Better for Birds, Better for People

Winter is never an easy season to push through in North America. Shorter days, cold temps, and unpredictable snowstorms can leave us feeling blue. While spring restores much of what has been missing, mental health improvement can take many forms. Creating spaces for birds to thrive can also create opportunities for mental health to thrive. Research reviewed in Ecological Restoration and allied journals in 2022 notes that keeping a bird feeder, listening to birdsong, and spending time watching birds positively affect mindfulness and well-being. Of course, this is not the only effort showing the positive effects of birds on human health. There are between twenty and forty peer-reviewed studies that focus specifically on birds and mental health outcomes, with hundreds more examining the broader nature-and-mental-health relationship in which birds play a role.

Diversity is the spice of life.

Why can bird feeding be a stepping stone to improved mental health? Adding a bird feeder to a yard or garden can increase local bird diversity up to 40%! And while living with birds is a crucial step toward improved health, living in areas with greater diversity may be even more important. A study in The Lancet Planetary Health (2024) analyzed German national health data and found a significant positive relationship between bird diversity and mental health scores. A large Canadian study published in Communications Earth & Environment (2024) found that living in a postal code with greater bird diversity, one step above the average, increased reporting of good mental health by 6.64%. Research from Michigan, published in Geo: Geography and Environment, linked avian diversity to population-level outcomes, finding that ZIP codes with greater bird diversity had lower hospitalization rates for mood and anxiety disorders. And finally, in Europe, people living in areas with more types of birds tended to feel more satisfied with their lives, even when researchers considered things like how much money they had, their age, gender, health, and other environmental details. Adding bird feeders to living spaces can create the diversity needed for positive health changes.

One bird, two birds, red bird, blue birds.

All birds bring joy. However, research clearly shows that more birds can bring more joy… and more. Focusing feeder efforts to attract greater diversity this spring can bring unexpected benefits. Achieve this goal by focusing on feeders and feed that lure birds with different diets and sizes. Large feeders, like platforms, can attract birds both big and small. Small feeders with specific food types, like Nyjer, can ensure small finches have space to feed without being bullied by larger birds.