Spending just 30 minutes a week watching sparrows and starlings could benefit mental health, a study suggests.
The researchers found that people randomly assigned to a bird-watching group experienced greater improvements in well-being than those assigned to a nature-walking group or a control group.
The academics, from North Carolina State University in the United States, said the results support “a causal relationship between bird watching and mental health and well-being, and support previous research suggesting that exposure to birds can be more influential than other forms of nature.
For the study, 120 participants were randomly assigned to watch birds for 30 minutes once a week for five weeks, walk the same amount of time each week, or continue with their usual routine (the control group).
Their mental well-being and distress levels were monitored before and after the five-week experiment using psychological surveys.
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The experiment found that bird watching was better than walking in nature or doing nothing at all.
The study concluded that interacting directly with nature, for example through bird watching, was more beneficial for mental health than simply surrounding yourself with it.
Several weeks later, the experiment was repeated, with the same participants again randomly assigned to one of the three groups.
The researchers found that bird watching was associated with an average 12.1 percent increase in well-being, compared to an 8.5 percent increase for nature walkers.
Those who continued as normal (the control group) saw a 2.6 percent increase.
Bird watchers’ distress levels also decreased by 13.7 percent, while hikers experienced a smaller drop of 6.9 percent.
Meanwhile, the control group’s distress levels increased by 6.4 percent.
Study co-author Dr. Lincoln Larson said: “In general, contact with nature provides health benefits, but contact with biodiversity, especially birds, may be even more beneficial, perhaps because it triggers ‘gentle fascination’ that makes natural environments even more restorative.’
Soft fascination, a term coined by a pair of environmental psychologists, Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, in the 1980s, occurs when our attention naturally focuses on a less active or stimulating activity.
“Looking for birds forces us to engage directly with nature rather than simply being in it,” Dr. Larson said.
The study was published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
A 2021 study by researchers at Goethe University Frankfurt and Kiel University, both in Germany, found that higher bird biodiversity in an area was associated with higher life satisfaction.
And a 2017 University of Exeter study, which looked at the link between different neighborhood characteristics and mental health, found that a greater abundance of birds present in the afternoon was associated with lower anxiety, stress and depression.