How does a wild, free-spirited, intelligent cockatoo pass the time during a 100-year life span? With play! This delightful book explores the antics of the popular sulphur-crested cockatoo. These infamous characters are highly visible and regular visitors into Australian urban landscapes. What kind of lives do they live? Why do they do the things they do? What drives their behaviour?

Meet Shane, a very energetic sulphur-crested cockatoo. Curious and restless—and bored with squawking— Shane is on the hunt for new things to say and do. “There must be more to say than ‘squawk!”. Shane explores his local environment, all the while learning new skills and, most importantly, new words. Shane interacts with nature and the human-made world that surrounds him. We learn Shane is a natural mimic, and a very clever bird. The book comes alive with some very noisy onomatopoeic words.