Wonderful. Good to know that our educational tax revenue is being spent on seeing if a sparrow will cheer you up. Is that with or without a pot to piss in? For a minute there, I thought we were in trouble.

The blackbird that sings throughout the year at 3:45am outside the bedroom window certainly has a great effect on my mental well being and not a positive one

Pity a troll got there first. Trolls of course have a rather course sense of hearing and cannot pick up the subtler sounds.

I had the wonderful experience this summer of watching a skylark sing to the heavens. As the poem says:

" Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know;
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow,
The world should listen then, as I am listening now."

( from Ode to a Skylark, PB Shelly)

I see I`m too late to get in before the professional p**s-takers, but if there is potential for this to lead to cost-effective therapies then what`s the harm? Also, contrary to misinformed opinion, research for such studies is rarely paid for from the public purse and if you want something to be provided in healthcare these days, evidence is what you need. "Because I think it sounds nice" isn`t evidence as far as NICE is concerned, so you need a `proper` academic study - often to prove what we instinctively know already.

The song of the blackbird has a had a profound affect on me, since childhood. It is something like meditation - it creates an acceptance of what is, be it pleasant or unpleasant. My response to birdsong in general is a gauge of my mental/emotional state.

In this culture that stresses economic value it might be a good thing to reveal what the "benefits" of song birds are on wellbeing. Other birdsong is helpful too.
Though as Borderriver, I do remeber when I lived in london having not such positive thoughts about the blackbird that sangf from 2.am outside my window during december. But we have all those lights that confuse the birds.

I stuck my head out the back door this morning at 6.15am into our suburban garden - black and wet - and was definitely cheered by the birds already singing. Whatever the study says, birdsong comes to us unasked for and free and mostly lovely.

There is little more soothing than the song of a blackbird, late afternoon in the summer.

Like Ratcliffe and @flofflach, blackbird song is one of my favourites, but I think the wood pigeon & collared dove take top place for making me happy. Look forward to seeing the results of this project.

Let's ignore the troll.

Although I am very sceptical to all these studies that aim to show how the long term effects of this and that impression can be shown on MRI cameras and even have epigenetic impact, the simple pleasure of walking around in the woods, across the fields and along the shores is so great that I find it hard not to believe that birdsong for example has a positive effect on our well-being. However, I know from experience that a lot of people find it tedious and get bored very quickly if they have to spend half a day away from the urban street noise.

I'll see your blackbird and raise you a rookery.

Rooks sound good on cold winter mornings when you are enjoying being awake. A rookery does not sound good when you are enjoying being asleep.

...And if we don't start listening now who knows, one day we may not have anything left to listen to.

The black bird, yes! Not sure if it's even legal but the Swedes have adopted it as their national bird. Guess there are enough of them to go around : )

Do we really need to waste so much money in research to get an answer which is so obvious?

Blackbirds are great as they always have some sort of variation on their songs from individual to individual. I'm a bit worried though that (in south Manchester anyway) they seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth since July. I certainly haven't really heard any since then although I have briefly spotted one or two males and females over the last couple of months. The previous years they could be clearly heard through late summer/autumn and even in Winter when they quietly 'practice' singing. Not sure whats going on there.

To be fair, I don't even mind Magpie sounds to be honest. It only gets slightly annoying when a few of them are getting a bit riled over some percieved threat for ten or fifteen minutes... which is rare.

Probably no coincidence that evolution has hardwired the liking of birdsong into the human conciousness as it truly is the sound of nature that has been a constant for millions of years.

As I said, I`m afraid no money is spent in healthcare these days without scientific evidence. Anecdotes don`t really count, strange as it seems.

About wasting money on research I understand AstraZeneca have just wasted £245m on two drugs trials. Maybe they should have spent a £100k instead on bird song research. Probably just as,(or more?) effective as many of their drugs.
while this might be called 'private money' we all end up paying in higher drug costs to the NHS and across the counter

A few canaries at the end of each hospital ward might be quite soothing and help patients recover.

as the old joke goes: the plural of anecdote is not data

The sound of birdsong never fails to lift my spirits. I love lying in bed listening to the vacillations of the trilling and warbling, uplifted and invigorated. Unlike my ex who likened them to 'chavs trying out their ringtones at full blast'. Joyless twat.

