What Do Flamingos Eat?
Because they have beaks designed for filter feeding, flamingos can find food in saline or alkaline bodies of water where few other birds can feed.
Diet
Flamingos primarily eat a combination of small invertebrates, such as crustaceans and mollusks and blue algae. They also may eat small fish and crabs.
Feeding Habits
To eat, a flamingo walks on the muddy bottom of a body of water to stir up any food that might be resting there. Then, the flamingo puts its head into the water upside down and moves it from side to side, which fills the flamingo's beak with a mixture of food and water that it then filters out.
Filtering Food
A flamingo's tongue and beak are specially adapted to filter feeding--filtering out the water and retaining the small pieces of food. Their spiny tongues pump water through their beaks, while the lamellae, or small ridges within their mouths, catch the food so the flamingo can swallow it.
The Flamingo's Color
The flamingo's pink color comes from its diet. The crustaceans and algae that the flamingo eats are both high in beta-carotene, and birds without sufficient beta-carotene are paler than other flamingos.
Feeding Flamingo Chicks
Rather than regurgitating food for their chicks, both male and female flamingos produce dark red, nutritious crop milk, secreted by the upper digestive track. Flamingos provide this food for their chicks until the chicks' beaks are fully developed for filter feeding.
Related posts
It's typical to hear people refer to these birds as "pink" flamingos, which seems redundant; however, depending on their habitat, flamingos' coloration can range from the palest pink (ne...
Flamingos have specialized beaks to feed in their shallow-water habitats.Flamingos are large birds that inhabit many different tropical and subtropical areas of the world. In the United States, th...
A flamingo's color is linked to its food sourceFlamingos are very distinctive looking birds. They have long legs, webbed feet, a curved neck and large black and white bills. But their most distinc...
Flamingos vibrant pink color comes from the food they eat.Flamingos are gregarious birds known for their long legs, large beaks and above all, their remarkable pink plumage. However, flamingos are...
Flamingos are tropical birds famous for their bright color.Pink flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruper) are exotic waterbirds indigenous to tropical regions. Flamingos are social birds with an omnivorous...
