How Crows Play Soccer

I spent a while just enjoying and observing the local Crows feeding in the trees today. They are marvelous fun to watch and listen to, especially so when there are several dozen or more active at once. A large part of the entertainment value in watching Crows is the fact that their behavior and language is so diverse, and while these creatures are ever present around us day to day, they remain so mysterious. Why? How do they do this?

One thing that I suppose might occur to anyone inclined to sit a while and endure the cacophonic chorus of Crows is that they all seem to have the same name, Ah! I am half joking but it does seem so.

Engage with me in bit of fantasy if you will. Imagine that you are watching a soccer game. Now imagine that everyone on both teams has the same name, let’s say, Joe (Yes, yes, Joe is slow of course). This might make for a bit of a confusing game, not only to watch, but especially to play, don’t you think? Everyone simultaneously yelling Joe, Joe, Joe!!!! But let’s go a step further. Let’s give everyone on both teams the exact same uniform. Ah yes, now we’re talking; play on words intended. In this scenario, the best way for team-mates to keep cohesion, and a flow of useful communication is to, well, communicate, constantly, like Crows. Everyone's voices are quite different, for humans or Crows and voices serve as great jerseys. This feels like it might be an apt analogy for what’s going on.

But the Crow’s are not yelling out their team-mates’ names, as in Sam, it’s me, over here; Pass the ball to me!!!! I think they are identifying themselves to their team-mates, and the identifier is their unique voice. It’s as if the soccer players are all yelling out their own names, or simply making their position, presence, state of awareness, or alarm all known by the sound, tone, volume, pitch, etc.., of their unique voices. What a novel idea! Coaches take note. I mean that is some pretty high level team unity if you can know your teammates by their voices when they make a brief utterance like Ah! right? It makes for fast play, and it requires all players to up their level of awareness.

Further opposite still, there is no ball to pass in the Crows’ game. The goal is a large tree, and the object is not to get a ball into the tree, but to take balls, or fruits, out. Let’s call this game, reccos, or raucous, because it is exactly the opposite of soccer, and in order to play it well, you do need to make a lot of constant noise, well, you need to communicate your presence and position constantly anyway; I don't think you can label rich communication "noise" which is largely random.

I think I observed a few different strategies for playing the game, but it is hard to tell how accurate my perceptions are because I can’t tell the players apart, except by voice, a lot of the action is obstructed by the trees, and I have no idea how many players, or teams there are. One thing seems pretty certain, however, there do not appear to be any rules per se, though it appears that injury avoidance is a general ethic at work. Anyway, here is what I think I observed:

Strategy One: One big burly Crow gets into the fruiting tree. His team-mates circle about chasing off other team’s members who encroach, be they of another clan, family, or friendly gang…I have no idea. The guy in the tree pulls off as much fruit as possible tossing it to the forest floor. Later this team alternates foraging on the forest floor to collect the dropped fruit, and guarding for one another again. This seems like an efficient strategy, though pigeons manage to pick up a fair amount of the bounty, and you may not be able to count on your friends to guard you while you eat once they are full.

Strategy Two: The silent team. I notice the silent strategy employers tend to be in smaller groups, like Ninjas or Navy Seals. They silently take posts on different sides of the goal tree. One will sneak in to score. When he is driven off, another one takes his chance to dive in for a fruit. It is a multi-prong offensive.

Strategy Three: The false offensive. A group of Crows will sweep in feigning an offensive, drawing a lot of attention from defenders who take chase. While they are gone, their team takes advantage to score.

Strategy Four: The false plot. The different teams are calling to have an auditory-visual, if you will, on their own team’s effective, defensive cohesion. When another team sits together in close proximity and makes a very loud ruckus, then the team with control of the tree feels threatened and may break ranks to go break the seemingly overwhelmingly threatening cohesion the other team seems to be amassing.  

Strategy Five:  The blitz. Speaks for itself. A looser similar strategy seems to be the half-hearted blitz, or mayhem. Once most of your team is getting full, it’s hard to keep them motivated.

Strategy Six:  Get the general. This is when one or more members of another team aggressively target the tree squatter and try to drive him out and take possession of the goal tree.

One interesting thing is the call given by the bird in the goal tree, I guess we could call this bird the goalie, though it is really the goaler. This bird issues a rather unique, motivational call totally different and unique from the defenders Ah calls.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to ask two soccer teams to try playing a game in the same uniforms where they could only call out their own names, to see what might be learned about the Crow’s perspective, and strategies for team success. Maybe soccer players could learn something useful from the Crows as well?