LesTension

By LesTension

GROOVY

Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber). As noted before in other posts of this most colorful bird, they are filter feeders straining small crustaceans from bottom sediment as their primary food source. These small critters are high in iodine and other pigments such as carotene which gives this bird its color. Without this food source the birds would be mostly whitish to pale pink. 

If you look carefully in Large you will be able to see the multitude of grooves along the sides if its beak that allows the bird to eliminate liquids as it takes in a beak full of water and then retains the crustaceans to swallow. Yes.....the bird swallows UP as it grazes along the shallows. You can do it too......do a headstand and give it a try.

Baleen whales feed in a similar manner only using hairs along its baleen bones to filter krill and other such creatures from mouths full of water instead of groovy beaks.

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