Hearing Birdsong Can Help Decrease Anxiety

Many people would tell you that hearing birdsong puts them in a good mood. Recently, scientists have tried to put numbers to this effect that many of us have noticed. One study found that people who spent a few minutes immersed in the sounds of birds had lower levels of paranoia and anxiety than those who only listened to traffic noise.

BirdNote®
Hearing Birdsong Can Help Decrease Anxiety
Written by Conor Gearin

This is BirdNote.

[Hermit Thrush song]

Many people would tell you that hearing birdsong, like the one from this Hermit Thrush, puts them in a good mood. Recently, scientists have tried to put numbers to this effect that many of us have noticed. One study has shown that people reported relief from feelings of worry and paranoia after hearing just a few minutes of birdsong.

[Dawn chorus]

Researchers had almost 300 people listen to six minutes of either traffic noise or birdsong. Before and after listening, they filled out questionnaires asking them about feelings of anxiety, paranoia, and depression. People that had spent a few minutes immersed in the sounds of birds had lower levels of paranoia and anxiety than those who only listened to traffic noise.

[Dawn chorus]

It’s the first time that researchers have found that birdsong can decrease feelings of paranoia. While they’re still working on understanding why, it’s possible that hearing birds singing makes people feel like they’re in a safe environment, free from threats, and gives their brains the signal to relax a bit.

We hope that this quick show about birds has put you in a better mood.

For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.

Support for BirdNote is provided by Cindy Gantz in honor and memory of former BirdNote board member Tom Darden, and by generous listeners around the world.

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Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
With thanks to John Kessler for this idea.
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Hermit Thrush ML100857 recorded by Wil Hershberger, and Environmental ML521616311 recorded by Matthew D. Medler.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote July 2024
Narrator: Michael Stein

ID# song-21-2024-07-12 song-21

Reference:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-20841-0