In a small, isolated village in southern Sydney, the local sulphur-crested cockatoos are particularly clever. Once a week, when the neighbours roll their wheelie bins to the kerb, cockies fly over and, with skillful dexterity, open the lids in search of food. It may seem as though cockatoos opening a kerb-side bin lid is a simple action. But our research, published today in Science, discovered this behaviour is far more significant than you may have first thought. Sulphur-crested cockatoos are copycats. After one solves the lid-flip puzzle, other birds nearby imitate the new foraging behaviour in a stunning display of “social learning”.