Cockatoos have at least 30 dance moves they love to show off, and while not every species has been spotted making every move, some individuals combine moves in ways others don’t to create further metamoves. The purpose of the dancing is unknown, because while it may have evolved from courtship, it now occurs far more widely.

Cockatoos, composed of 21 species of Australian and South-East Asian parrots, are such popular pets that they may have even been used in Medieval peace negotiations . They sometimes appear to dance to their own internal beat, and recently, some owners have taken to playing them music and filming as they dance in time.

Natasha Lubke of Charles Sturt University studied 45 of these videos to categorize the birds’ moves, and followed up by playing music and a non-music

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