And birds of prey do the same with dead food items, occasionally carrying on for as long as an hour. There seems little point to it, though being able to catch objects in bill or claws is undoubtedly a skill used in earnest, too. Corvids seem to play most among birds, though whether this is a sign of their greater intelligence, or whether we think they are intelligent because they play, is a moot point. And Ravens have been observed sliding down a snowy slope on their backs. Suggestions that these behaviours are important in some way to the birds are very hard to sustain.
Waterbirds seem to play, too.
Canada Goose goslings suddenly start dashing hither and thither over the water, splashing with feet and wings, often diving or at least semi-submerging at the end of each dash. Well, one can hazard a guess that the birds are practising escape behaviour, getting away quickly from a predator, or perhaps helping the process of moulting from down to feathers, which may, for all we know, be quite itchy which splashing around in the water alleviates. But I don't know how to explain the Adelie Penguins which were seen riding in groups on small ice floes in a tide race, diving off after some distance and swimming back upstream to clamber on another floe and do it all over again, several times. Dr Ogilvie is a natural history writer and editor, formerly a research scientist with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, and resident on the island of Islay since 1986.