The Kuşköy bird language is spoken by some 10,000 people in towns and villages across northeast Turkey, mostly in the Canakci district of Giresun Province, according to some estimates. The practice was once widespread across the Black Sea regions of Trabzon, Rize, Ordu, Artvin, and Bayburt. The locals mostly farmers who spend much of their lives outdoors tilling the land over time developed what they call “kuş dili,” which translates literally as “bird language” a form of whistled communication that can carry for miles over the difficult-to-traverse terrain. While the region’s geography explains why the language developed, no one knows exactly when it began. Experts say the whistled language dates back 500 years in the region, but it could have been used far earlier: the Greek historian and philosopher Xenophon described people shouting across the same valleys two millennia ago.