A swallow may not make a summer, but seeing or hearing birds improves mental well-being, researchers have found.
The study, led by academics from King’s College Londonalso found that daily bird encounters improved the mood of people with depression, as well as the general population.
The researchers said the findings suggested that doctors might prescribe visits to places with large numbers of birds, such as parks and canals, to treat mental health conditions. They added that their findings also highlighted the need to better protect the environment and enhance biodiversity in urban, suburban and rural areas to preserve bird habitats.
The study, published in the journal scientific reportstracked the daily bird encounters of 1,292 participants last year through a smartphone app called urban mind.
Over the course of two weeks, participants from the UK, Europe, US, China and Australia were asked at random intervals to record how they felt, including whether they were happy or stressed, whether they could see trees and whether they could see or hear birds.
The researchers found that participants’ average mental well-being scores increased when they saw or heard birds, even among those who disclosed that they had been diagnosed with depression.
This beneficial effect also lasted beyond the time of the bird encounter, with higher levels of mental well-being noted by participants who neither saw nor heard birds the next time their mood was recorded.
However, this positive effect did not persist if the participants did not encounter birds during their subsequent assessment of their mood, which the researchers said indicated “a possible causal relationship effect of birds on mental well-being.”
Andrea Mechelli, Professor of Mental Health Early Intervention at King’s College London, said: “We need to create and support environments, particularly urban environments, where bird life is a constant feature. To have a healthy population of birds, you also need plants, you also need trees. We need to nurture the entire ecosystem within our cities.”
He added that the positive effect of bird encounters on people with depression was significant because many “interventions that help so-called ‘well people’ don’t work for people with mental health problems.”
Mechelli said: “We know that exercise makes everyone feel better. But it’s incredibly challenging to motivate someone with depression to exercise. While contact with birds is something that, perhaps, is feasible.
The artist Michael Smythe, from nomadic projectswho helped King’s College London develop the smartphone app for the study, added that the research also raised questions about the link between health inequalities and access to nature, and other research showed deprived areas often had less green space than affluent areas.
Co-founded Nomad Projects Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust who built a pond last summer that Smythe says has attracted a “huge diversity of birds.”
“It’s a very therapeutic, biodiverse complex, abundant space within a massive development between four major highways,” Smythe said. “Now it’s a place where people go to mass every day just to relax.”
Adrian Thomas, the author of the Royal Society for the Protection of BirdsGuide to Birdsong said the report’s findings are not surprising, as most people described their reaction to birdsong as joy.
He added: “Birdsong would once have been the natural soundtrack to all human lives, and I think it is embedded somewhere deep in our psyche. It is associated with spring, renewal and good times to come, which is just one of the reasons why we need to address this crisis in nature and make sure that nature does not stay silent.”
