Hi Darrel,
You are right - Cockatoos are like an avian chainsaw. Soon after we got her she mauled a Morris chair in about 30 seconds. She can break out large chunks of wood with her beak. It reminded me of a Martin craftsman I saw carve a neck with a drawknife - he just dug in and broke out large chunks of wood. The difference being his looked like a neck when he was done, and the chair looked like a disaster. She also has a fixation about bamboo back scratchers, and will destroy them whenever and wherever she finds them. It can be a little disconcerting to have a bird land on your shoulder and proceed to attack the scratcher while it is in use. When she would grab it I would take it from her right away and glue it back together.
She got wise to this and ran off and took it around the corner out of sight before commencing to kill it. I had the wife pick me up a half dozen scratchers on her next trip to the dollar store (along with cheap masking tape and paint brushes).
Cockatoos are also extremely LOUD birds, and will scream for any reason or no reason, and this is why I would suggest people not get them. But they are also extremely friendly and affectionate birds and like to cuddle with their owners and be with them more than any other bird I have known. The original owners of the cockatoo apparently couldn't deal with the screaming behavior and isolated the bird in a barn. She was rescued by a young man who rehabilitated the bird (taught her to play "fetch" like a dog) and socialized her with other people. Unfortunately health issues prevented him from keeping her, so she was passed along to my wife's menagerie to join the African Grey and the assortment of canaries and finches she keeps.
The African Grey has a much different personality and is a good talker. He will say "see you later" when you are leaving, will call our Daughter by name, would say "get down dog" if the dog got too near his cage, and will ask for food if he wants what you are eating (he likes  ). He also has a bad habit of presenting his head to be scratched and then biting the finger that is scratching it, which is why the previous owner gave him to us. She felt her grandchild's fingers were more important than keeping a bird she had had for 17 years. We have had him for another 10 years, and it is possible he could outlive us (as well may the cockatoo). Parrots live a long time, unlike cats and dogs, and often outlive their owners. Large birds require a long term commitment.
In my youth I trained a Redtail hawk to use for hunting squirrels. With the appropriate command and reward it would return to the glove, but was never particularly friendly and would only allow limited contact. Raptors tend to be wary of physical contact in most cases. It is something I have considered doing again, but it not only requires state permits as it did 50 years ago, but also federal permits, and the county has become much more developed since then.
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