Article: The Cockatoo: The Bird That Dances, Solves Puzzles and Lives to Eighty
The Cockatoo: The Bird That Dances, Solves Puzzles and Lives to Eighty
Ask most children to name a clever animal and they will say a dolphin, or maybe a chimpanzee. Very few will say a cockatoo. They should.
Behind that cheerful crest and all that roller-skate energy is one of the most intelligent, most surprising birds on earth. It is one of five animals in our Cuties of Australia range, hand-painted by Ani Pashova, and here is why we fell for it enough to paint one on roller skates.
They actually dance
Cockatoos are one of the only animals known to move in time to a beat, entirely for the fun of it. Not trained, not rewarded with a treat, just dancing because the music moved them. Scientists have filmed cockatoos bobbing, swaying and lifting their feet in near-perfect rhythm. If your child has ever wiggled the moment a song comes on, they are in very good company.
They’re proper problem-solvers
Cockatoos use tools, work out puzzles, and learn by watching one another. In one famous case, wild cockatoos in Australia taught each other how to open kerbside bins to reach food, and the trick spread from suburb to suburb like a playground craze. They can undo locks and solve multi-step puzzles that would stump a toddler, and plenty of grown-ups too.
Their crest tells a story
A cockatoo’s crest is its mood in feathers. Raised means excited, curious or startled. Lowered and smooth means calm and content. It is one of the most expressive faces in the bird world, which is exactly why it makes such a joyful thing to paint.
They can live to eighty
Cockatoos are among the longest-lived birds on the planet. Many reach sixty, and some pass eighty. A cockatoo can, quite genuinely, outlive the person who first met it. That long life is part of what makes them so remarkable, and part of why they deserve thoughtful care and protection.
Some of them need our help
Not every cockatoo story is a happy one. Several Australian species, including Carnaby’s cockatoo and the gang-gang cockatoo, are now endangered, mostly through the loss of the old trees they nest in. Cockatoos are slow to breed and rely on tree hollows that take a century or more to form. Once those trees are gone, they are very hard to replace.
This is why we paint real animals, never invented ones. When a child loves the Skating Cockatoo on their top, they are loving a real bird: one worth knowing, and worth protecting. That is what we mean by kind to every kind.
Meet our Skating Cockatoo
Our Skating Cockatoo is hand-painted and printed with water-based inks on 100% GOTS-certified organic cotton. Gender-free, plastic-free, and made to be worn, loved and passed on.
It comes as a whole mix-and-match range, from bright tops to cosy joggers, so one joyful bird can see a child through the last of summer and into the new term.
A few of our favourite sources
Everything here is true, and there is plenty more to discover. If a curious little one wants to dig deeper:
