[HN Gopher] Australia's trash bin-raiding cockatoos
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Australia's trash bin-raiding cockatoos
Author : NotSwift
Score : 126 points
Date : 2021-07-23 06:39 UTC (16 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.smithsonianmag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.smithsonianmag.com)
| Nostaris wrote:
| This reminds me of owls in Futurama:
| https://futurama.fandom.com/wiki/Owl
| doctor_eval wrote:
| We had cockatoos who lived with us north of Melbourne (out St
| Andrews way). They are great birds, and fascinating to watch, and
| also, if you feed good quality bird seed then they will come
| around at the same time every day, and be your friends, and if
| one day you don't feed them for some reason, they deliberately
| throw your pot plants off your window ledge, one by one, smashing
| them to the ground, and then you swear never, ever to feed the
| brilliant little fuckers again.
| Mandatum wrote:
| As they slowly dismantle your house, your car, and ultimately..
| your life.
| nerpderp82 wrote:
| Bird Spotting
| rbut wrote:
| Lived out that way growing up. They gnawed at our weatherboards
| and deck railing. Always a major PITA.
| NeoVeles wrote:
| Years back when I lived in South Morang, they would go house to
| house digging through the rubbish bins. Even if you put bricks
| on the lids, they would team up to topple them off and get the
| lid open.
|
| Nowadays I live a little further south, we have clouds of
| screaming Cockies every morning. I wouldn't dare feed them for
| fear they would bring the entire hoard.
|
| They are cool birds bu very... independent if you will.
| justinclift wrote:
| > Even if you put bricks on the lids, they would team up to
| topple them off and get the lid open.
|
| Sounds like a perfect opportunity to place a jack-in-the-box.
| :)
| msrenee wrote:
| I'd be worried they'd plot some kind of revenge.
| please-reread wrote:
| Pot plants, you say? I am sorry for your loss.
| jonhuber wrote:
| Pot plants are just potted plants in Australian parlance.
| teh_klev wrote:
| I think the parent commenter knows that, I took it as a
| humorous deliberate misreading to get the joke in.
| flybrand wrote:
| In 2007, our one year old son was tossing them food while we'd
| turned around. We were on a 9th floor patio and hadn't seen the
| bird join us.
|
| We just avoided him getting pecked!
| paranoidrobot wrote:
| Rainbow Lorikeets are similarly fascinating birds.
|
| However like Cockatoos, if you forget to feed them, they will
| happily destroy everything. I remember seeing photos years ago
| of someone who'd been feeding Rainbow Lorikeets regularly from
| their wooden balcony.
|
| They went away for a few weeks and came back to find that most
| of the balcony railing where they'd normally provide feed had
| been torn apart like a thousand tiny little woodchippers had
| been at it.
|
| It was one of those stories that I've remembered and repeat to
| anyone who decides to feed the cute birds that come around.
| peanut_worm wrote:
| I got the opportunity to see some in an aviary. They are so
| friendly and vibrant.
| Mandatum wrote:
| As they slowly dismantle your house, your car, your life.
| nojs wrote:
| Can confirm this is 100% true. They are super smart and super
| destructive.
| sircastor wrote:
| Angus of Maker's Muse posted a video last year about creating
| puzzles for the local wild cockatoos. They're very smart birds.
|
| [1] https://youtu.be/A5YyTHyaNpo
| londons_explore wrote:
| It always amazes me how much food is left in bins.
|
| I personally try to never chuck food away - it saves me money,
| saves the environment and helps others eat (by keeping food
| prices low). Perhaps once a month do I chuck something out.
| (Usually because it's gone mouldy before the best before date)
|
| Yet I have seen people who seem to chuck out tens of things every
| week. I just don't understand their logic - why buy what you
| can't eat?
|
| In this video for example are bits of uneaten bread/sandwiches.
| modernerd wrote:
| Iggy Pop keeps a Moluccan Cockatoo called BiggyPop. He has a
| bunch of videos of Biggy judging and rocking out to music if he
| likes it:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a7TGxn3cVU
|
| https://www.instagram.com/biggypop/
|
| They're clearly smart birds and it's no wonder a bin lid presents
| little challenge in the wild.
|
| They also have the bite force of a Husky[1], which makes them
| pretty scary in the wild and not a great choice as a pet for
| most.
|
| [1]: https://beakcraze.com/can-a-cockatoo-bite-your-finger-
| off/#H...
| tzs wrote:
| See also Snowball the dancing Eleonora cockatoo [1], who has at
| least 14 distinct dance moves which are shown in the videos in
| this article [2].
