Cockatoo Tool Use
Here's a fascinating piece about cockatoo tool use.
What fascinates me is not that they use tools, which a variety of smart birds do. It's the way they make the tools. A human wouldn't do it that way. Cockatoos and other parrots just see the world as more divisible than humans typically do, because they tear things apart all the time. A human wouldn't look at a solid beam of wood and see potential tool-sized splinters, because we don't have an easy way to remove such a thing from the surrounding wood. Humans would look for smaller sticks, and birds will do that too, but parrots don't have to settle for that. Their beaks are capable of biting off pieces from a solid beam.
What fascinates me is not that they use tools, which a variety of smart birds do. It's the way they make the tools. A human wouldn't do it that way. Cockatoos and other parrots just see the world as more divisible than humans typically do, because they tear things apart all the time. A human wouldn't look at a solid beam of wood and see potential tool-sized splinters, because we don't have an easy way to remove such a thing from the surrounding wood. Humans would look for smaller sticks, and birds will do that too, but parrots don't have to settle for that. Their beaks are capable of biting off pieces from a solid beam.