Encountering birds in everyday life is associated with better mental wellbeing, according to new research published in Scientific Reports. The study found that people were more likely to feel confident, relaxed, happy, connected to other people, and energetic and less likely to feel anxious, stressed, down, lonely, and tired in the presence of birdlife.
“Our motivation behind the research stems from our interest in exploring both protective and adverse environmental factors which could impact mental health. I am hoping that our exploration of some of these factors could be used to influence the future planning and design of healthier cities,” said lead author Ryan Hammoud (@ryanhammoud), a PhD candidate and research assistant at King’s College London.
The study, which took place between April 2018 and October 2021, used the smartphone application Urban Mind to collect people’s real-time reports. The application scheduled 3 ecological momentary assessments per day for 14 days. During these assessments, the participants reported whether they could see or hear birds, whether they could see trees/plants, whether they could see or hear water, and how they were currently feeling.
The researchers recruited a sample of 1,292 participants, who completed 26,856 assessments in total. Participants were recruited from around the world, with the majority being based in the United Kingdom, the European Union and United States of America.
Hammoud and his colleagues found that participants’ mental wellbeing tended to be better when seeing or hearing birds compared to when not seeing or hearing birds, and that this effect was more pronounced when participants were outdoors. “Our findings demonstrated that everyday encounters with birds had a positive effect on mental wellbeing in the moment and that this positive effect could last up to approximately 8 hours,” he told PsyPost.
This positive effect was observed in both people with depression and people without a mental health condition.
But previous research has indicated that exposure to nature in general is associated with improved mental wellbeing. Could exposure to nature account for the link between encounters with birds and improved mental wellbeing?
To test for this possibility, the researchers included seeing trees/plants and seeing or hearing water in their statistical model. The link between encounters with birds and improved mental wellbeing remained significant even after accounting for these variables, “providing support to a specific benefit of birdlife on mental wellbeing, above and beyond the well-established effect of green spaces.”
“While we may intuitively think that the presence of birdlife improves our mental wellbeing, until now we did not have an evidence base to support this,” Hammoud said. “I was surprised by the strength of the effect, and the fact that the benefits are still evident after accounting for the presence of other natural features such as trees and plants.”
The researchers also controlled for age, gender, ethnicity, level of education, occupational and status. However, the new study, like all research, includes some limitations.
“One of the main limitations of our study was that our sample was mainly comprised of younger self-selected smartphone users who were interested in research about the environment and its effects on mental health – so caution should be taken when applying the findings to the general population,” Hammoud explained. “Future research using a more diverse sample would be needed to know whether our findings can be applied to the general population.”
But the results are in line with a previous study, published in Ecological Economics, which found that bird species richness was positively associated with life satisfaction. In other words, those who lived in areas with a greater diversity of birds tended to report being more satisfied with life.
The research provides evidence that the preservation and enhancement of bird habitats could have important impacts on people’s mental health.
“These findings highlight the importance of protecting environments that encourage and sustain birdlife, not just for biodiversity, but also for the mental health of our communities,” Hammoud said.
Co-author Andrea Mechelli added: “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 prove these benefits scientifically. Our study provides an evidence base for creating and supporting biodiverse spaces that harbor birdlife, since this is strongly linked with our mental health. In addition, the findings support the implementation of measures to increase opportunities for people to come across birdlife, particularly for those living with mental health conditions such as depression.”
The study, “Smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment reveals mental health benefits of birdlife“, was authored by Ryan Hammoud, Stefania Tognin, Lucie Burgess, Nicol Bergou, Michael Smythe, Johanna Gibbons, Neil Davidson, Alia Afifi, Ioannis Bakolis, and Andrea Mechelli.