Flamingos are one of the most striking birds on the planet.
The beautiful pink color of their feathers comes from a diet almost exclusively made up of shrimp. It’s rare to see these magnificent birds actually feeding is a rare sight and when one started eating in front of some tourists, they wasted no time in capturing it on film as you can see in the clip below.
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Video credit: Rumble
It’s both strange and fascinating to see the bird dig into the muddy water with its head upside down and its beak busily clacking away as it tries to feast on its meal. The pigments found on the shrimp give the flamingo its distinctive pink color.
The happy occurrence happened in a small pond on Isabela Island in the Galapagos.point 174 | It might be surprising for some that any of the shrimp could be found in the mud but the bird was undeterred.point 262 |
The flamingo is skilled at filtering out the sediments in order to get the food that it wants.point 77 | They can also eat cyanobacteria, a type of algae that is toxic to most animals.point 142 | But flamingos can eat huge quantities of the poisonous plant without batting an eye.point 213 | 1
Moving around gracefully on its long, stilt-like legs, one cannot help but wonder at the precision that nature has bestowed in order to allow the bird to thrive in that environment. This particular flamingo took a break from migration. They usually fly at night and sometimes travel as far as 600 km (400 miles) in one stretch.
What many don’t know is that flamingos can produce milk, one of the few bird species that can do so. Both the males and females can produce this milk within their digestive tract. Aside from flamingos, some doves and pigeons can also produce a similar type of milk.
Flamingos are very social which is why they are often found within very large flocks.
The fact that this bird can feel comfortable feeding even in close proximity to humans can be attributed to the strict adherence that locals have towards the preservation of their environment.point 339 |
There are strict laws governing how close people can be to wild animals and what activities one can perform while in the Galapagos.point 109 | These regulations are also applied to tourists and the benefits of this type of governance are evident in the abundant wildlife that has managed to make a home in the midst of civilization.point 266 | 1
The Galapagos is probably one of the handfuls of places on the planet where there is an almost ideal balance between humans and the wildlife around them.
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