Wild male palm cockatoos rock out with custom drumsticks

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https://www.sciencenews.org/article/wild-male-palm-cockatoos-drumsticks

Wild male palm cockatoos rock out with custom drumsticks

Male palm cockatoos woo mates with percussive musical displays featuring custom-crafted drumsticks, which they throw to the ground after each performance.

By Elise Cutts
SEPTEMBER 12, 2023 AT 7:01 PM

Like teenage Romeos toting sticker-plastered guitar cases, male palm cockatoos show that romancing a crush with a love song isn’t just about music — it’s also about style.

Wild palm cockatoos (Probosciger aterrimus) craft bespoke instruments for musical mating rituals according to their individual tastes, researchers report September 13 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Some males were drumstick devotees, others made a mix of drumsticks and seed pod instruments, and one unorthodox male marched to the beat of his own pods — he made almost no drumsticks at all. These individual touches have more to do with personal preference than with available materials, the team found, hinting that these rockin’ cockatoos’ mates might prize creativity or individuality.

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Wild palm cockatoos are a fabulous and fascinating exception. These striking, endangered birds live in parts of northern Australia and New Guinea, and they craft and use tools not to find food, but to find a mate — a rarity that stands out even in primate company.

A male palm cockatoo puts on a musical mating display from trees in his territory. He sings, twirls and drums rhythmically against the tree, often using a percussion instrument, a stick or seed pod, clutched in his left foot (SN: 6/28/17). As part of the display, he crafts the instrument himself and the female watches as he snaps off tree branches and whittles them just so. Add in the birds’ dramatic black and red plumage and tall, spiked crests and you’ve got perhaps the closest nature can come to a rock concert.

…more…with video…

(Humans are no longer alone in making music.)