Play along the lakeside and interviews with birds

The group favouring the lake (The Lakeland Clan) have also produced many young and among them in Wimyub, playful and bouncy. He likes to wrestle in play with his siblings, and when they are not interested, he will grab a stick or a stone and roll on his back wrestling it and pecking it. Play among these birds is far from rare, as in many other social animals.

When I was younger, growing up on the west coast of Canada, I used to take great pleasure in watching the crows entertain themselves above the local post office. As a small group they would hop back and forth among the rough top making quite a chatter, picking up stick, leaves and hopping about. They would gather said sticks, leaves and rubbish at the edge of the rough and with glee hop back and forth along side the edge of the rough, looking down, all the while making a variety of soft caws and crow clatters. It was amusing to watch, but by far the most amusement derived from what would occur when some unexpecting person, cat, or seagull would pass by under the edge of the roof, for they would be surprised by a small shower of sticks and rubbish falling from the sky. Upon looking up at the source of falling tree debris, they would be met with several pairs of beady eyes and a cacophony of corvid chatter. A would silently chuckle to myself and with each subsequent crow prank, games and chatter, I found myself feeling more and more endeared to these clever corvids.

It is then no surprise that I am so very endeared to the apostlebirds here at the station. They chatter constantly, preen each other, play, forage, jump about and cock their head to the side as they look up at me walking about with them. They are incredibly social, and in many ways remind me of the crows I grew up with, and they have the added advantage that being somewhat desert adapted (arid zone. actually) they have the downy insulated feathers that make them extra fluffy. Add that feature to the roundness that often characterizes birds that spend a big chunk of their lives on the ground, and here we have a round, fluffy, chatty crowlike bird! I do not know how I will ever forget these birds, and part of me knows that whatever direction I take after this PhD I take, a part of my heart will remain with these birds and bind me to them.

Playful in animals is especially endearing, as well as baffling to behaviouralists. To date, although many hypotheses to the adaptive function of play have been put forth, none has been proved* (that I know of, please feel free to email me any journal citations on this topic, as the sad truth to being a scientist is that you will never ever read up on all the topics you want because you are bogged down enough with reading the papers you need to justify your own research findings). It is hard to measure the effects that playing in birds have on survival and reproduction a so many, many behaviours may influence an animals success. But, what I can say is that playing is fascinating, cute and so, so very amusing when I am sitting in the field patiently waiting for my focal bird to come down and once again grace me with his/her presence so that I may ask him a series of short question that give me insight into a bigger question (In this particular case I am asking said bird, “Does the call from this particular individual interest you?” and “ how much do you care” and then “can you tell his call from the same call in another bird?”).

In between my interviews, while my interviewee bird preened, snoozed or helped build the nest, I waited and watched the other birds. The adults would mostly preen, forage and examine and build nests (when it suited) and the fledglings would beg and chase the adults when they were hungry. When they were not hungry, a small group would always approach and look at me (imploring for bread treats), and because their attention spans are short, they would start to play nearby, which left me in the unique position of both birdy-sitter and observer. Oh, and play they did, with stick and stones, leaves and tree rubble, and pretty much anything within sight of the communal snooze tree, where the adults would sit and preen, keeping watchful eyes scanning the sky for aerial predators as well as on the ground for threats such as foxes and feral cats.

Broken gum tree branches are especially fun and provide minutes of entertainment for both young and old (see video below). A bird would jump up and down, flipping the broken branch back and forth, back and forth until something else catches the birds eye. If that fails to entertain, a rock or stick will also provide as a “pecking bag”.

Eventually, my interviewee would once again start his/her seeking of food (which always brought him past my trusty english to apostlebirdese translator (aka “Mr. ten pound speaker”), and my observations of play sessions end, but only for the time being, as in the field another day awaits. This is apostlebird abode.

Video still to come: Playing with the “pecking stone”