What Can Dancing Cockatoos Teach Us About Ourselves?

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. 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. Sulphur-​crested Cockatoos have also featured in recent headlines because of a behavior that is less charming than dancing: raiding trash bins. 

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. Flipping over the heavy lids requires a series of steps, from prying open the lid to walking around the edge of the bin. Only a minority of the birds have mastered this process. 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.

 What does it mean for birds to be able to do things that we used to attribute only to our closest relatives, like apes, or to animals like dolphins that we already knew had outsized brains for their body size?

 Do certain behaviors make some species smarter or more adaptable than others, allowing us to arrange animals in a hierarchy of intelligence?

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