During an interview last week, villager and nature educator Emily Foubert stopped dead in her tracks on the boardwalk by the Glen Helen beaver dam — she spotted a rather large great blue heron drying itself off in the sunlight. Foubert will lead a four-week-long seminar later this month on bird language — a meditative course that promises to deepen participants’ relationships with the natural world around them by honing awareness of bird language patterns. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
Local naturalist to teach bird language
- Published: September 27, 2026
Identifying a chickadee call is easy — it’s in the name. “Chick-a-dee-dee-dee!” But when a threat is nearby, these plump little songbirds will tack on an additional “dee” or two.
In the late winter and early spring, blue jays emit what some ornithologists call a “squeaky gate” call — a rhythmic vocalization that sounds like a rusty hinge or old water pump. This typically works as a signal of ownership over a territory or food source.
These avian sounds we hear from tree tops or passing in the skies are not inert. In communicating with one another, birds share information about the world around them — stories of friend, foe and food. And if we take the time to listen — to understand this language — we, as people, can learn a little bit about ourselves.
That’s the message of Yellow Springs resident and naturalist Emily Foubert’s upcoming four-week course centered around bird language.
Set to take place every Tuesday between Sept. 29 and Oct. 22, the course promises to deepen participants’ relationships with the natural world around them by honing awareness of bird language patterns. The course is largely held via Zoom, with some in-person and group field work. Enrollment costs start at $260, which cover instruction fees and all educational materials.
Though most of her bird language instruction will be transmitted virtually, Foubert told the News that she wants participants to make the outdoors their classroom — to plop down in a spot suitable for extended looking, listening, journaling and meditating.
“Anywhere you can tap in and pay attention to the nature around you,” Foubert told this reporter as she softly walked across a boardwalk in Glen Helen on a sunny morning last week.
“Birds are a gateway into having a greater connection with nature, and that we are a part of nature, we are learning to connect with ourselves,” she said. “Connectedness — that’s really what I’m after.”
As she said this, several airborne dramas came into relief.
A green heron swooped over the beaver-made wetland looking for a fishy snack. Ruby throated hummingbirds flitted through the orange jewelweed blooms, though their throats aren’t so ruby-colored this time of year, Foubert said.
Above, a few redheaded woodpeckers drilled into some of the treetops that the beavers’ handiwork killed some time ago. A rowdy cluster of jays came in over the horizon at the far rim of the Glen — likely a sign that a hawk was nearby. Sure enough, minutes later, a red-shouldered hawk cry echoed over the pond.
“This is a practice,” Foubert said of bird language. “And you don’t need to be fluent to get in tune. But by paying attention, learning about the different vocalizations — songs, calls, alarms — you can begin to see this rippling of cause and effect, how things are connected.”
As Foubert pointed out, learning to see and hear the world through bird language is nothing new. It’s an ancient and indigenous approach to mapping the natural world and charting landscapes — from knowing which predators are present and where, what the weather has in store and how the changing world is moving its living inhabitants from one place to another.
Though old as humanity itself, the bird language model recently gained popularity through the efforts of author and ecologist Jon Young, whose work on bird language has appeared in magazines, books and articles. Foubert said her upcoming course draws a great deal from Young’s 2012 publication, “What the Robin Knows,” and its techniques on learning to “read” the world through avian vocalizations.
Foubert herself is a trained and lifelong environmental educator. She’s a village native who, after graduating from YS High School and Beloit College, trained as a firefighter in California. Later, she interned at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center in Wisconsin, spent a year at the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in northern Minnesota and, after that, worked as an interpretive naturalist in a Twin Cities park district.
In time, she left the parks job and found a community of like-minded people at the Weaving Earth Center for Relational Education in Sonoma, California, where, as the News previously reported, she found ways of learning and teaching in line with the emphasis on connection that she espouses today.
Back in Yellow Springs in recent years, Foubert has returned to her natural home in the Glen. She’s currently the lead naturalist for the preserve’s Outdoor Education Center, and during her time back in town, has taught and stoked curiosity of nature in many hundreds of children who’ve passed through Glen Helen.
“Child-like wonder plays a big part in it, too,” she said, returning to bird language. “There’s great joy in paying attention because of all the friends we have the chance to meet in nature — like a cardinal we see day after day. Who doesn’t want to make more friends?”
Foubert also pointed out the psychological benefits her bird language course offers. By being outside, slowing down and getting into a meditative state, we can slough off the stress caused by our fast-paced and digital lives.
“Being out here for even just 30 minutes drops our cortisol levels by more than 20%,” she said, alluding to recent research by the National Institutes of Health. “This practice allows us to get into our parasympathetic nervous system and to bring us back into ourselves.”
She continued: “That’s what I mean when I say birds are a gateway. By connecting to them, we’re connecting to the world; and by connecting to the world, we’re building a greater sense of belonging within ourselves.”
As she said this, a flash of orange came across a nearby branch — an American redstart warbler, rare for this late in the summer, Foubert said.
“Now isn’t that special?” she said, smiling.
To register for Emily Foubert’s “Bird Language: 4-Week Nature Immersion Cohort,” go to her website at wwwwanderoutwithus.com
The course begins Tuesday, Sept. 29, costs at least $260, and is limited to fewer than 10 students. For additional information, email wanderoutwithus@gmail.com
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