Counting birds and birdsong

Today is the Big Garden Birdwatch from the RSPB. This annual event is the world’s largest bird survey, everyone is invited to count the birds in their gardens, courtyards or even the greenspace they can see from a window or balcony. The survey helps the RSPB and has given them more than 40 years of data.

A recent study from California Polytechnic State University set out to investigate how much natural sounds including birdsong contribute to a sense of wellbeing. A team of researchers hid speakers playing birdsong from a diverse group of birds on sections in the Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks in Colorado. The team alternated playing birdsong and turning off the speakers on each trail section in weekly blocks, hikers were interviewed as they passed through and the team found that the hikers who heard the birdsong reported a greater sense of wellbeing than those hikers who didn’t hear the birdsong.