A swallow may not make a summer, but seeing or hearing birds improves mental well-being, researchers say.
The study, led by academics at King’s College London, also found that daily encounters with birds boosted the mood of people with depression, as well as the general population.
The researchers said the findings suggested that visits to places with a large number of birds, such as parks and canals, could be prescribed by doctors to treat mental health conditions. They added that their findings also highlighted the need to better protect the environment and improve biodiversity in urban, suburban and rural areas in order to preserve bird habitats.
The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, tracked 1,292 participants’ daily encounters with birds over the past year using a smartphone app called Urban Mind.
Over the course of two weeks, participants from the UK, Europe, the 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, including those who disclosed that they had been diagnosed with depression.
This beneficial effect also lasted beyond the moment of encountering the birds, with higher levels of mental well-being seen by participants who did not see or hear the birds the next time they recorded their mood.
However, this positive effect did not persist if participants did not encounter birds during the subsequent assessment of their mood, which the researchers said indicated “a possible causal link effect of bird life in mental well-being”.
Andrea Mechelli, professor of early intervention in mental health 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 whole ecosystem of our cities.”
He added that the positive effect of bird encounters on people with depression is significant because many “interventions that help so-called ‘healthy people’ do not work for people with mental health problems.”
Mechelli said: “We know that exercise makes everyone feel better. But it’s incredibly difficult to motivate someone with depression to exercise. Whereas contact with bird life is something that, perhaps, is doable.”
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Artist Michael Smythe of Nomad Projects, which helped King’s College London develop the smartphone app for the study, said the research also raised questions about the link between inequalities in health and access to nature, with other research showing that disadvantaged areas often had less green space. than rich areas.
Nomad Projects co-founded Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust, which built a pond last summer which Smythe said had attracted a “huge diversity of birds”.
“It’s a very complex therapeutic, biodiverse and abundant space within a massive development between four arterial roads,” Smythe said. “Now it’s a place where people go in droves every day just to relax.”
Adrian Thomas, the author of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds’ Guide to Birdsong, said the report’s findings were not surprising as most people described their reaction to singing of the birds as joy.
He added: “Birdsong would once have been the natural soundtrack to all human lives, and I think it’s embedded somewhere deeper in our psyche. It’s associated with spring and renewal and coming of the good times, which is just one of the reasons why we need to address this nature crisis and ensure that nature does not fall silent.”