The technique varies among different neighborhoods, and the scientists concluded that the birds are learning how to raid trash from others, with location-specific idiosyncrasies developing as the cockatoos observe their companions. Only a minority of the birds have mastered this process. Flipping over the heavy lids requires a series of steps, from prying open the lid to walking around the edge of the bin. A study published in 2021 by researchers in Germany and Australia established that cockatoos in suburban Sydney, which have long eaten the city’s discarded food, are not just opportunistically scavenging but using complicated maneuvers to open the bins and get at the food inside. Sulphur-crested Cockatoos have also featured in recent headlines because of a behavior that is less charming than dancing: raiding trash bins. Rhythmic movement in response to sound has also been noted in chimpanzees, which sometimes perform “rain dances” in the wild at the start of a storm. ![]() Psychologists think responding to music with movement is a sophisticated form of behavior, and it is intriguing because it does not seem to be necessary for a parrot’s existence. The authors of a paper examining his behavior note that these were spontaneously generated by the bird, rather than copied from his owner, “who does not make a wide range of movements when dancing with Snowball and tends only to engage in head bobbing and hand waving” (which is an accurate description of a lot of people’s dance moves, in my experience). Standing on the back of an armchair, Snowball produced 14 distinct dance moves. This bird rocketed to YouTube fame with his ability to move along to the beat of pop songs. In case that seems too studious, consider Snowball, the dancing Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. Even pigeons, which don’t seem especially thoughtful, can memorize more than 700 different patterns, and can classify objects as either “human-made” or “natural.” When he died at the age of 31, his obituary appeared in the New York Times. An African Grey Parrot named Alex learned about 150 words, not merely repeating them but seeming to know what they meant, and could categorize objects by color and size. The new geniuses are birds, especially parrots and corvids, members of the crow family. Apes and cetaceans doing clever things is so mid-2000s. Move over chimpanzees, dolphins, and even bonobos. The gulls’ predictive ability is impressive, but it is just the latest indication of birds behaving in a manner that can only be described as intelligent. Both of these behaviors are strikingly different from the techniques gulls typically use when searching for fish or other prey, and both only appear in urban gulls, illustrating how some creatures, at least, can thrive in human environments. The birds also visited a waste center at the appropriate time of day for freshly dumped garbage, capitalizing on weekends when humans were scarce and hence less likely to disturb them. ![]() Has a gull ever snatched a French fry from you, or made a dive at your sandwich? Would you have been more, or less, annoyed if you found out that the bird knew exactly when you would appear, and was in effect lying in wait? Scientists in Bristol, England, recently discovered that Lesser Black-backed Gulls predictably showed up at a school just before snack time and lunch, waiting in large numbers on nearby rooftops for the opportunity to snag food from the students.
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