Bird watching is one of the common natural leisure activities. A new study on college students in the United States has found that exposure to nature can improve their mental health, especially compared to ordinary natural activities such as walking, bird watching can bring higher subjective well-being. According to a press release from North Carolina State University in the United States, the research team divided 112 college student participants into three groups: a control group, a walking group, and a bird watching group. The bird watching group and the walking group engaged in more than 30 minutes of bird watching and walking activities five times a week, respectively. The researchers then evaluated the self-reported subjective well-being and psychological distress levels of these participants. To quantitatively measure subjective well-being, researchers used a survey consisting of five questions - the World Health Organization's Five Happiness Index (WHO-5). The survey requires participants to rate statements about happiness in the past two weeks on a scale of 0 to 5. The researchers added up five answers to obtain the original happiness score, with 0 representing the worst quality of life and 25 representing the best quality of life. At the same time, researchers will also evaluate the level of psychological distress of participants through additional questionnaire scores. The research results found that all three groups had improved WHO-5 scores, with the bird watching group initially having lower scores but ending higher than the other two groups. The study also found that exposure to nature can reduce the level of psychological distress, with both the birdwatching group and the walking group experiencing a decrease in psychological distress questionnaire scores. Researchers suggest that bird watching is an easy activity to engage in, and this research suggests that when feeling stressed, it is better to go to nature and see birds. (Lai Xin She)