Birdwatching can help slow brain ageing and is increasingly being used as therapy for dementia patients.

Every week, a group of elderly birders spend hours hunkering down inside a wooden hide in the English countryside, peering through binoculars as they excitedly share what they spot. An oystercatcher’s long, bright beak probing the pebbled ground; two great crested grebes bobbing in the water, their plumed heads poised.

Most of these birdwatchers have difficulty recalling what happened earlier that day, and might struggle to follow a conversation. But they become animated when swapping notes on the birds that fill the sky around Forge Mill Lake in the UK’s West Midlands.

Among them is 78-year-old Harold*. He loved the outdoors when he was younger, but more recently dementia has made him withdrawn and anxious. His daughter Lucy* brought him here, hoping that the change of scenery and peaceful lake might be good for him. After an apprehensive start, Harold began smiling when someone pointed out a robin and enjoyed watching the ducks splashing in the water. Blue tits darted between the nearby trees, and Lucy saw Harold laugh for the first time in a long time.

“For that moment in time he was present in the moment, he wasn’t worried about his memory or his confidence. That is very powerful, in a gentle way,” says Jenny Budinger, a community dementia advisor at Age UK, the non-profit that runs the birdwatching group.