First known tool-using seabird

The first species of seabird scientifically confirmed to be a tool user is the Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica), native to and breeding upon the coasts of the UK, Iceland, Norway and north-east Canada, as well as a visitor to certain more southerly locations. In a paper published in PNAS on 21 January 2020, this species was revealed to use wooden sticks to scratch its back, holding a sharply-pointed stick in its famously large, brightly coloured beak and using it as a backscratcher to reach parasite-induced itchy areas that its beak and claws cannot. The sharpness of the stick also probably assists in removing the parasites themselves, which are tiny ticks, belonging to the arachnid class of invertebrate. One such tool-user was documented in Wales, UK, the other in Iceland, indicating that this behaviour is of widespread occurrence within the global population of this puffin species, rather than being a local idiosyncrasy.

Although the puffin is the first formally documented tool-using seabird, several other types of bird are known to use tools. The woodpecker finch native to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, breaks off cactus spines and uses them to spear and pull out insect grubs inside cracks within the bark of trees. The green heron will drop stones into standing water to attract fishes to swim within range of its harpoon-like beak. The Egyptian vulture drops small rocks onto ostrich eggs in order to smash open their hard shells. Crows use several different tools for a range of different activities, which even include waving burning branches over their plumage in order to suffocate or to smoke out parasites.