In The Penguin Post (yes, it exists) we recently found two reports of great interest and no importance suggesting that penguins are unusually sporting birds.
Item #1: Bird bowling. The British Air Force in the Faulkland Islands has discovered a way to "bowl" for penguins by flying over large groups of the groundbound birds. See, penguins are observant creatures that are unusually interested in airplanes (flight envy perhaps?). Herds of up to ten thousand penguins will, in unison, all point their beaks at a plane flying overhead, tracking it accurately as it passes by. Sooo... if the pilots fly over the penguins at just the right angle, the little animals all fall over backwards — again in unison — just as the plane passes overhead.
Item #2: Birdball. The penguins hanging around the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Antarctica have been observed to take interest in games of football played by humans on flat fields of snow and ice. So, "One day the scientists came out to discover that the penguins had taken the field. They would line up in two rough groups, and then start squawking, and running around bumping into each other. After a bit of this, they would pick themselves up, and start the process all over again. They hadn't quite got the idea that a ball was important to the process, but they kept at it for some time. The sight was so ridiculous that everyone was rolling on the ice laughing."
Source: http://www.penguin-place.com