Screenshot from Supplementary Video featuring cockatoos drinking from a water fountain. CREDIT: Klump et al Biology Letters
Screenshot from Supplementary Video featuring cockatoos drinking from a water fountain. CREDIT: Klump et al Biology Letters

Clever cockatoos in Sydney have figured out how to use drinking fountains

Embargoed until: Publicly released:
Peer-reviewed: This work was reviewed and scrutinised by relevant independent experts.

Sulfur-crested cockatoos in western Sydney have learned to use twist-handle water fountains to drink, according to Aussie researchers who set camera traps. The team recorded the clever cockies gripping the valve and lowering their weight to twist it with a success rate of 46%. While the behaviour hasn’t been recorded elsewhere, a bin-opening innovation pioneered by southern Sydney’s cockatoos spread across the city.

Journal/conference: Biology Letters

Research: Paper

Organisation/s: Western Sydney University, The Australian National University, University of Vienna, Austria

Funder: This study was funded through a Max Planck Society Group Leader Fellowship to LM, and by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract number MB22.00056. During final analyses and write-up, B.C.K. has been funded by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) [10.47379/VRG21011].

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Emergence of a novel drinking innovation in an urban population of sulphur-crested cockatoos, Cacatua galerita

The spread of behavioural innovations – solutions to novel problems- can be an adaptive response in fast-changing urban environments. Here, we describe a novel innovation in sulphur-crested cockatoos: the drinking-fountain innovation. Birds in western Sydney have learned how to open and drink from twist-handle public drinking fountains. Successful opening requires fine motor skills and coordinated sequences of actions with less than 50% of attempts being successful. While drinking-fountains are wide-spread, the behaviour seems to be localized, but persisting over at least two year, suggesting that this innovation has spread to from a new local tradition.

Attachments:

Note: Not all attachments are visible to the general public

  • The Royal Society
    Web page
    The URL will go live after the embargo lifts.

News for:

Australia
NSW
ACT

Multimedia:

  • Image 1
    Image 1

    File size: 49.3 KB

    Attribution: Klump et al, Biology Letters

    Permission category: © - Only use with this story

    Last modified: 08 Jul 2025 11:54pm

    NOTE: High resolution files can only be downloaded here by registered journalists who are logged in.

  • Supplementary Video

    Attribution: Klump et al, Biology Letters

    Permission Category: © - Only use with this story

    Last Modified: 03 Jun 2025 12:01pm

    Download video file: Supplementary Video

    Note: High resolution video files are only available for download here by registered journalists who are logged in.

Show less
Show more

Media contact details for this story are only visible to registered journalists.