Birdsong can help leave us feeling chirpy

BIRDSONG boosts mental health, a study suggests.

In an online experiment, 295 people were played traffic noise or birdsong.

Questionnaires were used to assess their mental state before and after.

Birdsong reduced anxiety and paranoia in healthy participants.

But the mood of depression sufferers was not lifted. In fact, if played traffic noise, their depression worsened – especially if clips with many different traffic sounds were used.

Lead author Emil Stobbe, of Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Human Development, said: “Birdsong could also be applied to prevent mental disorders.”