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_(cockatoo)
|
| [2] https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/07/study-of-
| snow...
| terrywang wrote:
| Not just cockatoos, but also magpies, at least that's what I've
| observed recently. Both are intelligent birds with not so good
| reputation, I'd avoid making them my enemies. Both can do
| significant damanages to your garden and plants. Cockatoos and
| magpies are intelligent enough to observe human beahviour and
| retaliate when those who try to offend them when they are not
| present at home (don't ask me how I know this...). Over time, I
| learned to make friends with them, make the gardens friendly and
| attractive to them, toys (river stones, small toys, ablone
| shells, etc.), clean water source and so on, I've been living
| with both cockatoos and magpies for years now. It seems that the
| magpies have a strong sense of territory, the same group returns
| everyday, while cockatoos visit less often, or simply randomly.
|
| On cockatoos: One of my neighbours have been keeping a white
| cockatoo as pets for 10+ years, the bird start to lose feather on
| tis chest... The bird is kept in a large cage with a meshed
| window facing a park / playground, the bird says hello to pretty
| much everyone who waves at or greets it. Sometimes it even says
| "have fun" in a weird tone - it took me at least 20 times before
| I figured out what it was trying to say ;-)
|
| On magpies: their beaks are not at advantage to open bin lids as
| cockatoos'. However, individual magpies are smart and powerful
| enough to open overflowed bins' lids and mess up the garbage.
| AnotherGoodName wrote:
| We should clarify that Australian Magpies are a completely
| different genus to other magpies. They are in their own branch
| genetically and there's really not much else like them. They
| were called magpies because they are black and white.
|
| Their behavior is equally as unique as their genome. Highly
| intelligent and highly territorial. They will attack humans
| without hesitation if they perceive a threat.
| anotherevan wrote:
| Magpies become extra territorial during breeding season and
| swoop, defending their patch. They also recognise and remember
| individual humans, too. For some reason the ones up our street
| took a dislike to my son and will swoop at him every season,
| but never bother the other three of us.
|
| During the protracted Melbourne lock-downs last year, when you
| did go for a drive down to the shops for your groceries and
| such, you could see huge groups of cockies and galahs hanging
| around. Not as much fun as the small English town that got
| invaded by goats, but I did wonder once or twice if I was in an
| Alfred Hitchcock film.
| matthiasv wrote:
| > On cockatoos: One of my neighbours have been keeping a white
| cockatoo as pets for 10+ years, the bird start to lose feather
| on tis chest...
|
| It's not "losing" feathers, it's likely pulling them out due to
| living in a confined space without appropriate social ties and
| thus behaving like this.
| pvaldes wrote:
| Can be also Psittaccine beak and feathers disease, a
| relatively common and non treatable disease of cockatoos
| caused by (who would suspect that) a circovirus. This birds
| were born to be the avian version of the Jocker (and a really
| good one).
| pibechorro wrote:
| Ding ding ding.
|
| Dont cage birds, if you are not working from home and giving
| them stimulation all day everyday, its torture.
| lightbulbjim wrote:
| Australian birds have a huge evolutionary advantage over species
| in other parts of the world. Modern birds evolved in Australia.
|
| See: https://books.google.com.au/books?id=oJxZCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT11
| ausimian wrote:
| Live in Sydney and have had the cockatoos in our bins a few times
| in the past six months. They're pretty brazen too, caught them at
| it a while ago and they carried on like I wasn't there.
|
| Started leaving a brick on the lid which seems to work.
| kristiandupont wrote:
| Cockatoo removing bird spikes:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7UFoEuzYvc
| LegitShady wrote:
| This must be some kind of installer error because if they can
| be picked up and removed something will do that.
| pvaldes wrote:
| Yup Australia, the place were nature hates you passionately.
|
| Now with metal spikes raining over your head included, because
| we felt creative and you have two eyes.
| ghosty141 wrote:
| I would hate this if I'd live there but it's still fascinating.
| These birds are so smart. I wonder how birds will do in like
| 200-300 years. Some birds in urban cities already fly through
| the subway system to find food.
| taberiand wrote:
| In 200-300 years, given the projections of climate change?
| Probably about as well as everything else...
