Birdsong can boost mental well-being for more than four hours, scientists have discovered.

Researchers who asked volunteers to record their moods on an app as they moved around cities, found that even short exposures to nature were hugely beneficial.

The wellbeing improvement from birdsong, trees or seeing the sky was found to be present even hours later, King’s College London found.

Dr Andrea Mechelli, Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, said: “These findings suggest that short-term exposure to nature has a measurable beneficial impact on mental wellbeing.

“The interaction of this effect with trait impulsivity is intriguing, as it suggests that nature could be especially beneficial to those individuals who are at risk of poor mental health.

“From a clinical perspective, we hope this line of research will lead to the development of low-cost scalable interventions aimed at promoting mental health in urban populations.’

For the study 108 individuals were monitored using The Urban Mind app and between them completed 3,013 assessments over a one-week period.