Need to keep cockatoos out of your trash? Try bricks, sticks or shoes

Weighing down or wedging the trash bin lid closed deters the pesky parrots but they may adapt

a sulphur-crested cockatoo on top of a trash can, pecking a brick that is weighing the lid down

Some people in Sydney are in a battle with birds over trash. Residents there are putting bricks on top of trash cans or wedging water bottles in their handles to deter sulphur-crested cockatoos (one shown) from breaking in.

Barbara Klump/Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior

Human trash can be a cockatoo’s treasure.