The behavior—never before seen in birds—may be a developing cultural tradition among one population

With their pure white plumage and striking crest of bright yellow feathers, sulfur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita) don’t look like your average dumpster diver. Yet these clever, crow-size parrots are adept at breaking into trash cans across suburban Sydney and scarfing down scraps. Now, scientists have discovered an even more impressive skill: One flock of cockatoos has learned how to operate human drinking fountains, performing a complex series of twists and holds to release the water into their mouths.

The behavior—not seen in any other bird—has been so successful, it appears to be spreading among western Sydney’s cockatoo population, researchers report today in Biology Letters. As such, it likely represents a local “cultural tradition,” says Vladimir Pravosudov, a behavioral ecologist and expert on avian cognition at the University of Nevada, Reno, who was not involved with the work. “Once a few cockatoos figured it out, others likely picked it up by watching them.”

Barbara Klump, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Vienna, has studied Sydney’s cockatoos for years. While conducting fieldwork in the western part of the city in 2018, she noticed several of the birds perched on a fence waiting their turn to investigate a nearby water fountain. To access water, human patrons twist and hold the fountain’s handle, which causes water to spew from a spout embedded inside a rubber top. When Klump got closer, she was shocked to realize the cockatoos seemed to be doing the same.

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To learn more, Klump and her team returned to the area, which is near a large cockatoo roost site and several soccer fields and playgrounds. The team stationed two motion-triggered cameras near one of the fountains. Over the course of more than 1 month, the cameras recorded nearly 14 hours of cockatoos around the device. The team pinpointed 525 different drinking attempts.

Every cockatoo exhibited slight variations in its plan of attack. But the general strategy was the same: Each placed one or both of its feet on the fountain’s twist handle, then lowered its weight to twist the handle clockwise and prevent it from springing back up. As the parrots slurped water from the bubbling spout, their sharp beaks often left behind chew marks on the fountain’s rubber top. 

According to Pravosudov, these motions illustrate the dexterity of the cockatoos’ feet and large beaks, which set them apart from other brainiac birds. “Even though crows may be just as smart, they do not have the physical tools parrots have at their disposal to manipulate objects,” he says. “The way they can use both their beaks and feet makes them more equipped for this type of behavior.”

Although the cockatoos can manipulate the fountain’s handles, they don’t always quench their thirsts. The team found that only 41% of attempts ended with the birds successfully drinking water. The animals struggled especially when other cockatoos crowded or rushed them.

So why did the cockatoos gravitate to drinking fountains in the first place, when plenty of other water sources such as puddles and creeks are available? Perhaps they have developed a taste for the purer fountain water, Klump says. Or the elevated fountain perch helps them spot approaching predators such as eagles and falcons.

Sydney’s broader cockatoo community appears to be missing out. The researchers scoured the citizen science app Big City Birds but did not find other reports of cockatoos operating drinking fountains outside of the western suburbs, where the study was conducted.

This contrasts with what Klump and her colleagues have observed in cockatoo dumpster diving, which has spread to more than 40 different suburbs in recent years. She suspects local variations among drinking fountains may be partially to blame. For example, some suburbs have fountains with push buttons instead of twist handles, which would require a completely different approach by the cockatoos. 

But even unfamiliar fountains may not stay parrot-proofed for long. Klump suspects that different cockatoo populations could eventually come up with unique approaches to operate their local drinking fountains. “They’re so innovative and good at problem solving that they seem to eventually figure out a solution,” she says. “In a weird way, cockatoos constantly surprise me, but I’m also never that surprised.”

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