In modern urban life, people are often tightly bound by busy schedules, noisy city traffic, and overwhelming work pressures.

In such an environment, the pursuit of inner peace and tranquility has become a common desire for many.

A new study in the UK suggests that seeing birds or hearing bird songs can uplift mood and contribute to human psychological well-being, with this effect lasting for up to eight hours. Scientists from King's College London used a smartphone app to conduct a long-term tracking survey on the association between birds and human emotions for the first time.

Surprisingly, they found that the delightful chirping of birds not only immediately brings joy to people's hearts but also sustains this positive mood for up to eight hours, with bird watching yielding similar positive effects.

The study, conducted from April 2018 to October 2021, involved 1,292 participants who used an app called Urban Mind provided by King's College London, completing a total of 26,856 assessments. These participants were recruited globally, with the majority from the UK, EU, and the US.

The app prompted participants three times a day to report sightings or sounds of birds and then asked questions about their mental health to establish correlations between the two and assess the duration of this association.

Upon analyzing the data, researchers found that hearing bird songs or seeing birds improved the mental health of both healthy individuals and those suffering from depression to varying degrees. Importantly, this positive effect was not associated with other environmental factors such as surrounding trees, flowers, or streams.

The lead author of the study, Ryan Hammoud, a research assistant at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, stated, "There is increasing evidence that spending time in nature is beneficial for mental health, so we intuitively thought that birds might contribute to our emotional well-being. However, few have systematically investigated the impact of birds on human mental health in real-world environments."

"Through the use of Urban Mind, we have for the first time confirmed a direct association between birds and positive human emotions. We hope this evidence will further underscore the importance of protecting birds, which is not only about biodiversity but also contributes to our mental health."

In the fast-paced rhythm of modern urban life, establishing a connection with nature has become one of the important ways to maintain mental health. Listening to the chirping of birds, as a natural sound, possesses unique healing power, helping people overcome anxiety, stress, and loneliness, and rediscover inner peace and harmony. Therefore, on the path to happiness and well-being, let us pause, listen to the sounds of nature, and feel the beauty and meaning of life.