Birdwatching Rewires the Brain and Slows Cognitive Decline.

A BBC Future feature reviews new research suggesting birdwatching may affect how the brain ages. Erik Wing of the Baycrest Academy for Research and Education in Toronto compared MRI scans of expert birdwatchers with those of novices while they identified birds. Experts' brains were wired differently in regions tied to attention, visual perception and visual recognition, and those regions were more active, particularly when experts identified birds they did not already know.

Wing also measured how organized the birdwatchers' brains were. Organization tends to decline with age, and lower levels are associated with reduced cognition. In some regions, experts showed higher organization and coherence than novices of the same age. Wing described this as a "kind of preservation of organisation." The findings do not show whether the brain differences cause expertise or result from it, and Wing said more research is needed. He suggested that "acquiring this skill earlier in life might produce benefits that continue through to older adults."

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Elisabeth Kals, a psychology professor at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Germany, studied bird watching in nursing homes. Her team installed feeding stations outside 65 homes, placed so residents could watch from an indoor common area. Using self-reports and input from staff and family, they assessed cognition, mobility and wellbeing. Improvements appeared within a few weeks, and after a month birdwatching explained residents' wellbeing better than age or care level. "The findings were clearly positive," Kals said.

German health insurers, which were among the early funders of the project, have since paid for feeders and viewing areas in more than 400 nursing homes across Bavaria. In the US, the Bird Tales program for people with dementia began at four Connecticut care communities in 2013 and later spread to Texas and Colorado. Participants reported that it was cognitively stimulating and connected them with the past. The University of Montana's aphasia program for stroke survivors began with owl spotting in 2021.

Other findings point to benefits without expert skill. A study of 388 birdwatchers in Poland found that enthusiasm predicted feelings of calm and rejuvenation better than expertise did. In England, an Age UK group meets weekly at Forge Mill Lake, where dementia advisor Jenny Budinger said a participant became present in the moment. In a UK survey of people with dementia and their carers, watching birds and wildlife was the second most popular outdoor activity after walking in nature.