alt Hacker NewsCockatoos have learned to operate drinking fountains in Australia
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a friend had two sulfer crested cockatoos and told me a story once.
He had two, a male and a female.
The male played industriously and was adept at doing all kinds of things, like untying zipties. (my friend added zipties to the cage as a toy). The female never touched any of them.
One day, my friend and his buddy were sitting there, and they mentioned this out loud. "She can't untie these things, I think she is just stupid compared to (the male)"
At which point, the female went over, untied the ziptie, spat it out and walked away. My friend and his buddy sat there open-mouthed.
Fun fact: all cockies are left-handed. I used to live in Canberra, where they're plentiful. I heard this 'fact' and was doubtful. Well, I've since seen hundreds of these birds eating acorns and, can confirm, every one a leftie.
The why part is the most interesting because seemingly there no obvious answer to it though I like the “pure taste” theory.
>So why did the cockatoos gravitate to drinking fountains in the first place, when plenty of other water sources such as puddles and creeks are available? Perhaps they have developed a taste for the purer fountain water, Klump says. Or the elevated fountain perch helps them spot approaching predators such as eagles and falcons.
Checkout Kea parrots too
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kea#Cognitive_abilities
https://youtu.be/Yj718A7_s4A?si=yaiv4sZiY4xmzK0C. -- Kea doing probabilities and inferring from (biased) experiments
Original study that's discussed in the Science News link: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.001...
Watching cockatoos figure out stuff like this really makes me wonder have we been seriously underestimating bird intelligence all this time? We tend to associate tool use with primates, but parrots, corvids, and kea keep proving us wrong in the smartest ways. Honestly, maybe “avian cognition” deserves its own category of advanced problem solving. There’s probably a lot we could learn from their behavior not just about animals, but about ourselves and the systems we build.
Reminds me of my first Ibis encounter, in Brisbane. I was at an outdoor dining area in Southbank. There were signs warning people to beware of the ibis, and that the restaurant would not replace your food if it was taken by an ibis.
I sat down at a table, and there was a spray bottle with the condiments, promisingly-labeled "ibis spray". "Great", I thought to myself. "The ibis must hate whatever liquid they put in here". I was expecting maybe soapy water, or a lemon juice solution, or something.
I began eating, and a massive ibis landed next to me, and looked at me, threateningly. I wasn't scared. I held my ground, confidently reaching over to the ibis spray. I knew exactly how to fix this problem.
I aimed the ibis spray at the creature, and pulled the trigger.
What I now believe to be tap water shot out and struck the ibis, who did not even blink as it stared at me menacingly.
"Oh shit", I thought.
Not at all related (though I am Australian), but I was visiting a primary school one time and there was a large sand pit for the children to play in. Next to the sand pit was a newly installed drinking fountain. However funnily, the entire drinking fountain was completely clogged with sand, I assume from children bringing the sand to the drinking fountain in order to play with the water. Thought it was funny how by simple placement, defeated the utility of that device.
Birds have primate-like numbers of neurons in their forebrain https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4932926/
Given the article says this has spread amongst populations I'm suprised there's only one video on the internet of them doing this: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/video/2025/jun/04/su...
This is also an unconventional drinking fountain.
Okay, first the bins, now drinking fountains?! I'm genuinely starting to wonder what human contraption these feathered overlords will conquer next, and I get a slight 'planet of the apes... but with cockatoos' vibe.
Highly recommend this youtube channel for anyone interested in the problem solving capabilities of these birds.
They love to drop things on you from the trees. They laugh and laugh, the cacophony of screeches can be deafening. They mess with traffic all day long too, swooping cars from the traffic lights.
My family has a rescue Galah, very similar to Sulfur Crested Cockatoos and he is very smart. He knows the right words to use and when, he thinks the cat is called "ps ps ps" so he calls for the cat with ps ps ps, when it passes by. Knows how to say hello/goodnight etc and when. He also knows he can trick some people by looking away when you give him food, so you get closer, then he bites.
His wing was broken as a baby after getting stuck in a thorny bush, that's how we came to have him in case anyone is curious. He can't fly.
Reminds me of: https://www.birdspot.co.uk/bird-behaviour/blue-tits-and-milk... (SFW)
That's great, always amazing to see nature being able to manipulate its environment.
I do hope they don't shit all over the nozzle though.
It's wild how recently Humans have started to understand how smart and aware animals are.
No doubt, when rats can do all this, you have to wonder what else everything else can do! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV9z0c1hjnA
Nature is amazing! (especially rattos! :))
These cockatoos are truly the rockstars of the bird world. Not only can they learn to operate drinking fountains, but they also queue up to drink. Have they in some way, already mastered the use of tools and problem-solving abilities, just like humans do?
Cockatoos learn fast...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2023-11-12/white-cockatoos...
I tried to explain cockatoos to a Dutch friend once. I hadn't even gotten to the best parts and she was already convinced I was making everything up.
Cuckatoos also know how to open wheelie bins to raid rubbish. Now they can have all the water and food they need. Mischevious scoundrels.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-07-23/cockatoos-ope...
You can also see lots of videos online of cockatoos playing the shell game, e.g. https://youtube.com/shorts/Pu6O_iOZIO4?si=WEko4pfOekdGIbgF
What I love about these is that you can see that the cockatoo clearly knows that it’s playing a game. It doesn’t tip over the cup to get the reward (or just tip over all the cups, which is the easiest solution if you don’t care about the game). It just indicates which cup is the right one.
At first I read it as "Cockroaches".
If you give such a bird access to a 3d printer and a bird-ui-3d design software, what would he print?
Compared to many birds, cockatoos are very social. We have a flock of perhaps 40 or 50 nearby. They often break out in to smaller groups or as individuals but are found together frequently. In this respect they are more like humans.
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It did not appear they had learned to actually activate the fountain by turning the knob, only to lap up whatever residual water was already there.
IOW they "learned" how to drink water, not to use the fountain.
> Although the cockatoos can manipulate the fountain’s handles, they don’t always quench their thirsts. The team found that only 41% of attempts ended with the birds successfully drinking water. The animals struggled especially when other cockatoos crowded or rushed them.
"learned to operate" is an overstatement. They brute-forced a way to get water sometimes. Lots of animals do that. Mice learn or figure out how to get such water rewards - it's used every day in labs studying the brain
Cockies are the pranksters of the bird world. They're smart and they think it's hilarious to mess with each other and anyone else. They also tear everything to pieces. So it's no surprise really that if any bird worked out how to operate a drinking fountain it'd be these hilarious little jerks.