Birdwatching doctor: The hobby brings many health benefits

Internal Medicine physician Peter Crosson, MD loves to go birdwatching because of the peace and joy it brings him after long days in the office. He also sees the health benefits in his favorite hobby.

“Just for example, the exercise component of it. Anybody who birds regularly ends up walking a lot and there is really high-quality evidence about the benefits of exercise for cardiovascular health, prevention of dementia, prevention of falls. All of these things we worry about with our patients, especially our older patients,” he said.

Dr. Crosson, who practices at Osterville Primary Care, shared his experiences around birding and the health perks it provides at a talk in August, which was part of the Barnstable Land Trust’s Hike Barnstable program. He shared some of that same information during a recent conversation while he was returning from an outing to Sandy Neck in Barnstable to look for shorebirds, his favorite types of birds.

“Scientific is the way we analyze whether drugs are effective, for instance, so (for the talk) I kind of broke it down to what I see as health benefits and then I looked at those particular studies to support it,” he said. “The studies are there – not funded by multi-million-dollar drug companies, so they’re small – but the evidence is there.”

A Great Place to Watch Birds

After exploring the Cape for the past 17 or so years, Dr. Crosson has learned the region “is a fabulous place to watch birds.” He picked up the hobby when he started to run out of places to hike and then asked himself “What can I do to make it more interesting?” With a background in biology, he was naturally drawn to the creatures he was seeing, especially the abundance of birds.

“People don’t realize that anywhere they are on the Cape, there are some interesting birds around them. Often it’s very, very easy to not even be aware of them,” he said. Cultivating that ability is another health benefit he sees.

“One of the things that birders develop is a heightened sense of awareness of what’s around them,” he said, which is good for brain health. Being able to hear bird songs is a “like a superpower,” and is a great stimulation for the visual and auditory cortex in the brain. It is one of the healthiest things about the hobby, he added.

“It really combines visual learning together with auditory learning from hearing bird songs,” he said.

Another important health aspect of birding is its positive effect on your sense of well-being, Dr. Crosson said.

“During the pandemic, mental health was such a huge thing for people, and there’s some studies showing how mindfulness and being in nature can improve mental health,” he said.

While he named shorebirds as some of his favorites, and added that he is “a sucker for peregrine falcons,” he admitted it’s hard to pick a favorite. “There’s just so many great birds,” he said.

eBird Database

The hobby also satisfies Dr. Crosson’s quest for new knowledge in the field of biology by offering him a way to take part in a worldwide citizen science eBird project run by Cornell University. People from around the globe are encouraged to submit their lists of birds they saw on any given day, and the database collates the lists along local and regional lines. Dr. Crosson said he tries to sit down after each outing and add his list to the site.

“It gives me a little more to look forward to and focus on when I’m hiking,” he said.

When asked if he has observed a decline in the number of birds he has seen since he started birding nearly two decades ago, he said it was hard to tell with such a small sample size. But, overall, he knows that many bird numbers are declining “and I don’t see it reversing anytime soon,” he said.

“On the Cape we have a very special bird, the saltmarsh sparrow, that is in trouble because saltmarsh habitat is disappearing with sea level rise. Their nests can’t survive that, so there’s real concern about the future of the species,” he said.

But there is still much to enjoy and revel in in the natural places on Cape Cod, and birding has offered a portal to that world, he said. Another health benefit for him has been meeting many people in the birding community, which adds to his social interaction. Even his patients, when they learn he is a birder, will share their own bird stories, offering a way to strengthen the doctor-patient bond, he said.

And, as a side health perk, Dr. Crosson has lost 30 pounds since he started birding.

“Your body knows it’s good for you and rewards you.”