Cockatoos impress opposite sex with Phil Collins-style drum solos

Scientists find male birds performing alone with small sticks before female audience, with calls, periodic blushing, and raising feathers on their crests

Researchers have captured the first footage of cockatoos bashing out drum solos with little sticks and seedpods in what are believed to be musical displays to impress the opposite sex.

Scientists took the extraordinary footage after stalking the shy and elusive Cape York palm cockatoos for seven years through the unspoilt wilderness of the peninsula in far north Queensland.