Exploring Nature: Birds at
Play
Ravens are rather serious birds; they live up to poet Edgar Allan Poe’s dark description: “that grim, ungainly, ghostly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore.”
But this bird can also show a goofy and playful side. It will be strutting along and suddenly topple over on its side. It will drop from high altitude “like a shot duck,” but will shoot out its wings and recover just before hitting the ground.
Researchers have concluded that this dismal bird, which is very territorial and aggressive to the point of killing other birds and pecking out the eyes of newborn lambs, also has a very playful side.
Of all the animals on the planet, ravens rank right up there with the most playful and frolicking, along with great apes, dolphins and parrots. Play takes up a lot of time for ravens, especially when they are young.
Raven games include picking up a twig and flying around with it clutched by one foot and then dropping the twig and catching it again in mid-air.
One captive raven was seen tossing a rubber ball in the air again and again, finally catching the ball while lying on its back. A real show-off.
Lots of animals engage in play. Octopuses will play around with Legos and toss balls with their jets. Saltwater crocodiles will whack at a tethered ball with their tails.
Monitor lizards play games of keep-away and Komodo dragons engage in tug-of-war contests with their keepers.
So all is not grim and gritty with nature’s cast of characters. And birds are among the most playful of them all. Kaka parrots jump on each other’s backs and also jump up and down on each other’s stomachs while flapping their wings.
Woodpeckers, songbirds and parrots are among the most playful as are ravens and Australian magpies. These birds live in complex societies and play is an outlet to help lower levels of strife and anxiety.
But all in all, birds play for the same reason humans play.
It’s fun!
