Clever Wild Cockatoo Returns to Solve More Puzzles

A wild sulfur-crested cockatoo named Popeye, who previously solved a 3D printed, laser cut puzzle for the reward of sunflower seeds, returned to the fence of his newly-adopted human Angus Deveson of Maker’s Muse for a bit more fun and games.

Deveson took the advice of several commenters and built a couple of puzzles that were opaque to see if Popeye could solve them. Deveson also built a lever contraption puzzle that worked most of the time. Clever Popeye was able to solve them all, though sometimes with a bit of human assistance.

During the following session with Popeye, something truly amazing occurred. … because he was struggling with the first lever again, my fault not his, he would actually wait for me to come out and press it for him and then he would press the second lever and finish the job and get his seeds. No joke, I did this again and again with him and it was pretty adorable, to say the least. Am I part of the puzzle now? Is this bird so clever that he’s simply using me as part of the solution to get his seeds? Probably.