Challenges

- Watching birds, even in your backyard, benefits your mental health.
- Living in a neighborhood with plentiful vegetation and birds can ease depression.
- Green spaces in cities can contribute to healthier living.
Need an easy way to reduce stress and anxiety in your life? Consider putting up a birdfeeder. Spending time outside, especially in areas with plentiful greenery and wildlife, has long been recognized as having a calming effect on people. But the presence of birds and nature around homes may help keep city residents happier and healthier, according to a January 2017 study from the University of Exeter, the British Trust for Ornithology and the University of Queensland.
Results from the study showed that people living in neighborhoods where they are likely to spend time around birds and see lots of greenery are less likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and symptoms of stress.
The research began with University of Exeter research fellow Daniel Cox, an ecologist with a background in studying birds in West Africa. Aware of the general health benefits for people who engage with the outdoor world, he wondered about the impact of doses of specific types of neighborhood nature — like birds, shrubs and trees — on the mental health of residents in surrounding areas.
“Vegetation is a very visible form of nature that provides a whole range of different benefits,” Cox says. Birds are another obvious kind of neighborhood nature because they’re visible and mobile, and people tend to be familiar with them, he explains. They also provide a connection to the natural world.
Cox led a team of academics who analyzed survey results from 263 people in urban and suburban areas. Researchers surveyed the vegetation around homes in a variety of neighborhoods and surveyed populations of birds in both mornings and afternoons. Cox says the researchers found there was a “positive relationship” between good mental health and plentiful birds and vegetation in neighborhoods.
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