How just 30 minutes of birdwatching a week can give you a boost
Spending just 30 minutes a week watching sparrows and starlings could benefit mental health, a study suggests.
Researchers found that people randomly assigned to a bird-watching group saw greater improvements in their well-being than those assigned to a nature walking group or a control group.
The academics from North Carolina State University in the US said the results “support a causal link between bird watching and mental health and wellbeing, and it supports previous research suggesting that exposure to birds may have more impact than other forms of nature.” ‘.
For the study, 120 participants were randomly assigned to spend 30 minutes birdwatching once a week for five weeks, or walk for the same amount of time each week, or continue their usual routine (the control group).
Their mental well-being and anxiety levels were monitored using psychological surveys before and after the five-week experiment.
Do you want to improve your mental health? Go birdwatching – according to a new study into the mental health benefits twitching can provide
The experiment showed that bird watching was better than walking in nature or doing nothing at all
The study concluded that direct interaction with nature, for example through birdwatching, 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 birdwatching was associated with an average increase in well-being of 12.1 percent, compared to an 8.5 percent increase for nature walkers.
Those who continued as normal (the control group) saw an increase of 2.6 percent.
Birdwatchers’ distress levels also fell by 13.7 percent, while nature walkers experienced a lower decline of 6.9 percent.
Meanwhile, stress levels for the control group rose 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, could be even more beneficial, perhaps because it induces the ‘soft fascination’ which makes natural environments even more beautiful. more restorative.”
Soft fascination, a term coined in the 1980s by a pair of environmental psychologists, Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, is when our attention is naturally held by a less active or stimulating activity.
“Looking for birds forces us to come into direct contact with nature rather than simply being in it,” says Dr. Larson.
The study was published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
A 2021 study by researchers from the Goethe University of Frankfurt and the University of Kiel, both in Germany, found that greater biodiversity of birds in an area was linked to greater life satisfaction.
And a 2017 University of Exeter study analyzing the link between various neighborhood characteristics and mental health found that greater abundance of birds present in the afternoon was linked to less anxiety, stress and depression.