A Goffin's Cockatoo That Made Its Own Tool: What the Study on Figaro Reveals
Tool manufacture has long been associated mainly with corvids and great apes, species where the behavior is regularly seen in the wild. General enrichment guidelines are in our bird toys and enrichment section; here is what a landmark study found about a cockatoo that, on the face of it, had no reason to know how.
What the study on Figaro shows
A study by Alice Auersperg, Birgit Szabo, Auguste von Bayern, and Alex Kacelnik, published in 2012 in Current Biology, documented the case of Figaro, a captive Goffin's cockatoo that spontaneously manufactured a wooden tool to reach a nut placed out of its reach, outside its cage (study on Google Scholar). The bird detached a splinter from a wooden beam with its beak, trimmed it to the right length, and then used it as a rake, a behavior it had never shown or seen before.
A species with no known tool-use tradition
What makes Figaro's case remarkable is precisely the absence of any reported tool use in Goffin's cockatoos in the wild, unlike some crows or finches. The ability appears to remain latent in the species, revealed only in a context that makes it useful. Toys that exercise this kind of problem-solving are covered in our overview of parrot toys and puzzles.
What this means for enrichment at home
A bird capable of innovating when faced with a novel problem benefits from an environment that poses exactly that kind of challenge rather than the same toys every day, a logic close to foraging enrichment. Our guide to foraging toys for birds covers how to vary the mechanisms to discover. Positive-reinforcement training also channels this problem-solving ability into everyday useful behaviors, as covered in the basics of clicker training.
- Spontaneous manufacture: a Goffin's cockatoo carved its own wooden tool to reach a nut.
- No known tradition: the species has never shown this behavior in the wild.
- Latent ability: it only surfaces when a problem makes it necessary.
- Practical takeaway: varying enrichment challenges exercises this problem-solving potential.
This isolated but well-documented case is a reminder that a pet parrot retains cognitive abilities largely untapped by a cage without renewed challenges. Full guidelines are in our bird toys and enrichment section.
Frequently asked questions
Can every Goffin's cockatoo make tools?
No, this behavior has been documented in a limited number of individuals tested in captivity; it isn't an ability consistently expressed by every member of the species.
Should I give my cockatoo raw wood to encourage this ability?
Untreated wood for chewing remains a valid enrichment item, but it should be free of any treatment or varnish, and supervised to prevent splinter ingestion.
Have other parrots shown comparable abilities?
Advanced problem-solving abilities have been documented in several psittacine species, without spontaneous tool manufacture being as clearly established elsewhere.
This guide is part of Planète Pets’s Birds universe. Our advice is general in nature: for any health concern, your veterinarian remains the only reference.