Why birding benefits us & the planet

Matthew Zylstra, PhD, was recently invited on as a Guest Speaker for BirdLife South Africa’s Conservation Conversations to speak about the wellbeing benefits of bird watching.  The webinar attracted over 300 participants which made for some wonderfully engaging post-webinar discussion.

View the replay here:

This presentation unwrapped some of the science behind why birding benefits health.  Our gateway into this topic was through the concept of “nature connectedness”, why it is highly relevant in these times, and how watching birds can enhance this. Increasing research is showing that our level of nature connectedness is a reliable predictor for our wellbeing and motivation for conservation. And it seems that bird watching is an effective gateway toward achieving greater connection along with supporting stress reduction, mood, attention restoration and cognitive flexibility.

But here’s the thing: the benefits might actually depend on how you bird…