Imagine a world in which all our soundscapes are designed to boost our mood and productivity. According to sound scientists,  nature, in its purest, most undiluted form, is set up that way.  Soundscape designer and renowned speaker Julian Treasure says it’s important for us to immerse ourselves in nature, away from ‘human’ noise, as much as possible. Just as research shows that the amount of trees on a block directly relates to how healthy nearby residents feel, natural noise has a profound affect on our wellbeing.

Birdsong in particular has been proven to positively affect our health. Eleanor Ratcliffe is an environmental psychologist currently undertaking a three year research assignment at the University of Surrey on the effects of birdsong on cognition and emotion. Thus far, she’s discovered that we perceive birdsong as offering a sense of calm and as having the ability to help us recover from a negative state such as stress or moodiness. But not all birdsong is equal! Most people prefer the sound of calming birds such as robbins and blackbirds while they equate the jarring caw sounds of birds such as ravens and cockatoos with aggression or feeling out of control.

Eleanor has further found that textural and structural properties inform our response; we prefer birdsong that is quiet, smooth and not warbled.

Julian Treasure believes birdsong makes us feel physically relaxed because “when the birds are singing we are safe [from an evolutionary viewpoint]”. He also posits that birds are nature’s alarm clock, and believes that’s why their song makes us mentally alert. Julian recommends listening to at least five minutes of birdsong a day. He centres his work around harnessing birdsong in urban offices, particularly in open plan settings, and says it’s proven to improve work productivity three fold when listened to through headphones.  

Can you hear the birds?

So,  now that we’ve established that birdsong is good for us, how’s your hearing? If you have sensorineural (or ‘sensory’) hearing loss, the most common form of permanent hearing loss, your hearing could definitely be stopping you from experiencing birdsong in all its complex glory. If you have sensory hearing loss, the high-frequency hair cells of your cochlear will most likely have died off due to damage or genetics. And that’s the range in which most birds make their music; the average frequency of the songbirds is around  4,000 Hz, approximately the same pitch as the highest note of a piano.

Hearing aids

Hearing aids will dramatically alter your personal soundscape. At first it may feel as if the sound the world has gotten much louder, because you’d forgotten what it sounded like, and the hearing part of your brain has forgotten how to filter and prioritise sound.  Birds are commonly cited as the most noticeable, to mixed reviews. Some people complain that the birds are ‘so damn noisy’.  Ironic isn’t it?  Some people find instant pleasure in hearing birds again.  The autumn leaves sound crunchier, the rustling leaves “rustlier”.  But if you tune your hearing aids to your preferences, and give your brain little bit of time to relearn the sounds it had forgotten,your new  hearing aids will  allow you to hear and appreciate the beauty of birdsong once more.  Take yourself into a natural place and listen.

Birds are kind of brilliant

Did you know that each species has a different aesthetic sense? They also have a syrinx, rather than a larynx, which means they can make two different sounds at exactly the same time. Birds are also one of the few species like us that learn with sound. Canary studies have shown scientists that our brain cells aren’t ‘fixed’ and can continue to grow; when birds learn new songs new neurons are formed. This suggests that learning music keeps your brain healthy longer.
What’s more, bird’s inner ears can spontaneously regrow damaged hair cells, a fact which has prompted The Hearing Health Foundation, a not for profit, to focus on chickens as the key to unlocking a hearing loss cure.

If you can’t hear the birds, it may not be your hearing…

Thanks to creeping urbanisation, hearing less birdsong than you used to doesn’t necessarily mean there’s something wrong with your hearing.

This article explains in detail: 

https://ecologicablog.wordpress.com/2015/02/19/urbanisation-is-changing-the-way-birds-sing/