A particular bird species in Australia has the smarts to open up garbage bins to find food, and now it seems they’ve learned another interesting skill.
A study recently published in the journal Biology Letters used motion activated cameras to keep an eye on sulphur-crested cockatoos at water fountains in western Sydney, Australia. Birds in the southern area of the city were observed getting into bins in past research, and the team wanted to know if any other localized groups of the species had picked up skills in response to human changes to their environment. There have been broader skills picked up across urban areas, but the team says there aren’t a ton of examples of localized innovations like this.
The findings of the new study showed that a cockatoo population in western Sydney has figured out how to operate twist-handle water fountains to get themselves a drink. This has been going on for at least two years.
Dr. John Martin, study co-author and an honorary researcher at Western Sydney University’s Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, says, “We watched the cockatoos operating the drinking fountain using coordinated actions with both feet. More often than not, the bird would place one foot – mainly the right –on the twist-handle or the valve, with the other foot used to grip the rubber spout or bubbler. Sometimes they would also use both feet on the valve.
“The weight of the bird would then be lowered to turn the twist-handle clockwise and keep it from springing back. We would observe the bird then turning its head to access the flowing water.”
The researchers found that the birds were successful about 41% of the time. At one particular water fountain, there were 525 attempts over 44 days, with 46% of marked birds figuring it out. Sometimes there was even a line.
The team says that this knowledge was likely spread through social learning and reflects the intelligence the birds have to adapt to a habitat being changed by humans.
Dr. Martin says, “The research shows that despite challenges like loss of habitat, cockatoos are very successful urban adaptors. It’s the first time we are aware of wild parrots developing this kind of innovative drinking behavior.
“We know that cockatoos have a particularly high level of innovativeness and problem-solving and are attracted to novelty. It shows that this kind of drinking innovation can be learned and then spread amongst a local bird population, forming a new urban-adapted tradition.”
You can check out video of the crafty birds below.
