Watching birds may help support a healthier ageing brain, and it is increasingly being introduced as a calming activity for people living with dementia.

Each week, a small group of older bird enthusiasts gathers inside a wooden shelter in the English countryside. They sit quietly with binoculars, then eagerly compare sightings: an oystercatcher using its vivid beak to search among the stones, or a pair of great crested grebes floating across the lake with their feathered crests raised.

Many in the group cannot easily remember events from earlier in the day and may find conversation difficult to follow. Yet their attention sharpens when they begin discussing the birds moving through the skies and water around Forge Mill Lake in the West Midlands.

One visitor is 78-year-old Harold*. As a younger man, he enjoyed being outdoors, but dementia had recently made him more anxious and isolated. His daughter, Lucy*, brought him to the group in the hope that the quiet setting and change of routine would lift his mood. At first Harold seemed unsure, but he smiled when another participant pointed out a robin. He watched ducks splashing on the lake, followed blue tits through the trees, and Lucy saw him laugh in a way she had not seen for some time.

"For that short period, he was fully there in the present. He was not worrying about his memory or feeling uncertain about himself. That can be incredibly meaningful in a quiet, gentle way," says Jenny Budinger, a community dementia adviser at Age UK, the charity running the group.

Birdwatching is now widely seen as a useful activity for older adults and people with dementia. Programmes have appeared in care settings across the UK, Germany and the US. Noticing birds, including those visible from a window, may help people feel socially connected, experience brighter emotions and exercise certain memory skills. New research also suggests that serious birdwatching may alter the brain in ways similar to learning a sport or playing music, potentially helping to slow some aspects of brain ageing.

Scientists are also examining these effects in the lab. Researchers have tested bird identification abilities to distinguish experienced birders from beginners, before studying their brain activity and structure. Their findings indicate that experts' brains differ in measurable ways, and that years of bird knowledge may help preserve brain organisation as people grow older.

Erik Wing, who led research at Baycrest Academy for Research and Education in Toronto, Canada, compared MRI scans from skilled birdwatchers and novices while they identified birds. He found differences in brain networks associated with attention, visual processing and recognising what is being seen.

Experienced birders showed stronger activity in these regions, especially when they had to identify unfamiliar species. The research cannot yet say whether these brain differences lead people to become good birdwatchers or develop as a result of the hobby. Still, Wing says one possible explanation is neuroplasticity: the brain's capacity to alter its structure and function through experience.

Wing also considered how well organised participants' brain networks appeared to be. Brain organisation often becomes less efficient with age, and lower organisation is linked with weaker cognitive performance. In the expert group, some areas showed greater coherence than in novices of a similar age. Several of these were also the regions that became more active during bird identification tasks. This may point to a degree of preserved organisation in the brains of experienced birders as they age, Wing says.

Further work is needed to clarify what this preservation means and whether it supports broader thinking and memory abilities. However, the results suggest that learning this kind of skill earlier in life could bring advantages that remain into later adulthood, Wing says. That may encourage younger birdwatchers who are taking up binoculars long before they reach old age.

Wing's work focused on expertise, but other studies indicate that birdwatching can offer emotional and psychological value even to people with little specialist knowledge.

When it comes to psychological restoration – the feeling of being calmer, freer and refreshed – enthusiasm may matter more than expertise. A study involving 388 birdwatchers in Poland found that people who viewed birding as an important part of their lives and felt strongly interested in it were more likely to feel restored than highly knowledgeable birders who were less emotionally engaged.

In other words, simply taking an interest in birds may have benefits of its own. Elisabeth Kals, a professor of social and organisational psychology at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Germany, studies how people's connection with nature influences wellbeing and daily life. Her research examined what happened when nursing home residents were given more opportunities to observe local birds.

Her team placed bird feeders outside 65 care homes, arranging them so residents could watch from indoor communal spaces. Researchers assessed cognition, movement and wellbeing using reports from residents, staff and family members. Improvements appeared within a few weeks, and after a month, birdwatching was a stronger predictor of wellbeing than age or level of care required.

"The results were clearly encouraging," Kals says. Participants who watched birds appeared more mentally responsive: they could better follow conversations and engage with visiting relatives, remember species they had seen before and show greater alertness.

Care home employees were often the first to notice the change. "They may not have seen a resident smile for weeks, and then suddenly they see that smile," Kals says.

According to Kals, some gains in focus and memory can become noticeable after only three or four weeks.

The findings encouraged health insurers in Germany, some of which had helped fund the original research, to support bird feeders and viewing spaces in more than 400 nursing homes across Bavaria. Kals says the approach proved effective while also reducing some costs.

In the US, a related project began at four care communities in Connecticut in 2013 before expanding to facilities in Texas and Colorado. Bird Tales is a therapeutic programme for people with dementia. It includes installing feeders where residents live and offering soft toy birds that make realistic calls, allowing participants to learn about different species. Participants have described the programme as mentally stimulating and as a way of reconnecting with memories from their past.

Comparable approaches have also helped some stroke survivors, including people with aphasia, which can make speaking and understanding language difficult. The University of Montana's Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program began with owl watching in 2021 and now includes guided bird observations and learning to recognise calls from Montana's varied birdlife.

Why might birdwatching influence mood and thinking so positively? For Kals, it is not only about the birds themselves. It brings together nature, attention, emotion, meaning, social contact and gentle activity in one accessible experience. It creates small opportunities for curiosity, enjoyment and anticipation.

This accessibility may explain why a UK survey of people with dementia and their carers found that watching birds and wildlife was the second most popular outdoor activity after walking in natural surroundings. The survey also showed that transport and accessibility can be major obstacles for people with dementia. For those able to see birds from a kitchen or living-room window, those barriers may be much lower.

Wing describes birdwatching as an outlet for curiosity, and believes this quality may be central to its value. "There may be real benefits in bringing more novelty into our lives during midlife and as we get older," he says.

Curiosity may help maintain cognitive function in later years, perhaps because it activates chemicals such as norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain, which may support healthy brain processes and reduce inflammation.

For Kals, learning about the birds flying, calling and nesting around us can also remind people of their place in the natural world. "Human beings are part of nature, but we often lose that sense of connection early in life. Birdwatching offers a simple way to build it again."

* Names have been changed to protect privacy.