Strange, to read in print something you realise that you've know instinctively all your life. Birdsong is the most heartwarming and soul-uplifting thing imaginable.
Now in my 70s, still whenever I hear birdsong, I stop and try to locate the source.
The Robin is a particular favourite, though that said, I've not heard much of them
this year..

This research could strengthen the case for forcing landowners to stop building walls and big fences and instead start growing hedgerows. We need more food and suitable habitat for birds, since it benefits us as much as them.

my wife was unable to get me John Clare's collection of bird poetry, saying it's only available from Amazon for £150. ( I haven't checked but she never lies ) So it seems there is a huge balming desire for us to examine nature with microscopic precision, as well as a huge need to reprint his verses.

I think its called Nature Deficict Disorder that impels us, in the same way our cousin's may lick salt from rocks.

To paraphrase Jung & Attenborough - its stalking with archetypes- and it just feels good

What a sad world it would be without birdsong in all its many forms.

goodbodys - LibriVox provide some for download if that's of interest? Also available as free Podcasts on iTunes http://librivox.org/selected-poems-of-john-clare-volume-2/

Bird song is soothing, but there's a time and a place. Being rudely woken and kept awake at the crack of down by a tweeting-warbling-cooing racket outside your window is anything but soothing.

.....should have read "crack of dawn".

As other species only have value to humans when we can prove that can do something for us, I can only hope this gives birds a slight boost in status.

You may well be able to find the books you are looking for at Abe Books, goodbodys. It's a marvellous place to find books - at a decent price, too - and if the book isn't listed on the site, you can add it to a wish list and you'll be notified when a book dealer finds it.

Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call'd him soft names in many a musèd rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath;
Now more than ever seems it rich to die,
To cease upon the midnight with no pain,
While thou art pouring forth thy soul abroad
In such an ecstasy!
Still wouldst thou sing, and I have ears in vain—
To thy high requiem become a sod.

Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The same that ofttimes hath
Charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam
Of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn.

I work outside and one of the delights of my job is bird song. That beautiful sub-song of robins and blackbirds, it's hard to describe what the sound does to my mind, but when I hear those sweet and gentle warblings, I feel a softening throughout my entire being. Usually it's only a few minutes before a robin or blackbird sees me digging and comes to look and then they'll sit in a nearby shrub or tree and tell me their quiet stories while I work. It's just wonderful.

I am glad we have Birdsong Radio. It may seem an artifical artifice when there is Mother Nature out there but I find it helpful as the world is full of jarring sounds from which we need a rest.

Clearly there are benefits to well being as experienced and talked about in anecdotal terms. It would beneficial to try and understand and quantify the benefits.

I think that I will tweet about this...............................

This is a valid area of study. If a positive relationship to mental wellbeing and birdsong can be evidenced, appose to assumed, decision makers may take the protection of birds more seriously, due to the (eco-system) service they provide to us humans. As even a small change in the average level of mental wellbeing across the population could have very high economic and social returns. Research has shown urban trees may result in higher levels of mental wellbeing, yet how this happens is unclear, it may be that birdsong, associated with trees, may play a role?

And once they have taped the bird song - no doubt they will play it in the job centres, foodbanks and homeless shelters to try to persuade the poor and homeless they really are feeling better under the austerity measures

And they will play it in the ATOS centres to ensure the disabled feel better when ATOS tell them they have cured them of their disabllites

And they will play it to children in free schools to ensure they feel better when they find out they don't deserve fully qualified teachers

And they will play it in the hospitals when people realise they are being charged for healthcare

And they will play it in banks when people are refused mortgages

And just like big brother they will pipe it in to all our homes every time David Cameron announces he is doing nothing to stand up to credit rating agencies are blackmailing our nation

Yes birdsong , the coalition solution to all the policies that make a proud nation feel ashamed of the MPs in power

As birdsongs become faint or even silent ... we suffer solastalgia. See: http://healthearth.blogspot.com/2007/09/solastalgia-and-soundscapes.html
for more. The deliberately deaf don't hear birds ... the birds and I feel nothing but sorrow for them.

thank you daddyorchips

this time of year, when the sedge has withered, I have an urge to go with that slim volume and see that little trotty wagtail
or
at least make plans to look for the bumbarrels nest through JC's eyes in the spring

When I die, I want my ashes scattered where Blackbirds sing

In some parts of China there is no birdsong. They killed off birds because they took the seed and damaged crops.
So perhaps we can't do without birdsong. Now people keep cicadas and grasshoppers in little cages made out of cornstalks, put radish leaves in for food, hang the cages under the eaves and they can listen to the chirruping all evening until midnight. (I read that last bit in a story from Ha Jin's collection of short stories 'The Bridegroom').

