Studies Link Birdsong to Lower Anxiety, Improved Mood

Need a tension tamer or pick-me-up? You might find relief from hearing birds sing.

Several recent studies suggest listening to birdsong can improve mental health and wellness, calming frayed nerves and tempering irrational thoughts.

Researchers used several methods to assess our winged friends’ effect: One study surreptitiously played recorded birdsong in an environment where birds usually sing. Another used variations of birdsong that participants clearly knew were recordings. A third measured how people felt in the presence of real birds, both seeing and hearing them.

Results backed the beneficial power of birdsong, whether recorded or live and in person.

Two studies had limitations — but we’re talking about birdsong to better mood here, not, say, whether to use a pharmaceutical outside standard protocol. Putting results to the test for yourself should be just fine, even fun.

Curious how warbling might make you feel better? Here’s a closer look at what researchers found.

Science-Backed Birdsong Benefits

Phantom birdsong along trails elevates mood

A rigorous study of 665 people hiking in Colorado funded by the National Science Foundation and National Park Service found that the sound of diverse birds singing along Boulder’s Upper McClintock and Lower Gregory Canyon trails elevated mood.

Researchers played a recorded chorus of 11 native birds in hidden speakers along the trails in July, August and September. Late summer typically has low song activity, which allowed researchers to better administer sound by using recordings.

They played the phantom chorus of wrens, chickadees, robins and other birds in weekly intervals near the trails, alternating with a week void of avian broadcast, allowing each trail to serve as its own control.

Visitors experienced each trail’s conditions for seven to 10 minutes and reported their feedback immediately afterward. They responded to statements such as, “Hearing sounds on the trail today made me feel free from work, routine and responsibilities.”

“Hikers exposed to the phantom chorus reported higher levels of restorative effects compared to those that experienced ambient conditions on both trails,” the study notes. And those who sensed a wider variety of birds reported even better mood effects. The study didn’t measure how long the mood boost lasted.

“Our results add to a growing body of evidence linking improvements in mental health to nature experiences,” said the researchers, who were affiliated with several U.S. universities, including Penn State and California Polytechnic State University. So don’t substitute birdsong piped into headphones for going out in the world. Many studies, as you likely know, show that real experiences in nature better your health far more than virtual events.

“Taken to its extreme, our findings could be used to justify replacing real experiences in nature with recordings of birdsong, potentially facilitating an even greater disconnect between people and nature,” the researchers noted.

Recorded birdsong alleviates depression, anxiety and paranoia

In a pilot study of 295 people, researchers from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Human Development and University of Hamburg found that birdsong reduced anxiety and irrational thoughts in people with and without depressive symptoms.

Participants listened online to one of four sounds for six minutes: traffic noise, traffic noise of many types, birdsong and birdsong of many types.

Birdsong, regardless of how varied it was, “significantly decreased” anxiety and paranoia. High-diversity birdsong decreased depression.

Meanwhile, traffic noise aggravated depression, especially if there were many different types of traffic sounds, but it didn’t affect those without depression. Traffic sounds had no effect on paranoia,

Before and after exposure, participants filled out depression, anxiety and paranoia questionnaires. Verified clinical diagnosis was not requisite in order to participate.

“In sum, the present study suggests that listening to birdsongs regardless of diversity improves anxiety, while traffic noise, also regardless of diversity, is related to higher depressiveness,” the scientists concluded, noting the study’s experimental nature.

Researchers also considered the effect of birdsong on cognitive performance but found no influence.

Hearing and seeing birds boosts mental health

A study that King’s College London conducted found that everyday encounters with birds yielded “significant mental health benefits” for both healthy people and those with depression.

For almost three-and-a-half years,1,292 participants from across the world reported the impact of hearing and seeing birds. They used the Urban Mind smartphone app to self-report their mental wellness in real-time, answering questions related to positive and negative mental states. That allowed researchers to gather 26,856 momentary assessments as data points.

Researchers found that participants’ sense of mental wellness “was significantly better when seeing or hearing birds compared to when not seeing or hearing birds.” What’s more, the positive effect of seeing or hearing birds was more pronounced when people were outdoors, “raising the possibility” that the association between birdlife and mental well-being “might in fact reflect an overall effect” of nature on mental well-being, they wrote.

The study had limitations though: Participants were self-selected, they knew what the study aimed to investigate, and they self-reported whether they had mental health diagnoses. Most were white, university educated and based in the United Kingdom.