We see (and hear) the Indoraptor tapping his sickle claws to the floor in Fallen Kingdom a lot. What's the purpose of this behavior?
It doesn't get elaborated on in the movie, but other material mentions he uses the sound created by the tapping for finding prey through echolocation. I've talked before about that I think it's not necessarily something he started doing for that purpose, but perhaps a frustrated motion to cope with his captivity and lack of enrichment, that he noticed he can also use to navigate his surroundings outside the cage despite not seeing every part of the space. But, there's also the fact that he isn't the only raptor we see doing this.
Blue does the claw tapping motion briefly right when she's introduced, having just finished a hunting exercise and waiting for further instructions for more play time.
One of the raptors in the kitchen scene in the first movie does this, too, while stalking between the counters looking for Lex and Tim.
All of these examples are from some sort of hunting situation, so it's probably behavior natural to the animal JP/W calls Velociraptor, and part of hunting, but not necessarily part of just hunting.
Jurassic World Evolution may not be strictly canon, but the Velociraptors in the game do also tap their sickle claws to the ground sometimes, and besides when about to pounce on prey, they also do it as an idle animation. Not randomly, though; it seems to be part of moments between actions, where the raptor is deciding what to do next. As a more firmly canon example, Blue taps her claws when she first meets Owen again after having been left alone on the island for years, just before she jumps off the car. I don't think treating Owen as prey is even an option in her mind there - she's otherwise behaving like she's angry, but at a packmate. She's also probably more than a bit confused, and curious but wary about what's going on all of a sudden.
Unlike the jaw snapping, I don't think the claw taps are, at least primarily, communication. The Indoraptor has no one to communicate with, and he uses it to deliberately create sound because he has lived all his life indoors with hard floors under him and sound-reflecting walls around him. Outdoors in the wild it would not work the same. Making noises while hunting would be counter-productive, even, if the noise itself can't play a part in finding the prey, so normally raptors probably rely on the motion being quiet and small enough to not draw attention. We see raptors communicate with each other while hunting or searching, and they seem to prefer using other body language, and vocalizations, though this gesture can maybe work to emphasize what's being communicated by other means.
I believe it's somewhat comparable to a cat waving its tail, which is a behavior with more range than simply to signal annoyance. It's more accurately a sign of frustration and restless energy, and if it happens when you're petting the cat, it means you're overstimulating the cat and it wants you to stop petting it, but the frustration can also be problem-solving or excitement of play. It's communication in that it can act as a warning that the frustration can uncoil as a swipe of claws or a bite if given reason to, but it's also just a thing the cat does while investigating a new thing or situation or while doing something fun, if the restless energy has a healthy outlet.
Raptors tap their claws while hunting because they're excited to be hunting, doing what they're made for doing. They tap their claws while assessing their surroundings to decide whether they want to go talk to their packmates or perhaps have a run around the enclosure next, or just what part of the fence looks the most headbuttable, and they tap their claws when trying to puzzle out why their human has suddenly come back and whether they should go closer to ask. They can also do so when they're bored out of their minds and just need something to do. For the Indoraptor it's been a lot of that last one, having been stuck in a cage with insufficient space or opportunities to do natural raptor things to entertain and express himself, except for tapping and tapping his claws until their sharp tips wear out. The motion is both an expression of high stimulation of the mind and a way of helping provide it to oneself.
Besides when hunting, and presumably when bored, the Indoraptor shows this behavior while in the display cage at the auction, when he doesn't need echolocation to map out a room with no dark corners he can't see to from the middle of it. If anything, the lighting is so bright especially after a long time in the dark, that in addition to the sudden, new situation and people and sounds and new scents all over, everyone staring at him, and getting struck with tasers when he's not being monstrous enough and they need him to roar for the audience, I'd say he's more likely experiencing sensory overload than sensory deprivation. The claw tapping could be an expression of agitation and part of working out how to get out of the situation, and it could also be an attempt at comforting himself in a stressful environment, where a familiar, repetitive motion is the only available source of comfort.
Or I guess to put it in terms I find useful to explain to myself my own behavior that I can't help but be a bit reminded of, yeah it's raptor stimming.
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