In later years my father went blind. He was a great lover of nature and the loss of his sight was hard for him to bear. But recordings of birdsong were a great consolation and joy to him - a window into a world which was no longer his.

I hope we look after the birds, what a dreary world this would be without them.

I'd like to tell the psychologists that I actually like the sound of the cuckoo as it flies over its nest.

Yes, I remember Adlestrop

Not sure Dawn would agree

I often just stand and listen when I hear a blackbird or a song thrush, and we have a robin that continues to sing at dusk well into the winter months. But over recent years, the it's the swallows that nest in our porch outside the kitchen door that I look forward to and miss most when they fly away to warmer climes. It's not really birdsong as such, but a constant chattering, bickering, telling the youngsters off, whatever.

Living by the sea I also love the hauntingly evocative call of the divers (sorry - not sure whether they're Great Northern or red-throated as I never seem to be able to see them when they call). And the prolonged, expressionful 'ooohs' of a group of eiders in Spring is guaranteed to amuse. It's almost as if they're about to say, 'You don't say! Really? I'd never have believed it!'

While there is undoubtedly some that irritates, birdsong is surely good for the soul. The trouble is, there's so much noise these days, both indoors and out, that hardly anyone hears the birds any more. Even people running in parks or along country footpaths seem to have earpieces crammed into their ears, preferring some blaring artificially produced sound to tuning into the natural sounds around them.

I have been listening to songbirds singing for many years and it 'does cheer me up'.
As for a 3 year study, well what a lovely thing to get payed for !

I have a bird story.
In the summer, one very hot Saturday afternoon, on the pavement outside where I live, was the most dishevelled looking nest, and inside, two baby wood pigeons. They are not the most beautiful of creatures (featherless and very scrawny), and I think they must have been only have been about ten days old.
As there were no trees to put the nest back in, ( and anyway it was all over the place), I found a bucket and reassembled the nest, as best as possible and put in on the wheely bin .
I was certain they would die.
But the RSPCA said their mother may return and feed them.
She did !
As the days went by, they grew feistier, which delighted me. The "nest" became very dirty, so I bought them a wire hanging basket to go in, and cleaned them everyday. It was a balance between not wanting to get them used to me, and have the mother/father seeing me, and keeping them clean.
I learnt a lot from those little babies. I thought of them as two feathered little Buddhas. They were so patient. The magpies circled, and one day I saw one on the nest (panic) but I shooed it off.
One evening, about three weeks after their arrival, (they had been practising stretching their wings) first one, then the other flew up to the upstairs window ledge.
They spent the night there, and in the morning they were gone.
They did come back on a few occasions, and I must admit I missed having them around.
Funny little creatures, but they taught me a lot.
I hope they lived.

You dont need anyone one calling themself 'Vaqueros' with a hold the camera in front of your own face photo, probably isn't worth listening to anyway. Up with birdsong and down with cowboyS

Science again wasting money on the obvious. How about another obvious point which you are criminally ignoring? The opposite of birdsong? Namely that shoddy industry's sounds, such a leafblowers, chainsaws, most garden power tools, jackhammers, klaxons, loud motorcycles and stereo systems and the like are driving us mentally insane? Not to mention driving us to cancer and other deceases (noise = stress = disease) And better yet, how about putting pressure on governments to wipe these hellish noises out and put more birdsong in?

This wouldn't be to do with scientists and natural historians grabbing at "impact" PEF money would it? Surely not!

Cynical mofos.

sorry - REF money. Impact agenda here

Bird song has similarities with the "music of the spheres" "Divine song" or the "unstruck sound" which is perceived through spiritual awakening, and so has spiritual resonance or echo, even for those who have not yet entered the inner universe. Personally, I find Angel song more inspiring, but not many have the privilege to have heard that.

Our garden is lucky to have a resident blackbird during the spring season and to be honest it is delightful.
I can't see the connection for spending money on this, far better to donate the cash to the old or less fortunate.
Bird song is wonderful to listen to but not so good that it should have millions spent telling us that it is indeed good for us?.........DOH.....