Cockatoo filmed destroying anti-bird spikes at shopping centre and throwing them to the ground: 'I'm with this bird'
A cockatoo was spotted tearing down anti-nesting spikes at a shopping centre in Katoomba, Australia, apparently in a bid to free up the ledge for other birds. A video of the same was posted on Facebook by Isaac Sherring-Tito and was captioned, "F*** the police".
In the video, the bird can be seen ripping out sections of the metal spikes patiently and dropping them on the pavement outside Town Centre Arcade on Katoomba Street. The bird had done the same to multiple sections of the metal spikes across the length of the wall.
The video, which was posted on Monday has since acquired about 13,000 reactions with many commenting on the bird's intelligence and supporting its move to destroy the metal spikes.
There are close to 5,000 comments on the post including statements such as, "I'm with this bird", "They're becoming sentient" to "Wow! And people say that they have a pea size bird brain! much smarter than many humans I know!"
The video went viral on the micro-blogging site Twitter as well and one of the users, @stilgherrian commented, "I have several photos of that specific jerk bird. He is a liar and a thief."
The same user also went on to add, "Heh. That wall is on Katoomba Street. This is the spot. He cons tourists out of their snacks just down the street. He tried to steal the shopping from my supermarket trolley once," and attached pictures of the bird and the location.
According to a report in Independent, a University of Vienna study suggests that large parrots have the same cognitive development to that of four-year-old humans. The report also quoted how in recent years birds attacking anti-bird spikes has become a problem in the UK, especially in Bristol in 2017, when affluent residents attached spikes to trees to protect their expensive cars from bird droppings.