The magic of bird song
With bare feet, I walk across wet grass in the field behind my family home. It is grounding to feel the soft, damp earth beneath me. The bird song overwhelms. I hear no less than six distinct songs. I power on my field recorder, place earbuds into my ears and turn the volume to full. A Puccini opera of birds. Although I’m no ornithologist, and don’t consider myself a bird watcher, I name the birds familiar to me—American robin, bluejay, cardinal, red-winged blackbird. Abundant song language makes me feel it’s going to be a busy Sunday morning. It’s like I stand in bird town square, as they make their way among weekend tasks of sipping coffee at the café, the smelling and buying of fresh bread, groceries for evening’s dinner, bird gossip, and the like.
This is unceded Lenni-Lenape land, commonly known as rural territory of southeastern Pennsylvania. Rain is coming, again, like it has for the past several days. I wonder what the robins say of rain and storms. After a particularly challenging week, where a life transition didn’t go as planned, and my nervous system was feeling frayed, bird song shows up and I experience a sense of calm and positive change. This is the time of the blood moon. In alchemy, rubedo, or Latin for redness, is the final stage of the Great work, integrating the mind-spirit into a coherent Self for re-entry into the world. It’s the infusion of life force and blood into the birth of this realized Self. The blood moon signifies a threshold, a point of transformation. It is rubedo.
Experiencing bird song’s effect on the quality of my mind-body-spirit compelled me to investigate research intersecting bird song and mental health. And it is abundant. From my own research and work in ecotherapy, I’ve experienced the benefits of re-connecting with the more-than-human world, both for clients and myself. I intimately know the feeling of a dense forest or a serpentine river in my body and soul. How seeing a small lake nestled high in a mountain makes me feel less isolated. Or my crossing paths with deer makes me feel less alone.
According to their website, Noise Project, “are exploring the value of silence and nature by creating ‘sound refuges’ for inner city youth, and we are focusing on connecting to birds, because birdsong is linked to positive feelings, and can improve mental wellbeing and help people relax” (Project History, n.d.).
In research from Basquiat, n.d. for Noise Project, “The sound frequencies of bird songs help humans restart mentally and provoke relaxation. Bird sound is also reassuring because they sing when they feel safe…Many people have positive associations (especially with spring and summer) and memories with bird sounds and therefore feel positive emotions when they hear them. The sounds are comforting and sometimes euphoric”.
In a survey conducted by the Natural History Museum of the United Kingdom (NHM), “73% of people reported hearing louder birdsong during the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK” (Begum, 2020). The NHM article mentions two theories as to why bird song has a restorative effect:
The first looks at evolution and proposes that humans have a genetically built-in preference for nature, having spent thousands of years roaming the wilderness before constructing towns and cities… Hearing birdsong signals life is already present in an area, and depending on the type of sounds made, implies safety… The second theory considers how our brain processes information and focuses on certain tasks. For example, think about ignoring colleagues having a conversation while you work in a shared office. The longer you do it, the more mentally fatigued you become. The theory suggests nature helps us overcome tiredness as it is an easy, and often pleasant, thing to focus on. It gives us a break from other cognitive challenges in the environment, allowing us to replenish the energy we have lost.” (Begum, 2020)
According to blog post from Ratcliffe, 2013:
When we think about what can be heard in natural soundscapes, birdsong occurs again and again. We hear it in parks, in woodlands, and even in city streets and back gardens. Yet birdsong does not have to be associated only with where we hear it: the sounds of birds can generate memories of different times, places, and seasons. Some associations may be personal, such as blackbirds and long summer evenings, or a link between a particular bird and a time or place from childhood. Other associations may be cultural and shared between many people through folklore and stories, often about events that are constants in one’s life: the swallow and the coming of summer, or the kookaburra’s laugh and the rising sun.
I write this blog from the sunroom, surrounded by bird song. I watch as my dog sprawled across the seat of a rocking chair falls asleep. The magic refrain of these winged beings seems to calm her as well as me.
Resources:
Basquiat, A. (n.d.). The Benefits of Bird Song. Noise Project. Retrieved May 15, 2022, from https://noiseproject.org/the-benefits-of-birdsong/#:~:text=Reduces%20Stress,sing%20when%20they%20feel%20safe.
Begum, T. (2020, October 8). How listening to birdsong can transform our mental health.
Natural History Museum. Retrieved May 15, 2022, from https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-
listening-to-bird-song-can-transform-our-mental-health.html
Project History. (n.d.). Noise Project. Retrieved May 15, 2022, from https://noiseproject.org/about/project-history/
Ratcliffe, E. (2013, January 11). What it says I don’t know, but it sings a loud song: Reflections on birdsong, meaning, and place. NT Places. Retrieved May 15, 2022, from https://ntplanning.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/what-it-says-i-dont-know-but-it-sings-a-loud-song-reflections-on-birdsong-meaning-and-place/