Why Bird Watching is Good for Your Mental Health
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Time to read 6 min
Birdwatching’s popularity exploded during the pandemic, as people sought safe, outdoor activities. Many were surprised to find that birds also boosted their mood, providing a respite from stress, anxiety and sadness.
That happy surprise is grounded in medical history and practice. This article looks at the nature-mind-body connection in general and the relationship between birdwatching and mental health in particular. It ends with the personal experience of one birder, who took up the hobby during the pandemic and later found ways to incorporate it into her work as a therapist.
Table of Contents
The Nature-Health Connection
“Nature cures” for a variety of mental and physical illnesses were popular in the 19th century, falling out of favor as scientific advances reshaped the practice of medicine.
As urban life became faster-paced and more stressful, interest in the connection between nature and human health resurfaced. In 1980s Japan, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries officially promoted the practice of shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing,” as an antidote to urban stress. It won popularity amid alarm over a perceived epidemic of stress-related disease and premature death among workers in high-pressure jobs.
Interest in the nature-mind-body connection has only grown since then. Once largely confined to the realms of alternative and integrative medicine, the notion that exposure to nature yields measurable health benefits is now mainstream, supported by an extensive body of research.
A recent review of the medical literature published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health highlighted some of these benefits:
- Lower blood pressure
- Improved immune function
- Lower levels of perceived stress as well as of cortisol, a hormone linked to stress
- A reduction in feelings of hostility, depression and anxiety
- Improved attention and executive function
One barrier to spending time in nature, especially for urban dwellers, is the belief that “nature” means remote parks and wilderness areas. But birds are everywhere, including urban street trees, pocket-sized parks and tiny back yards. Observing them doesn’t require travel, costs nothing (binoculars, while useful, are optional), and demands as much or as little of your time as you choose. Birdwatching, in short, is a way to spend time in nature that’s accessible to everyone.
Benefits of Birdwatching for Mental Health
Beyond making nature accessible, birdwatching incorporates other practices with demonstrated mental health benefits. These include mindfulness; physical activity; the development of new skills and self-esteem; and becoming part of a community.
Mindfulness refers to focused awareness on the present moment. It’s akin to meditation, and in fact, many birdwatchers describe their hobby as meditative. Think for a moment of what birdwatching involves. First, you look and listen for birds among the other sights and sounds of nature. Perhaps you glimpse movement or hear a faint chip note or a snatch of song. Senses on high alert, you wait for the bird to come into view or vocalize again. When it does, you focus intently on the details of its plumage, behavior and voice.
This is mindfulness in action, banishing the intrusive thoughts that fuel stress and anxiety.
Physical activity isn’t an inherent part of birdwatching, and the fact that the pastime can be enjoyed by people with a wide range of physical abilities and challenges is one of the great things about it. Still, most birdwatchers combine their pursuit of birds with walking, rolling or pedaling. That’s important, because physical activity is beneficial for sleep, cognitive abilities and mental health. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, regular physical activity can reduce the risk of depression and anxiety.
Self-esteem is grounded in a sense of personal competence and efficacy. Birdwatching at any level, from beginner to expert, involves learning new things and developing new skills, from finding birds to identifying them to understanding their behavior. The resulting boost in self-esteem contributes to greater emotional resilience, stronger relationships and improved mood.
Community is a less expected, but powerful, aspect of birdwatching. Some new birders get their start through outings organized by local bird clubs, but even those who begin solo eventually discover the birding community. The social aspect of birdwatching spans group outings, citizen science efforts like the annual Christmas Bird Count, conservation projects, and casual meet-ups among friends – or with binocular-toting strangers who later become friends. These social ties aren’t just fun, they have been shown to have a positive impact on physical and mental health.
One Birder’s Experience
Elaine Lavin is a psychologist living, working and birding in Brooklyn. Like many other birdwatchers, she took up the hobby during the pandemic, an anxious and isolating time. Going for walks in the borough’s green spaces helped Lavin escape her apartment and exercise her body, but she soon found herself wanting something to occupy her mind. She found that something in birdwatching. The process of looking intensely at a bird, checking ID apps, looking back at the bird to piece together key field marks, and finally settling on an identification kept her fully engaged, with no space for other, darker thoughts.
On one of her solo walks, Lavin stumbled across a group of people looking at a Marsh Wren, an unusual bird in Brooklyn. It was the summer of 2020, and though organized outings were still suspended, tentative, socially distanced knots of birders sometimes formed in local hot spots. This was one of them. What most struck Lavin was the way the individuals worked together to get looks at the bird, and the excitement and even joy they exuded.
It was her introduction to the birding community.
Birding during the pandemic, Lavin recalls, gave her a sense of connection to life, her city, and the broader universe. “It was something that was real and meaningful and going right in the world when so much else wasn’t,” she explains.
Fast forward a few years. Lavin, now a confirmed birdwatcher, became curious about her hobby’s therapeutic potential. Many of the individuals she works with are veterans dealing with social isolation and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD, according to Lavin, often manifests itself as hypervigilance toward things an individual perceives as dangerous. Not only is this exhausting, it also leaves the sufferer disconnected from day-to-day experiences, with little room for joy. Could the positive focus of birdwatching, she wondered, help redirect her patients’ hypervigilance?
That’s how Lavin came to organize two bird walks for veterans in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Just getting people to show up was a small triumph – some had lived in Brooklyn their entire lives without ever setting foot in its largest green space.
One usually withdrawn participant was especially engaged, marveling at the iridescence of starlings and pointing out turtles sunning themselves on logs. Birds became a point of connection among the participants as they shared stories and compared their favorites. Their excitement and joy mirrored those of the birders Lavin had met by chance looking at that Marsh Wren during the pandemic.
The walks also highlighted the many ways birdwatching can be adjusted to meet individual needs; there are, Lavin observes, “so many ways to do birding.” A participant who recoiled from binoculars because he associated them with combat, violence and death? No problem. He quickly became the group’s expert at using the Merlin app to identify birds by voice.
“I wanted to get them used to the idea that this is something they can do,” says Lavin of the veterans she works with.
And so she did. Come spring, she hopes to organize more outings.
Final Thoughts
Human beings didn’t evolve to spend our lives in front of glowing screens. Stress, anxiety and a sense of isolation are all-too-common results of our disconnect with the natural world. Not only is birdwatching a great and accessible way to reconnect to nature, it also teaches mindfulness, encourages physical activity, and strengthens self-esteem and social ties.
It’s hard to escape the conclusion that we’d all be better off if we spent less time looking at screens, and more time looking at birds.
IMPORTANT CAVEAT: As beneficial as birdwatching is for mental health, it does not substitute for care by a qualified medical professional. If you are experiencing distressing psychological symptoms, please speak with a health care provider. If you are having thoughts of self-harm, call 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