| NotSwift wrote:
| Even apart from global warming, approximately 1 in 8 bird
| species are already on the brink of extinction. Major
| causes are loss of habitat, introduction of predators
| (cats, rats, snakes) and spread of diseases (bird flu is
| already pandemic but new one will certainly arise).
| gonzo41 wrote:
| There's a big flock of these that fly around my place just
| wrecking tree's. Every 2-3 months they swing past my yard and
| strip my pine tree's and then terrorize my neighbor who's been
| trying to grow a walnut tree for a few years.
|
| It's pretty entertaining. They are smart and just seem to always
| find trouble.
| scottmcdot wrote:
| We also call them "rubbish bins".
| danwills wrote:
| Agreed, although this particular type of bin also gets called a
| "Wheelie Bin" (or perhaps "Wheely Bin"? not sure how to spell
| it actually..) a lot, at least in South Australia.
| crashbunny wrote:
| Where's your bin? "I's been on holidays" No, No. Where's your
| wheelie bin? "OK, OK, I's really been in gaol"
| adamjb wrote:
| Yeah, my rubbish bin's in my kitchen, thank you very much
| KineticLensman wrote:
| In the UK they are colloquially referred to as dustbins. My
| local council formally refers to them as rubbish bins and their
| contents as rubbish or waste [0]. The term wheelie bin is used
| when they do in fact have wheels (ours don't). Very few Brits
| would call them trash bins or trash cans.
|
| [0] https://newforest.gov.uk/rubbish
| schappim wrote:
| Here is one that visited our house:
|
| https://files.littlebird.com.au/IMG_0420-rU3XEJ8IqAEehOrAwkJ...
|
| https://files.littlebird.com.au/IMG_0271-hdbzS2TIutwOL5rAajP...
|
| https://files.littlebird.com.au/IMG_0435-NDeiqB4ebNXl9leyBr8...
|
| https://files.littlebird.com.au/IMG_0432-PoRHBh7IZWvtLjCxUZN...
|
| We don't encourage them because they can eat our wooden deck.
| chrismorgan wrote:
| If we're sharing cockatoo pictures, here's one from 2019: on a
| table in Halls Gap, a cockatoo eating some pizza crust that it
| had been given by a tourist, sitting right beside a sign that I
| can only interpret as "don't feed the kookaburras":
| https://temp.chrismorgan.info/DSC06148.JPG
| tosh wrote:
| Great shot!
| temp0826 wrote:
| Looks like a scene from a sequel to Untitled Goose Game
| ungamedplayer wrote:
| I'll translate the headline into cockatoo for any of them reading
| "reeeeeeee e eeeeeee eeeeewe reweeeeweeeeaaaaaaaaaaew
| eeeeaaawwwwwwwwwwwwk"
|
| [Source: I hear them every morning]
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| Next species for humans to domesticate - cockatoos can be used as
| automatic bin openers when you need to throw out your garbage!
|
| also, according to the article, they sound like punk rock!
| pan69 wrote:
| They sure sound like punk rock. I have flocks of them near my
| house every once in a while and they destroy everything.
|
| Here's a video to give you the idea of what they sound like (in
| real life it's much worse!):
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERYamZkj_xQ
| mschuster91 wrote:
| In Germany, we have similar problems, just with crows. In Munich,
| many trash bins had to be upgraded to be crow (and pigeon) proof,
| and there have even been occasional attacks - due to covid
| restrictions, cities became more quiet so the birds nested... and
| then the restrictions eased and people invaded the areas of the
| nests.
| jansan wrote:
| If they are the "Punks of the bird world", then what are New
| Zealand's Keas? I heard from a New Zealander that they will
| completely dismantle your convertible car (with a soft top) or
| your bicycle, if you leave it with them.
|
| Update: Here is a Kea playing with traffic cones:
| https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/kea-mischief-caught-on-cam/XIO...
|
| Update2: Keas vandalizing police car:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBdvRCkCNfo
| lostlogin wrote:
| I've seen them push moderate size rocks off bin lids in order
| to get in. I've seen them remove a broom handle that was pushed
| through the handles of multiple bins (by pushing the broom
| handle out first).
|
| And then I've seen a group of them get fed by sliding down a
| tin roof on their claws, making the most hellish noise to get
| the humans out of bed.
|
| Usually though, they are just ripping bits off cars and
| mangling the aerials.
|
| They are hilarious and destructive arseholes.
| peanut_worm wrote:
| I strongly suspect that Kea are the most intelligent animal
| other than humans and maybe chimps.
