When Birds Jam: Cockatoos and Instrument Creation

Logan Jimenez
May 7
6 min read

Birds with a Beat

Imagine walking through an Australian forest and hearing not just the usual chirps and calls of birds, but a rhythmic tapping—steady, deliberate, almost like percussion. As you search for the source, you come across a cockatoo gripping a stick and drumming it purposefully against a hollow branch. No, this isn’t a scene from a Pixar movie or a viral YouTube video. This is science.

In recent years, cockatoos—particularly the palm cockatoo (Probosciger aterrimus)—have astonished scientists and animal behaviorists by displaying a trait once thought to be uniquely human: the ability to create and use musical instruments. Far from being mindless mimicry, these behaviors reflect innovation, creativity, and perhaps even a sense of rhythm.

Let’s explore the fascinating world of cockatoos crafting tools for sound, what it tells us about animal intelligence, and how it challenges our understanding of music and creativity in the natural world.

Meet the Musician: The Palm Cockatoo

Native to the rainforests and woodlands of northern Australia and New Guinea, the palm cockatoo is a striking bird. Jet black with a vivid red cheek patch and an imposing crest, it stands out in both appearance and behavior. But what really makes this species extraordinary is its complex drumming behavior.

Male palm cockatoos have been observed creating percussion tools—sticks and seed pods—which they then use to drum on hollow logs or tree trunks. This isn't random pecking. These drumming displays are rhythmic and are often used during courtship rituals to impress potential mates.

The real kicker? These birds don’t just find a tool—they modify natural objects into musical instruments. They break off twigs, shape them into a usable form, and then use them specifically for drumming. This is the first known instance of a non-human animal manufacturing a tool for the purpose of sound production.

Tool Use in the Animal Kingdom: A Brief Background

Before diving further into cockatoo concerts, let’s understand why this is such a big deal. Tool use in animals has long fascinated scientists because it implies a high degree of cognitive ability—foresight, problem-solving, and sometimes cultural transmission of knowledge.

Primates like chimpanzees are well-known tool users. Crows use sticks to extract insects from tree bark. Sea otters crack open shellfish using rocks. But all of these behaviors serve practical, survival-related purposes—getting food, cracking nuts, building nests.

The palm cockatoo’s drumming, on the other hand, serves no immediate survival function. It’s about communication, display, and potentially aesthetic appeal. In this way, it overlaps more with the human use of music and art.

Crafting Instruments: How They Do It

Researchers have documented how male palm cockatoos snap off branches about the thickness of a pencil and then trim them to length. Sometimes they use seed pods instead. Once they have their instrument, they hold it in one foot (cockatoos are zygodactylous, meaning two toes face forward and two backward, allowing a strong grip) and begin drumming it against a surface.

Drumming sessions can last for several minutes, with the bird producing a steady, evenly spaced rhythm. Some even have signature "beats" that they repeat across performances, suggesting individual style—almost like a personal drumming pattern.

What’s even more fascinating is that they appear to choose their instruments based on acoustic properties. A twig might be rejected if it doesn’t produce the desired sound.

This behavior is incredibly rare in the animal kingdom. While some birds, like woodpeckers or certain manakins, make sounds by tapping or vibrating, those sounds come from natural body movements or surfaces—they don’t involve crafting or modifying objects into instruments.

The Rhythm Question: Can Birds Keep a Beat?

A key part of the cockatoo’s musical display is rhythm. But can birds really perceive and maintain a beat?

Yes—and cockatoos are especially good at it. Another cockatoo species, the sulphur-crested cockatoo named Snowball, made headlines after being filmed dancing to music with surprising accuracy. He could change his tempo depending on the beat and even introduced his own moves, from headbanging to foot-lifting. His performance wasn’t just mimicry; it indicated a capacity for beat induction, the ability to perceive a rhythmic pulse in music—something only a few animal species seem to possess.

Not all palm cockatoos don’t dance like Snowball, but their self-generated rhythms during drumming performances may rely on similar neurological mechanisms. The timing in their drumming is neither random nor mechanically consistent like a metronome. Instead, it falls within ranges that suggest intentional structuring, not instinctual action.

Why Make Music? The Evolutionary Puzzle

If cockatoos can create instruments and produce music-like rhythms, the obvious question is: why?

The leading hypothesis is that drumming plays a role in courtship. Just as male birds in many species sing to attract mates, the palm cockatoo seems to use drumming as a display of fitness. A good drummer may be advertising his cognitive abilities, motor skills, and even creativity. The effort involved in making and using a tool just to produce sound could signal high intelligence and resourcefulness to a potential mate.

This is similar to what evolutionary biologists call “costly signaling.” The idea is that behaviors that are hard to fake or require significant effort (like peacock tails or bowerbird nests) serve as reliable indicators of an individual’s quality.

But there's another layer. Drumming may also serve territorial or social functions, helping individuals establish identity or social cohesion. Just as human drumming can signal a group’s presence or coordinate movement, palm cockatoo drumming might carry messages beyond mating.

Artistic Expression in Animals?

The palm cockatoo’s drumming raises an intriguing possibility: can animals make art?

The traditional view has held that art is a uniquely human endeavor—requiring imagination, intentionality, and aesthetic sensibility. But the line has blurred. Bowerbirds build elaborate, symmetrical structures and decorate them with colorful objects to woo females. Dolphins create bubble rings and manipulate them playfully. Elephants in captivity have been taught to paint.

What sets the cockatoo apart is spontaneity and functionality. No one taught the bird to drum. It didn’t evolve the behavior to feed or defend itself. It appears to be creating an aesthetic experience—communicating emotion, attracting mates, or simply engaging in self-expression.

While we may never know if the cockatoo finds its own rhythm pleasing in the way we do, the intentional creation of sound through tool use is an unambiguous step toward what we would call musical behavior.

Implications for Animal Cognition

This drumming behavior gives researchers a window into the complex mental lives of birds. The palm cockatoo challenges long-held assumptions about the limits of animal intelligence.

To make and use a drumming stick, the bird must:

Identify an acoustic goal (e.g., make a certain sound)
Select and modify a material to achieve that goal
Use the tool in a social and performative context
Possibly evaluate or repeat patterns over time

That’s a lot of brainpower. And indeed, parrots and cockatoos are known for having highly developed brains, particularly in regions linked to vocal learning, memory, and motor control. They rival primates in many cognitive tasks and even outperform some mammals in problem-solving tests.

This also ties into the idea of convergent evolution—the process by which unrelated species evolve similar traits. Like primates, parrots have evolved social complexity, long life spans, and large brains, which may promote innovation and culture-like behaviors.

From Forest Beats to Human Music

Human music likely originated from rhythmic and vocal displays used in early social bonding and communication. Seeing these behaviors mirrored in cockatoos suggests that the roots of music might run deeper in the animal kingdom than previously thought.

It also supports the idea that music is not just a cultural invention, but a biological potential—a byproduct of brain systems evolved for communication, movement, and social interaction.

Palm cockatoos might not compose symphonies or strum guitars, but in their forest performances, they remind us that the seeds of creativity are scattered across the tree of life.

Listening to Nature’s Musicians

The palm cockatoo doesn’t just challenge what we think animals can do—it redefines what it means to be a musician. With their handcrafted drumsticks and solo performances, these birds embody traits we associate with humanity: invention, rhythm, flair.

In watching them play, we’re invited to rethink our place in the world—not as rulers of creativity, but as participants in a much broader symphony of life. Maybe the next time you hear a rhythm in the woods, it won’t be a human—it’ll be a cockatoo keeping time with nature’s beat.