I attempted to lure him to my hand by imitating his call. After he suddenly dove into the bushes to my left, I spotted an Osprey soaring high overhead, getting a great clear view of the bird in my binoculars.
The chorus of Red-Wing Blackbirds and Marsh Wren songs continued despite the presence of this aerial predator—so perhaps the Osprey was far enough away that they were not too concerned. It was fun for me to try out using the four letter bird codes, and despite not knowing all of them I made guesses and mostly figured it out.
My notes remind me that at one point, the wind got stronger and I heard a siren in the distance. There was loud laughter from the dock. I wrote questions about the difference between Red-Wing Blackbird companion, territorial and alarm calls because it is still not at all clear to me. A large black and yellow bumble bee flew past my face, and then the Bewick’s Wren began to sing close behind me. I witnessed a scuffle between three Anna’s Hummingbirds, and heard the Common Yellowthroat song in the far distance, maybe even across the lake. I heard for just a moment the high-pitch double-call of the Brown Creeper from behind me in the forest. After I heard the wolf howl signalling this individual sitting time was finished, we gathered again under the teaching shelter and began to compare our notes and re-construct the story and drama of what had transpired during our sit.
Layering the different periods of our notes on top of each other with different colours, Jenna helped us position ourselves on the map and write up what birds we had seen and heard in different directions. It was great fun to have others confirm the location and presence of certain species I had myself noted, and to see things others had noticed which I had not—such as the Northern Flicker, as well as possible Song Sparrows and flycatchers. What was so memorable about this mapping exercise was how excited and active everyone was to contribute to the story which unfolded all around us. It was fun to see both experienced birders and total beginners confronting the edges of their knowledge. We consulted the Peterson’s Field Guide for images of the species in question, and as we were wrapping up for the day we discussed the importance of choosing five focal species to begin the bird language learning journey. The suggested species for our bioregion were —
American Robin
Dark-Eyed Junco
Song Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
Pacific Wren (or, in their absence, Bewick’s Wren)
I mentioned to the group that I would share some resources if anyone might be curious to read and listen to some further teachings on bird language. The Wilderness Awareness School has a good article on “Bird Language Basics,” and for a more spiritual approach grounded in the practice of deep listening, David G. Haskell has an interesting article he wrote for Emergence Magazine. And finally, below you can find the short video I took of an American Robin making the high “seeeee” alarm right before a Bald Eagle flew close over my head while I was making some field recordings at Swan Lake on April 23rd.
Some of the recordings I made that day can be found on eBird, hosted by the Macauley Library, which is an excellent resource for finding regionally specific examples of bird vocalizations. As a final note, I would encourage everyone curious about the recent inaction of the National Audubon Society to change their name, as we discussed during the workshop, to read this excellent article by Christian Cooper in the Washington Post. The name change has also been advocated by prominent birders such as Corina Newsom and J. Drew Lanham. For deeper context and background on the intersection of race and birding, J. Drew Lanham’s seminal essay “Birding While Black” is a great place to start.
Numerous local Audubon chapters have voted in favour of a name change, such as the Seattle and Madison chapters. As Christian Cooper argues, since John James Audubon was an “unrepentant enslaver, defiler of Indigenous gravesites and all-around racist,” by keeping his name the national group is ultimately hurting our collective capacity to work together for bird conservation and protection.
I am immensely grateful to our teacher Jenna who travelled from Denman Island to lead the workshop, and to all the participants who showed up early on a Sunday to give our attention to the birds. I am grateful as well to those birds who shared with us the gifts of their songs and calls. If anyone would like to stay updated on the next gathering of the Bird Language Club, subscribe to this newsletter for a forthcoming announcement on the date and location (or find me on Instagram). I am hoping we can visit Panama Flats again together before the end of the migration season, and then in mid-June I hope to lead a short bicycle bird tour, details TBA.