Whatever the case, when a female is ready to mate, she will walk away from the dancing group and her chosen male will follow close behind. After their chicks hatch, the birds quickly lose the bright colors of their wings because they've stopped applying their make-up, the team reasoned. These preen oils, Amat's team found, are rich in carotenoids, and the flamingos ramp-up their oil-applying behavior during the mating season. And like all birds, their tails contain glands that produce oil that they spread onto their wings with their beaks. In fact, in a study published in 2011 in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, Amat and his colleagues found that flamingos apply "make-up" (opens in new tab) around breeding time to attract mates.įlamingos get the vibrant colors of their feathers from pigmented compounds called carotenoids, which they co-opt from the algae and small invertebrates they eat. "As far as I know, mate choice has not been studied in detail in any flamingo species," Amat said, adding that plumage color is likely a factor that contributes to mate choice. It's not clear how the flamingos choose their mates, or even if a flamingo's dance performance matters. Water Intakeįlamingos seek out fresh water for drinking.Other dance moves include the "twist-preen" (head twisted beneath a wing), the "wing-leg stretch" (outstretched leg and wing on one side of the body) and "marching" (quick, synchronized steps performed while clustered together and standing erect). The flamingos are fed in a specially designed feeding trough. SeaWorld and Busch Gardens feed flamingos a diet that includes all the nutrients needed for optimal health. Standing in water, flamingos may stamp their webbed feet to stir up food from the bottom.įlamingos are fed a varied diet in zoological environments in order to maintain their pink coloration, as well as their general health. In addition to filtering food into the bill, lamellae also exclude foods that may be too large or small for the flamingo.
![flamingo animal flamingo animal](http://www.spirit-animals.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Flamingo-3-sm.jpg)
The fringed lamellae filter out food, and the water is passed back out of the bill. If the mandible is shallow-keeled, a flamingo sweeps its head from side to side deeper into the mud to collect its food.Ī flamingo filters its food out of the water and mud with a spiny, piston-like tongue that aids in sucking food-filled water past the lamellae inside the curved bill. Standing in shallow water, flamingos lower their necks and tilt their heads slightly upside-down, allowing their bills to hang upside-down facing backward in the water.įlamingos sweep their heads from side to side just below the surface of the water to collect their food if they have a deep-keeled mandible. Through slow-motion photography, researchers discovered that these birds pump water through their bills 20 times a second to filter their food.Ī much slower filtration rate was found in the Caribbean flamingos - only 4 to 5 times a second to filter out their daily food requirements of 270 g (9.5 oz.) dry weight. Lesser flamingos eat an estimated 60 g (2.1 oz.) dry weight to fulfill their daily food requirements. Slight differences in diet and habits prevent competition among flamingos that share feeding grounds. Caribbean flamingos eat larval and pupal forms of flies and brine shrimp as their main food. Greater, Caribbean, and Chilean flamingos have shallow-keeled bills and feed on insects, aquatic invertebrates, and small fishes.Lesser, James', and Andean flamingos have deep-keeled bills and feed mainly on algae and diatoms.A flamingo will either have a shallow or a deep-keeled bill. The shape of flamingo's filtering bill determines its diet. The richest sources of carotenoids are found in the algae and various invertebrates that make up the bulk of a flamingo's diet.
![flamingo animal flamingo animal](https://images.pexels.com/photos/712491/pexels-photo-712491.jpeg)
Blue-green and red algae, diatoms, larval and adult forms of small insects, crustaceans, molluscs, and small fishes make up the main diet of flamingos.Ī flamingo's pink or reddish feather, leg, and facial coloration come from a diet high in alpha and beta carotenoid pigments, including canthaxanthin.