New research from King’s College London has found that seeing or hearing birds is associated with an improvement in mental well-being that can last up to eight hours.
This improvement was also evident in people diagnosed with depression, the most common mental illness worldwide, indicating the potential role of birds in helping people with mental health problems.
Published in Scientific Reports, the study used the Urban Mind smartphone app to collect real-time reports of people’s mental well-being along with their reports of seeing or hearing birdsong.
Lead author Ryan Hammoud, a research assistant at King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), said: “There is growing evidence on the mental health benefits of being close to nature and intuitively thinking. that the presence of birdsong and birds would help lift our spirits. However, there is little research that has actually investigated the impact of birds on mental health in real time and in a real environment. When using the app Urban Mind, we have demonstrated for the first time the direct link between seeing or hearing birds and a positive state of mind. We hope that this evidence can demonstrate the importance of protecting and providing environments to foster birds, not only for biodiversity but also for our mental health”.
The study was carried out between April 2018 and October 2021, with 1,292 participants completing 26,856 assessments using the Urban Mind app, developed by King’s College London, landscape architects J&L Gibbons and the Nomad Projects arts foundation.
Participants were recruited from all over the world, with the majority based in the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the United States of America.
The app asked participants three times a day if they could see or hear birds, followed by questions about mental well-being to allow the researchers to establish an association between the two and estimate how long this association lasted.
The study also collected information on existing diagnoses of mental health conditions and found that hearing or seeing birds was associated with improvements in mental well-being in both healthy people and people with depression. The researchers showed that the links between birds and mental well-being are not explained by concurrent environmental factors, such as the presence of trees, plants, or waterways.
Lead author Andrea Mechelli, Professor of Early Intervention in Mental Health at IoPPN, King’s College London, said: “The term ecosystem services is often used to describe the benefits of certain aspects of the natural environment on our physical and mental health. However, it can be difficult to scientifically prove these benefits. Our study provides an evidence base for creating and supporting biodiverse spaces that are home to birds, as this is strongly linked to our mental health. In addition, the findings support the implementation of measures to increase opportunities for people to encounter bird life, particularly for those living with mental health conditions such as depression.”
Research partner and landscape architect Jo Gibbons, of J&L Gibbons, said: “Who hasn’t tuned in to the melodic intricacies of the dawn chorus early on a spring morning? A multi-sensory experience that seems to enrich everyday life, whatever our mood or where we are. This exciting research supports how mood-lifting the sight and sound of birdsong is. It captures intriguing evidence that a biodiverse environment is restorative in terms of mental well-being. That the sensual stimulation of birdsong, part of those daily ‘doses’ of nature, is precious and lasting over time.”
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