Cockatoos Raiding Bins Spark 'Arms Race' With Local Residents

The residents of a Sydney suburb have entered into a war with local wildlife: not snakes, spiders or crocodiles, but cockatoos.

These birds have become pests in Sydney, Australia, breaking into residents' garbage cans, opening the lids with their beaks and scattering the contents across their front yards in their quest for an easy snack.

This had led locals to trial specialized container locks in Campbelltown, in southwest Sydney, in an attempt to keep the cockatoos out once and for all.

"We are providing bin lid latches to participating residents and ask them to provide regular feedback during the trial period," the Campbelltown City Council's City Planning and Environment director Jim Baldwin told local media ABC Radio Sydney.

Newsweek has contacted the council by email.

The birds in question are sulfur-crested cockatoos, which can be found in Australia, New Guinea and Indonesia. They have a characteristic yellow spur of feathers from their heads and are highly intelligent. They can use facial expressions to convey emotions, and are known for tenaciously figuring out solutions to puzzles such as getting into garbage bins.

It remains possible that despite the new locks, these intelligent and crafty birds may continue to outsmart us humans, finding a way to open the bins anyway. The birds have been seen maneuvering around attempts to keep them out before, lifting closed lids and even pushing off bricks and other attempts to weigh the lids down. They were even observed learning these behaviors from each other, according to a paper published in the journal Current Biology in 2022.

"This is what we call an arms race. We're trying to outsmart a cockatoo and a cockatoo is trying to outsmart us," bird expert Grainne Cleary told ABC Radio Sydney.

"They will investigate it, and they love nothing more than a challenge."

Two different types of lock are being tested with residents: one is screwed into the bin lid and lip, while the other is a strap hooking under the bin's rim. They both work to keep the bin secure until the bin is tipped upside down, as they would be by a garbage truck.

The locks were made available to residents suffering from litter problems due to the birds across several suburbs, with the trial hoped to reveal if the locks are effective.

The birds' hankering for garbage may be a result of the loss of their natural vegetation and food sources.

"Before, while they would have hung out more under trees, they are exploring more urban areas," Cleary said. "So this is why it's so important to retain our native vegetation in urban areas."

One crucial factor in keeping the containers secure is residents not leaving the garbage bag sticking out.

"If [the plastic bag] is sticking out of the bin, all they've got to do is pull the plastic," local resident Maureen McCann told ABC Radio Sydney.

"Once they get into the plastic bag, they've got the lot."

Other than keeping the birds out of the bins, it is hoped that these new bin locks may help to prevent the garbage from spilling out of the bins during collection, further eliminating litter in residential areas.

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