Yes, then do. Birds engage in various activities like aerial acrobatics, sliding down snowbanks, mock fights, and handling objects. This playtime helps them to learn motor and sensory skills, develop coordination, and strengthen social bonds. This behaviour is most common in intelligent species like parrots and corvids (crows, jays, and magpies). I have watched ravens soaring and tumbling in the sky. I have seen videos of them “tobogganing” on snow hills.
Play has been observed in other species too. Ducks have been seen floating through fast-moving sections of a river and, after reaching the end, hurry back to the beginning for another ride. Gulls and terns carry small objects aloft, then drop and catch them in mid-air. I have seen a Pied Kingfisher divebomb another. The victim shook it off and kept trying to hunt. The first one continued its divebombing, just like any bratty sibling would do. One time, I saw a pair of Red-tailed Hawk siblings playing on the ground. When one wanted to get the other’s attention, it poked the sibling in the chest with its talons.
Next time you’re in the field, try to watch for these behaviours. Birds are constantly amazing in what they do.
Note: Image at top of article generated by Microsoft Copilot.
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