These clever birds can open trash cans and drink from water fountains

Australia’s iconic sulphur-crested cockatoos are incredibly intelligent, with large brains and nimble feet that have allowed them to pick up new habits in urban environments.

(CNN) — First, these parrots learned to open trash cans to forage for food. Now, they’ve taken it a step further – and have figured out how to turn on water fountains for a sip along with their meal.

These are Australia’s iconic sulphur-crested cockatoos – white birds with a yellow tuft on their heads, known for their loud, grating screech. But they’re also incredibly intelligent, with large brains and nimble feet that have allowed them to pick up new habits in urban environments.

The cockatoos in western Sydney, in particular, caught scientists’ attention with their latest trick of drinking from public fountains. After researchers first noticed this phenomenon in 2018, they tagged 24 birds and set up cameras near fountains in the area – then sat back and watched.

Throughout two months in the fall of 2019, they recorded most of the tagged birds attempting to drink from the fountains. Also known as bubblers, these fountains are operated by a twist handle – easy enough for a person to operate, but complex for an animal to figure out.

Yet, the cockatoos did. They used different techniques: some would stand with both feet on the handle, while others would put one foot on the handle and one foot on the rubber spout. Then, they’d lower their body weight to turn the handle clockwise – holding the handle in place while twisting their head to take a drink.

They weren’t always successful – it worked about half the time, and five of the 10 drinking fountains in the area had “chew marks” indicating cockatoos had been there before. But the success rate also meant that the cockatoos had likely been doing this for some time, said the researchers in their study, published Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters.

The team had studied Sydney’s sulphur-crested cockatoos before; in 2021, they published another paper examining the birds’ newly observed ability to lift closed trash bin lids with their beaks and feet to access the food inside.

These innovative behaviors aren’t just animals being amusing or clever – they show the birds’ ability to adapt to urban environments, and the power of social learning among animals, the researchers said.

“We know parrots like cockatoos are amongst the smartest birds out there, and the fact they’re so social – so they have the opportunity to learn from one another if a new behavior does pop up, if one genius bird does invent something,” said one of the study’s co-authors, Lucy M. Aplin, an associate professor at the Australian National University, in an interview with CNN affiliate ABC Radio.

There are some questions still unanswered. The researchers don’t know why exactly the cockatoos are flocking to drinking fountains, instead of other easily accessible natural water sources in the area. At first they thought the fountains might be a backup option on especially hot days when local creeks run dry – but that wasn’t the case.

Other theories are that the birds feel safer drinking from fountains in public areas where there are fewer predators, or that they simply prefer the taste of fountain water – but that would need further study to determine.

Now, the researchers want to know what else cockatoos can do – and any habits they may have already developed that just haven’t been studied yet.

“We’ve had some really interesting innovations reported to us, and some examples include unzipping school backpacks and stealing school lunches,” Aplin told ABC Radio. “It has become such a problem in some areas that they have to bring the school bags into the classroom rather than leaving them outside!”

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