American Flamingo
(Pheonicopterus ruber)
This tall, long-legged, long-necked pink bird is a staple in our Southern culture -- even if they’re made out of plastic. For those of you who have never visited our lovely state, the plastic pink Flamingo lawn orament, while not as popular as it was 20 years ago, is still seen decorating many lawns across the state. The American Flamingo has a wingspan of about five feet and the birds stand about four feet tall. That magnificent beak plays a large roll in their manner of feeding. The beak is held upside down in the water, and while the bird sucks in water, a built-in flitering system keeps the water out, only letting in their primary diet of small insects, crustaceans, and algae. The tallest known flamingo was measured at 57 inches.
(Pheonicopterus ruber)
This tall, long-legged, long-necked pink bird is a staple in our Southern culture -- even if they’re made out of plastic. For those of you who have never visited our lovely state, the plastic pink Flamingo lawn orament, while not as popular as it was 20 years ago, is still seen decorating many lawns across the state. The American Flamingo has a wingspan of about five feet and the birds stand about four feet tall. That magnificent beak plays a large roll in their manner of feeding. The beak is held upside down in the water, and while the bird sucks in water, a built-in flitering system keeps the water out, only letting in their primary diet of small insects, crustaceans, and algae. The tallest known flamingo was measured at 57 inches.
Tradionally flamingos have been grouped with the Ciconiiformes, which include herons, storks, and ibises. Another school of thought suggests that flamingos are more closely related to the Anseriformes -- ducks, geese, and swans. A third hypothesis proposes that flamingos may be related to avocents and stilts. Currently flamingos are placed within their own order, between the Ciconniformes and the Anseriformes.
They feed primarily be filtering prey out of shallow water but also will grasp larger prey in their bill. They typically feed with the head submerged, upside down and facing backward, with the top, curved portion of the bill parallel to the bottom substrate.
Their complex bill is specialized to filter small items suspended in the water. The bill curves so that there is a small gap of equal size along its entire length. This gap houses the tongue, which is moved to pump water in and out of the bill during feeding. The edges of the bill are lined with rows of lamellae, which are like the teeth of a comb and act as an effective filtering structure. It takess a mouthful of water and food, and then uses its tongue as a piston to push water out through the lamellae, which trap the prey on the inside. Spines on the tongue and palate move the food particles to the throat.
If flamingos do not receive a proper diet, their color fades and they may die. Consequently, early attempts to keep flamingos in captivity resulted in repeated collection from the wild to replace birds that had lost their pink color or died from improper diets. The image immediately to the left and the one on the bottom right were showing a much more orange tint because they were breeding.
