It's been long-established that Japanese macaque monkeys improve the taste of raw sweet potatoes, by dipping them in salt water. Workers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, noted that, before eating, some captive Goffin's cockatoos dunked pieces of cooked potato into blueberry soy yoghourt. Consequently, they did a series of trials with 18 birds. Subjects were presented with bowls of either pasta/cauliflower or potato/carrot. All subjects had access to blueberry soy yoghourt, plain yoghourt and water dips. The birds never dunked carrot or cauliflower in dips. Nine cockatoos, however, tipped pasta, potato or both into soy yoghourt. There was a strong preference for blueberry. Further tests, suggested this preference wasn't simply due to the dip's colour. All the foods were soft and dunking only lasted around 3 seconds. In other observations, dry rusks were dunked in water for about 20 seconds. It consequently seems very likely the birds were flavouring bland food to make it more palatable (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/10/cockatoos-show-appetite-for-dips-when-eating-bland-food-find-scientists). Parrots are intelligent birds. Perhaps, however, other animals also manipulate their food to make it more tasty? Parrots for Master Chef?
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