Flamingos Eat Upside Down: 10 Facts About the Pinkest Bird on Earth #flamingo #naturememo

This bird eats with its head upside down, stands on its ankles, and gets its pink from its dinner. Here are 10 true facts about the flamingo, every one checked against zoo and scientific sources. In this memo: • How a flamingo feeds upside down, pumping water with its tongue • Why flamingos are pink (and why zoo flamingos need special food) • The "backwards knee" that's really an ankle • What a 2017 study found about standing on one leg • Lake Natron, the caustic lake where lesser flamingos raise their young • Group dances, flamingo "milk", chick creches, and a flamingo that lived to at least 83 CHAPTERS 0:00 Meet the flamingo 0:23 The Upside-Down Diner 0:54 You Are What You Eat 1:23 Built Backwards 1:42 The One-Legged Mystery 2:11 The Burning Lake 2:42 The Group Dance 3:00 Flamingo Milk 3:31 The Creche 3:55 Runway Take-Off 4:08 A Long Life 4:28 Recap Next time on Nature Memo: which animal has plants growing in its fur? SOURCES Smithsonian's National Zoo, "American flamingo": nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/american-flamingo San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, "Flamingo": animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/flamingo Chang, Y.-H. & Ting, L. H. (2017). Mechanical evidence that flamingos can support their body on one leg with little active muscular force. Biology Letters 13: 20160948 NASA Earth Observatory, "Lake Natron, Tanzania" Guinness World Records, "Oldest flamingo" (Greater, Adelaide Zoo, d. 2014) Woodland Park Zoo blog, "Flamingo chick learning flamingo ways" (crèches, voice recognition) CREDITS Narration: Kokoro-82M text-to-speech (Apache 2.0) Music & sound effects: original, made for Nature Memo Video (via Wikimedia Commons, cropped/graded/edited): "Phoenicopterus roseus feeding" – El Grafo, CC BY-SA 4.0 "043 Greater flamingo vocalizing in the Camargue (slow motion)" – Giles Laurent, CC BY-SA 4.0 "045 Greater flamingos courtship display in the Camargue (slow motion)" – Giles Laurent, CC BY-SA 4.0 "Greater flamingos" – Altes, CC BY-SA 4.0 "Phoenicopterus ruber in the Indianapolis Zoo – June 2022" – Sarah Stierch (Missvain), CC BY 4.0 "Flamingos at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge" (35884577204, 36556953892) – via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 "Flamingo family" – Levi Matheus, CC BY-SA 4.0 "2022-03-12 / 2022-05-21 LAGUNSKA RIBOGOJNICA Phoenicopterus roseus PLAMENEC" – NaIzletuSi, CC BY 3.0 "Ein junger Rosaflamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) fischt in Klingnauersee" – Scarabinol, CC BY-SA 4.0 "Flamingo at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge" – James Leon Young, CC BY-SA 4.0 "Flamingos at Chester Zoo" – Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net), CC BY-SA 4.0 "Lesser flamingos courtship display dance" – Shiv's fotografia, CC BY 4.0 "Phoenicopteridae" – FreeSwissVideos, CC BY 3.0 "Phoenicopterus roseus - 2017-02-19" – Pristurus, CC BY-SA 3.0 "Flamingos Island in the Warsaw Zoo - 01" – Jolanta Dyr, CC BY-SA 3.0 Licences: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 · /by-sa/3.0 · /by-sa/2.0 · /by/4.0 · /by/3.0 #flamingo #animalfacts #naturememo