| postingawayonhn wrote:
| > Here is a Kea playing with traffic cones
|
| They're not just playing. They figured out that by moving the
| cones into a traffic lane they can get vehicles to stop.
|
| Cars often have to stop here as it's a one lane tunnel so the
| kea wait around to receive food or play with people/vehicles.
| ehnto wrote:
| My old friend had a Cockatoo who lived with them as a kid, but
| wasn't captive at all. He just chose to spend his time with them
| after they found him orphaned and took care of him for a while.
| He would disappear for a day or two and come back, and he would
| follow my friend to school and hang out around the classrooms
| waiting. The teachers would try to shoo him and he would rage
| against the machine, they are loud as hell. Appropriately, his
| name was "Rowdy".
|
| "Cockatoos... producing an average of 120 decibels and loudest of
| 135 decibels of noise. The loudness can be judged by looking at
| the noise level of 140 decibels of a 747 Jumbo Jet."
| blincoln wrote:
| I wonder if their ears are physically more resistant to hearing
| damage than ours, or if they're just guaranteed to go deaf as
| they age.
| ehnto wrote:
| In captivity they can live up to 80 years old so if it's
| possible someone knows the answer to that. I have to imagine
| they have something similar to humans ears where we have a
| muscle to dampen the sounds of our jaw area and voice.
| Syzygies wrote:
| In the 1980's I attended an amazing talk by Lynn Conway. She
| described how with Carver Mead she had popularlized VLSI design
| methodology, using her studies in anthropology for insights into
| deliberately fomenting a revolution.
|
| She opened the talk with a map of birdwatcher observations,
| detailing the concentric circles of technology spread across
| England as blue tits taught each other to peck open foil caps:
|
| "In the early 20th century, milkmen would deliver milk to British
| doorsteps, in bottles that were sealed with foil caps. Then, in
| the 1920s, homeowners started noticing holes in the foil. The
| culprits were blue tits. They had learned to peck open the bottle
| caps to drink the layer of cream beneath. The behaviour quickly
| spread. By the 1950s, it seemed that every blue tit in Britain
| knew the technique."
|
| https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/scientist...
| sellyme wrote:
| If the bin chickens learn how to do this as well, we're doomed.
| Mordisquitos wrote:
| Relevant song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO-OpFjHRbE
| dkdbejwi383 wrote:
| I hope bin chickens are given the right to compete at the
| Brisbane Olympics
| ungamedplayer wrote:
| True story. During ww2 Aussie diggers used to post a lookout for
| their superiors they would nickname the cockatoo while they were
| gambling or misbehaving. The cockatoo would make noise letting
| their fellow soldiers know of the incoming officer.
|
| This habit is named after the same habit the birds have for
| predators.
| jiggawatts wrote:
| The real connoisseurs of trash are the Bin Chickens:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4dYWhkSbTU
| pteraspidomorph wrote:
| It's the Ibi~~~s... (nsfw language)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO-OpFjHRbE
| exhilaration wrote:
| Incredible video, thank you! I thought it really was a Planet
| Earth segment but it slowly became more and more hilarious.
| ehnto wrote:
| In SA they've retained some of their elegance, so I was really
| surprised to find out they have such a bad name in the bigger
| cities! They are really elegant in flight.
| peanut_worm wrote:
| We have our own bin chickens in America! They are everywhere in
| Florida
|
| American White Ibis
| rini17 wrote:
| Just don't throw away food recklessly. As part of EU drive for
| garbage recycling/separation it's now becoming mandatory to put
| food scraps and leftovers separately into dedicated container.
| That's a good thing to avoid wildlife learning to scavenge.
| pjmlp wrote:
| Yeah, but then since the good fellow humans are too lazy to
| properly lock the bins, the raven gangs manage to open them
| anyway.
|
| Also it doesn't help that in most cities you have to hunt down
| to a garbage bin close to bus stops, which is then stuffed with
| all kinds of possible garbage anyway.
| RicoElectrico wrote:
| In the past decade wild hogs have grown to be a major problem
| in Polish cities. Plowing through lawns, tipping over trash
| bins. The animals themselves are not an immediate danger to
| humans (they really do not care about you), but they destroy
| gardens and can cause car accidents.
|
| All these 5 or so mandatory segregation bins do not fit into
| the enclosure, so in my case one of them is on the driveway,
| which hogs tip over almost every night. Not sure how to deal
| with them without making trash collectors' lives harder.
