Why are flamingos pink? Flamingos are born grey/pale white but gradually turn pink as they grow. In this article, you will learn why Flamingos are pink in colour.
Flamingos are born grey/white, with soft, downy feathers and a straight bill. The bill gradually curves downward as the flamingo matures. Both parents take care of the newborn flamingo, feeding it a fluid produced in their digestive systems. The young flamingos leave the nest after about five days to join other young flamingos in small groups, returning to the parents for food. The parents identify their chick by its voice. After about three weeks, the adults herd young flamingos into large groups called crèches where they start to look for food on their own.
Flamingos are generally not threatened except for a few species; Chilean, Lesser, and Puna flamingos.
Flamingos tend to live in inhospitable, relatively remote wetlands – lakes so alkaline in pH it could burn human flesh off the bones. Within this water, however, is an untapped resource of food like brine shrimp, snails, and plantlike water organisms called algae– food that would likely kill other animals.
So, how are flamingos able to eat these foods without falling seriously ill? Thanks to their specialised metabolism, the birds are able to process these harmful chemicals in the liver, breaking them down into functional components and pigments. It’s these pigments that eventually stain a flamingo’s feathers – and that’s not all. Their skin, mucous membranes, egg yolks and even fat are stained pink and similar colours like orange,
It’s also worth noting this only works with pink pigments – you can’t feed a flamingo blue food dye and hope it turns sapphire, for instance!”
Interestingly, while flamingos are pink primarily as a by-product of their diet, their colour takes on a special significance during the mating season.
As a flamingo, the pinkier you are, the healthier and better quality you are – it’s a direct reflection of how good you are at foraging. And you can use that to attract a mate in a courtship ritual.
Mating/Courtship Rituals in flamingos Why are flamingos Pink?
While we still don’t really know the exact mechanism behind the male and female choice, what we know about them is that they will pair off within that group based on who’s the best dancer and who has the greatest colour.
However, not all flamingos will be involved in this dancing ritual – and many of these birds won’t be pink at all.
Flamingos – both male and female – can lose their pink pigments outside of breeding season. That’s because the breeding is so intensive and so much of their food is used for their chicks. During this time their white colour basically means ‘Please leave me alone. I’m a little bit exhausted from breeding – I’ll join in the dancing later.’”
What are a group of flamingos called?
The collective noun for flamingos going about their everyday activities such as feeding is a ‘stand’. However, when in the midst of their courtship dance, a group of flamingos are known, amazingly, as a flamboyance.
