I’ve seen them push moderate size rocks off bin lids in order to get in. I’ve seen them remove a broom handle that was pushed through the handles of multiple bins (by pushing the broom handle out first).

And then I’ve seen a group of them get fed by sliding down a tin roof on their claws, making the most hellish noise to get the humans out of bed.

Usually though, they are just ripping bits off cars and mangling the aerials.

They are hilarious and destructive arseholes.

> Here is a Kea playing with traffic cones

They're not just playing. They figured out that by moving the cones into a traffic lane they can get vehicles to stop.

Cars often have to stop here as it's a one lane tunnel so the kea wait around to receive food or play with people/vehicles.

I strongly suspect that Kea are the most intelligent animal other than humans and maybe chimps.

I'm an Australian, and of course am familiar with cockatoos. In fact a couple years ago the neighbourhood got together at Xmas, and discovered after a few drinks a cockatoo was running a protection racket on all of us. The guy across the road has his BBQ vandalised if he didn't feed them, we had our shoes torn apart, the mechanic next door has his tools stolen - and so on. Each household was targeted on a different day over weeks.

It is annoying, but I was secretly proud Australia had the imaginatively destructive birds on the planet. Then I went to NZ and found I was wrong. While I watched, a Kea took a a fellow tourists car. First the radio antenna was thrown to the ground. Then it attacked the gunk that holds the windscreen in. I left to do the tourist thing, and when I cam back some car window was on the ground, the seat upholstery was in shreds and car dash reduced to little pieces of plastic. Horrified, I rushed off to tell one local store owners, who just gave me "what can you do shrug". And this was just one bird in less than an hour. I'm not sure I could have got into that car so quickly without tools.

Later I noticed all the houses had everything more delicate that a 1" iron pipe covered in wire mesh - including the TV antenna's. (I have no idea why the antenna's still worked.) The place was like fort Knox.

They are the most amazing birds, and as you say come across as highly intelligent. Like all intelligent things, they can be remarkably deadly. Kea's have been know to eat and kill a sheep (in that order).

Now that was some entertaining reading. Thanks!