What is a cockatoo thinking?

The destruction is not spite, it's a beak that never stops growing. Cockatoos have to chew to keep it in shape, so timber, window frames, outdoor furniture and the soft aluminium on your balcony railing are all, technically, dental care.

The bin thing is the interesting part. Sulphur-cresteds in Sydney worked out how to flip wheelie bin lids around 2018, and researchers tracked the technique spreading suburb by suburb - birds copying birds, with slightly different regional styles emerging as it travelled. That's social learning in the wild, documented as it happened. So when one opens something you closed, it may not have worked it out itself. It may have been shown.