Blackbird has world’s most pleasant song, study finds
The next time you hear a blackbird singing in the dead of night, know that you’re listening to the most pleasant song in the world.
A new survey and study from the University of Tübingen has identified the key ingredients that make birdsong pleasant, with the blackbird topping the pleasantness table.
The blackbird scored 4.52 out of 5, beating the willow warbler (4.45) to first position. The blackcap filled out the top three, while the barn owl finished rock bottom with an average score of just 1.32.
Researchers asked participants to rate the perceived pleasantness of 123 different bird songs on a scale from 1 (not very pleasant) to 5 (very pleasant), then cross-referenced the results with the calls’ acoustic characteristics.
Calls which are varied, higher-pitched, and not too loud are considered most pleasant, the team found.”You don’t have to be a ‘bird person’ to find bird sounds beautiful,” said study author Dr. Nadine Kalb from Tübingen. “Being able to recognize birds by their appearance or song did not affect how people rated calls.”A narrower bandwidth, greater complexity, higher frequency and relatively low amplitude were perceived as more pleasant. The highest-scoring songs also avoided a key frequency range where human hearing is highly sensitive.”
We might be wired to prefer more variable sounds with moderate amplitudes and frequencies because they signal a safe, healthy, and restorative environment where we can relax,” said Dr. Kalb.”Bird sounds are often considered one of the most enjoyable aspects of spending time in nature, and previous research has shown that they can contribute to psychological restoration and well-being. However, not all bird sounds are perceived equally positively,” said senior study author Dr. Christoph Randler.
The team plans to carry out larger studies with broader samples including more men, different cultures and more experienced birdwatchers to understand how bird sounds influence people in real-world environments.
