Food Preferences & Resources
bluish green and red alga, diatoms, larval and adult forms of humble insects, crustaceans, mollusk, and small fishes make up the independent diet of flamingo .
A flamingo ‘s pinko or reddish feather, leg, and facial color come from a diet high in alpha and beta carotenoid pigments, including canthaxanthin. The richest sources of carotenoids are found in the alga and assorted invertebrates that make up the majority of a flamingo ‘s diet .
The shape of flamingo ‘s percolate bill determines its diet. A flamingo will either have a shallow or a deep-keeled bill .
- Lesser, James’, and Andean flamingos have deep-keeled bills and feed mainly on algae and diatoms.
- Greater, Caribbean, and Chilean flamingos have shallow-keeled bills and feed on insects, aquatic invertebrates, and small fishes. Caribbean flamingos eat larval and pupal forms of flies and brine shrimp as their main food.
little differences in diet and substance abuse prevent competition among flamingo that share feeding grounds.
Food Intake
Lesser flamingos eat an calculate 60 g ( 2.1 oz. ) dry weight to fulfill their daily food requirements. Through slow-motion photography, researchers discovered that these birds pump water through their bills 20 times a second base to filter their food .
A much slower filtration rate was found in the Caribbean flamingos – alone 4 to 5 times a second to filter out their daily food requirements of 270 g ( 9.5 oz. ) dry weight unit .
Methods of Collecting and Eating Food
Standing in shallow body of water, flamingos lower their necks and tilt their heads slightly inverted, allowing their bills to hang inverted facing backward in the water.
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Flamingos sweep their heads from side to side just below the come on of the water to collect their food if they have a deep-keeled lower jaw. If the lower jaw is shallow-keeled, a flamingo sweeps its head from slope to side deeper into the mud to collect its food .
A flamingo filters its food out of the water and mud with a barbed, piston-like tongue that aids in sucking food-filled water past the lamella inside the crook circular. The fringe lamella filter out food, and the water system is passed binding out of the poster .
In addition to filtering food into the bill, lamella besides exclude foods that may be besides bombastic or small for the flamingo .
Standing in water, flamingo may stamp their webbed feet to stir up food from the bottom .
Zoological Diet
Flamingos are fed a change diet in zoological environments in ordering to maintain their pink color, american samoa well as their cosmopolitan health .
SeaWorld and Busch Gardens feed flamingos a diet that includes all the nutrients needed for optimum health. The flamingo are fed in a particularly designed feeding gutter .
Water Intake
Flamingos seek out fresh water for drink .
I am broadly interested in how human activities influence the ability of wildlife to persist in the modified environments that we create.
Specifically, my research investigates how the configuration and composition of landscapes influence the movement and population dynamics of forest birds. Both natural and human-derived fragmenting of habitat can influence where birds settle, how they access the resources they need to survive and reproduce, and these factors in turn affect population demographics. Most recently, I have been studying the ability of individuals to move through and utilize forested areas which have been modified through timber harvest as they seek out resources for the breeding and postfledging phases. As well I am working in collaboration with Parks Canada scientists to examine in the influence of high density moose populations on forest bird communities in Gros Morne National Park. Many of my projects are conducted in collaboration or consultation with representatives of industry and government agencies, seeking to improve the management and sustainability of natural resource extraction.