It learned to open wheelie bins and that technique has spread across dozens of Sydney suburbs by imitation between individuals, with local variations in style: it is one of the best-documented cases of animal culture in a city.
From Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
It can live beyond sixty and there are captive birds that have passed eighty: the cockatoo Cocky Bennett, in Australia, died at more than a hundred according to the records.
From Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
In some populations it has been seen dancing spontaneously to music, synchronising its movements with the beat, an ability once thought almost unique to human beings.
From Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
It drums on trunks with a stick it makes itself: one of the few animals that plays a musical instrument.
From Palm Cockatoo
It makes drumsticks: the male cuts a branch, trims it to the length he prefers and beats a hollow trunk with it, producing a regular, personal rhythm that differs from one individual to another. It is the only known case of musical instrument making outside our own species.
From Palm Cockatoo
Its bare cheek reddens when the bird is excited and pales when it is calm, a literal blush that works as a social signal.
From Palm Cockatoo
It forms noisy flocks of hundreds and can live over 70 years.
From Galah
Its name, galah, is used in Australian slang to mean a fool, after its apparently absurd acrobatic games: they hang upside down from wires, spin round and drop into dives for no apparent reason.
From Galah

Ecosystems