|
| It's so ironic I haven't seen one hog (or marks of their
| existence) back on vacations in countryside.
| foobar1962 wrote:
| There are a couple of things Aussie kids are taught from a young
| age: don't touch spiders; don't splash water at the pool or throw
| sand at the beach; and don't stick your fingers in the cocky
| cage.
| enriquto wrote:
| > don't splash water at the pool
|
| why is that?
| [deleted]
| phist_mcgee wrote:
| So the walkways around the pool edge don't get wet, which
| would cause a tripping hazard for people walking past.
| tankenmate wrote:
| You'll get boxed around the ears by your elders :)
| satori99 wrote:
| I shared a house with a demented Cockatoo once. He was rescued
| from poor conditions and didn't really know how to be a bird.
|
| They are really smart -- like toddler smart, and very curious.
| They can solve puzzles, pick locks, and have epic screaming
| tantrums when they don't get what they want. Every. single.
| day.
|
| The video below is not mine, but resembles my experience living
| with a crazy parrot:
|
| https://youtu.be/BB4Qhtuxe6A?t=45
| kwyjobojoe wrote:
| Before the council cut down the gum tree, they used to
| deliberately drop branches on me when I was outside. Any they
| could bite through, up to maybe 1.5cm thick, they would wait
| until I walked around the car then drop them on my head, and
| scream their heads off. Crafty bastards
| crashbunny wrote:
| I've seen aussie birds seek out and reposition thrown out
| empty energy drinks to finish off the last few drops.
| Apparently they act just young teenagers in many ways.
| lostlogin wrote:
| There is a post here about Kea and it links to a video of
| them moving traffic cones on the road, which messes with
| traffic.
|
| It is very much like teenage behaviour.
| ThatMedicIsASpy wrote:
| It's not really crazy. Parrots can like or hate you. That's
| why they can be a terrible pet.
| unixhero wrote:
| In Australia it is not called trass, they say rubbish. Any older
| Aussie will call you out on it.
|
| "It's rubbish mate"
| timbit42 wrote:
| Smithsonian is American so they translate it.
| christkv wrote:
| I remember seeing a group Cockatoos harassing a guy in the park
| they would fly from tree to tree following him specifically.
| dpedu wrote:
| Maker's Muse, a 3d-printing youtube channel has a video where a
| local and wild cockatoo is given 3d-printed puzzles to solve.
| It's really worth a watch, it highlights how the bird figures
| things out.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lgWcGIoSVA
| yreg wrote:
| Birds can also be trained for the reverse outcome - to collect
| trash and deposit it in exchange for seeds.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25180662
| pjmlp wrote:
| I wonder if they will get into collective agreements for seeds.
| :)
| loftyal wrote:
| Lyre Bird of south australia sings like a chainsaw
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSB71jNq-yQ
| pjmlp wrote:
| Not only cockatoos, ravens are also quite social.
|
| Around the German area where I live, they team up in "bird gangs"
| and if the fellow humans were too lazy to properly close the
| garbage, they will open it, either alone or via team work.
|
| It is not uncommon to eventually find garbage bags scattered
| around, which they took out while searching for food, thanks to
| those lazy animals species that failed to properly close the
| garbage container.
| cturner wrote:
| Three years ago, we had a month in Australia, and drove through
| the SA wine regions and then the coast road to Melbourne. Some
| time after crossing the border, we stopped at a town Lorne which
| was much like the previous coastal town, except instead of gulls
| there were cockatoos everywhere. One flew in close to show
| interest at chips on my plate, turning its head to size me up -
| would it be worth making an attempt? I turned towards it, it
| sidled away awkwardly.
| danpalmer wrote:
| Wow the cockatoos in Lorne really have a reputation. I drove up
| to Lorne from Melbourne when I was in Australia and one of my
| most vivid memories is a cockatoo eating bits of pizza out of a
| bin with pizza sauce smeared up its face.
| BrissyCoder wrote:
| You mean down to Lorne.
| golemiprague wrote:
| Never found them to be such an issue, unlike magpies and ibis
| oxplot wrote:
| These are some of the most annoying birds here in Oz, probably
| right behind Magpies.
|
| I've seen them destroy/pull off the outer plastic trim on a car
| roof like they had pliers for beaks. They're pretty meaty and
| large and are not scared off easily. Loud as fuck too.
| tunnuz wrote:
| Cockatoos are amazingly smart. They're also very loud.
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(page generated 2021-07-23 23:03 UTC)