A team of German researchers from the University of Tübingen conducted a study with 84 adults who listened to vocalizations from 123 European bird species and ranked them according to how pleasant they were. The study was published on September 2 in the journal Frontiers in Bird Science, with Nadine Kalb as the lead author and Christoph Randler as the senior author.
The blackbird's song was considered the most pleasant, while the barn owl's was considered the least pleasant. The researchers discovered that the most varied songs, with high frequencies, high complexity, narrower bandwidth, and relatively low amplitude were perceived as more pleasant. Interestingly, songs that avoided a frequency range to which human hearing is particularly sensitive also received higher rankings.
The scientists note that the participants' prior knowledge about birds did not influence their rankings, which suggests that the pleasure provided by bird song is linked to something more fundamental than simply knowing what we are hearing. Kalb explained that we may be biologically predisposed to prefer more variable sounds, with moderate amplitudes and frequencies, because these are signals of a safe and restorative environment.
The authors intend to continue the research with larger studies and more diverse samples, including people from different cultures. Randler said he would like to investigate how bird sounds influence people in real environments and how changes in biodiversity translate into changes in people's experience of nature.
