A Game of Agility and Awareness: Sharp Chickadee
How is it to be a wild bird? With temperatures below freezing at night, I always wonder about the wild animals who live around us. Birds have no heaters, no blankets, no hot food, no indoors. They live only by the food energy they are able to gather during the day, and the heat they’re able to store in their feathers at night. What is it like to experience such pressure to find food, while constantly looking out for predators? Predators birds, too, must hunt for same food energy so that they can survive the night.
In the Riekes Nature department, we like to ask those questions in many ways. Study, direct observation, and imagination all inform our understanding of the natural world. But one of our best tools for animal empathy is play. The name of this game is Sharp Chickadee, brought to the West Coast Bird Language Intensive by Dan Gardoqui of White Pine Programs.
Here’s how to play: The game works best with large groups, perhaps 15 or more. Most players are Chickadees. Scattered on the land (within the agreed-upon boundaries of play) are Larders, consisting of napkins or plates of treats, some higher value than others. Some good examples of treats might be nuts, potato chips, or peanut butter cups. Every Chickadee’s goal is to eat as many treats as possible.
A few of the players are Sharp-Shinned Hawks. Hawks try to tag Chickadees.
In real life, chickadees are safe from hawks in dense cover. For gameplay, any tree is a safe base. But Chickadees can only stay in cover (touching a tree) for 10 seconds, before their quick little metabolisms drive them out to find more food. Chickadees love trees!
Chickadees have wings, not hands, so they must eat from the Larders like birds, face-first. Just like real-life birds, players can’t watch their backs when they’re chowing down!
When Chickadees get tagged they “die,” which means they must sit down and stay in one place. Every time a Hawk tags a Chickadee they get to eat from a Larder. Now, Chickadees are family birds and in real life, flocks stick together and help eachother. In game, Chickadees can revive their fallen friends if three living Chickadees all touch the dead one at the same time.
Try out this game at your next birthday party or park day, and find out what it’s like to live like a wild bird. Good luck avoiding the Hawks!
