Birding Your Way to Well-Being

Four potential pathways from birding to mental health

Like many people during the height of the Covid pandemic, I discovered birding and have continued to grow my interest and enjoyment since 2020. Besides noticing mental health and mood benefits myself, others have regularly shared articles with me about the benefits of birding. Most recently, conservation biologist Nils Peterson and colleagues (2024) conducted an experimental study in which college students were randomly assigned to a control condition (receiving no specific instructions), a nature-walk condition (instructed to take a specific walk through nature at least once a week), or a birdwatching condition (take the same walk and notice how many birds you see using a phone app). Students who noticed birds on their walk reported significant increases in positive emotion and significant decreases in distress compared to the other two conditions. These findings indicate that there’s something specific about looking for birds (or at least looking for elements in nature) that leads to mental health improvements.

As Peterson and colleagues note, demonstrating that birding enhances mental health does not tell us why birding has this effect—and determining the underlying reasons could help us identify ways to interact with birds (or other aspects of nature) that can heighten this positive impact. The authors refer to environmental psychologist Melissa Marselle and colleagues’ (2021) conceptual model of how biodiversity may benefit human health to identify potential explanations for their findings. Several of these potential mechanisms resonate with my own experience and I hope my sharing them may help you to find ways of enhancing your well being.