Smart Cockatoos Use Sydney’s Drinking Fountains
- Editor OGN Daily
- Jun 5
- 1 min read
Experts think the clever birds learned the technique by watching people and then trying it themselves.
Using their dexterous digits, the sulphur-crested cockatoos imbibe from infrastructure designed for humans, as the birds have worked out how to operate drinking fountains - with footage showing the birds gripping and turning the handle before leaning in for a satisfying sip.
“The behaviour consists of a combination of actions involving both feet, bill and shifting body weight to start the water flow,” researchers say in their study published in Biology Letters.
Dr John Martin, a senior ecologist at Ecosure and co-author of the study, said they stumbled on the complex behaviour at a twist-handle-operated bubbler located in a western Sydney sports field while surveying cockatoo foraging habits. “So they would go and stand on it, and then they would have to grip the handle and actually push it forwards to activate it, and then lean over and have a drink.”
Cockatoos, a family of parrots, are known innovators, with dextrous toes that are capable of gripping.
Presumably the birds first learned what to do by watching people, Martin said. “Eventually one of them got it, and then the others were like, ‘ah, this is fun’.” The cockatoos learned by watching others and then trying themselves, he said.
About 70 percent of the local population attempted the manoeuvre, even though there was a creek only 500 metres away. So they appear to be drinking from the water spout for fun and enjoying a bit of a challenge, rather than drinking out of necessity.
