Avian Play

Abstract

Abstract Play is more difficult to distinguish from other activities in birds than in mammals. Some cases of play reported in the literature appear to be due to threshold lowering, a type of activity that is usually differentiated from play. The various types of avian play are reviewed. Like mammals, birds exhibit object manipulation and some types of locomotory play. Subsong shows some remarkable similarities with characteristics of nonvocal play as noted in mammals, and birds may engage in other types of acoustic activities with playlike features. The corvids, particularly the Common Raven, exhibit the most complex play known for birds, and these activities, which are part of the learning process in the young, are probably important in the species' adaptation to a wide variety of habitats. Of all animals, only birds and mammals play, and play evolved independently in the two groups probably because of similar selection pressures acting on the developmental process to produce flexibility of behavior and the perfection of certain motor skills.