Wild cockatoos learn to operate water fountains

They can do all sorts of things. They are a real problem in Sydney. People try to stop them opening the rubbish bins in the street ready for collection but they mostly fail.
 
Up here in the Blue Mountains, they operate like gangs. They literally walk about the villages like they own the place. They like to raid the outdoor restaurant tables, and will sit outside cake shops and wait to be fed waffles by tourists. Easier than their natural feeding method of opening seed-pods, I guess. Needless to say, waffles are not the best food for them, so there's some fat birds in our area!

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Does it count if they were married when they hatched?
 
My understanding is that these birds can be pretty hard on farm crops and vegetable gardens.
 
William Parcher said:
My understanding is that these birds can be pretty hard on farm crops and vegetable gardens.
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A friend built a 'kit house' sourced from the USA, made of 'red cedar' (hopefully I'm remembering that right).

He came home from work one day to find the sulphur crests had demolished his eaves and fascias.

All the timber had been chewed into slivers.

Apparently the cockatoos destroy things like that, when they're bored.
 
novaphile said:
Apparently the cockatoos destroy things like that, when they're bored.
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I think it's more than that. Cockatoos use woodchips for nest building (YouTube).
My love birds (agapornis) did something similar with paper, cardboard and plastic straws.
 
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dann said:
I think it's more than that. Cockatoos use woodchips for nest building (YouTube).
My love birds (agapornis) did something similar with paper, cardboard and plastic straws.
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Ah yes, I had a pair of 'free range' love birds (peach faced) in my flat back in the day.

The male (I think) used to go around trimming the edges of newspapers, magazines, etc. and stick the long thin strips of paper into his tail, when he had a decent collection, he'd fly back to their cage and use them to line the nesting box.

He caused a lot of panic*, when he managed to set the strips on fire, while I was cooking on the gas stove.

(I don't remember how he did it, I'm guessing he was near the stove, and just turned around near the burner, dragging the paper strips through the flame.)

I was a lot more careful about keeping an eye on him when I was cooking after that.

(Not sure who was more panicked, the bird, my flatmate or myself. If you can imagine a bird flying around your house dropping bits of burning paper, you get the picture.)
 
novaphile said:
Ah yes, I had a pair of 'free range' love birds (peach faced) in my flat back in the day.
The male (I think) used to go around trimming the edges of newspapers, magazines, etc. and stick the long thin strips of paper into his tail, when he had a decent collection, he'd fly back to their cage and use them to line the nesting box.
He caused a lot of panic*, when he managed to set the strips on fire, while I was cooking on the gas stove.
(I don't remember how he did it, I'm guessing he was near the stove, and just turned around near the burner, dragging the paper strips through the flame.)
I was a lot more careful about keeping an eye on him when I was cooking after that.
(Not sure who was more panicked, the bird, my flatmate or myself. If you can imagine a bird flying around your house dropping bits of burning paper, you get the picture.)
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Yeah, me too! :)

ETA: I saw one of them do it. With a plastic straw. It was definitely not deliberate. It was more like the old slapstick routine where a man with a plank turns around and doesn't consider where the plank goes.
 
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