I have long harbored the belief that listening to birds singing can have a positive impact on humans.  I know whenever I am facing a problem or simply trying to wind down at end of the day, sitting on my deck listening to feathered songsters such as wood thrushes, cardinals, pine warbler, mockingbirds and summer tanagers, clears my mind and seems to leave me more relaxed.

       The fact that many other folks feel the same way has prompted researchers to investigate whether or not the purported benefits of listening to birds sing are real or imagined. One such researcher is an associate professor at Cal Poly Tech University named Clinton Francis. His experiment involved exposing hikers along a trail to short periods of birds singing. When Dr. Clinton compared the impact of the birdsongs on hikers exposed to the songs with hikers that did not hear the recordings, he said, “In just seven minutes, you can see a measurable effect on people’s indirect, self-reported well-being.”

       If, from time to time, you find you simply need to find a way to relax a bit, trying sitting in your backyard and listening to the birds singing. If you do, I suspect before you go back inside your home, your state of mind has improved.