Kuşköy

The Turkish Bird Village

The people of Kuşköy, a small village in Turkey, have invented a brilliantly simple way of communicating over long distances, by whistling. This fascinating means of communication was created over 400 years ago as a consequence of working in the fields of the Pontic Mountains.

The terrain is irregular making travelling very difficult even on short distances, and because of this, the villagers felt the need for an alternative to speaking and shouting. Inspired by the songs of birds, they started whistling the syllables of Turkish words which proved to be much more effective and less energy-consuming than yelling or walking all the way to the person they needed to speak with.