Pink flamingos are birds of the genus phoenicopterus, of which three living species are known, phoenicopterus chilensis (Chilean flamingo), phoenicopterus roseus (common pink flamingo) and phoenicopterus ruber (pink flamingo), all pink in adulthood.
It is a unique bird, of large size and particular appearance, able to travel great distances during the migratory season. It lives in wetlands, where it feeds and breeds its young, with only one calf per pair of flamingos. At birth, the puppies are greyish white with certain areas of the body black, but when they reach adulthood they acquire a wonderful and characteristic pink color.
- In this article by Animal Expert we will explain why pink flamingo is pink and how it acquires this color.
- To unravel this mystery.
- Read on!.
The color of birds is the result of the accumulation of pigments in the structures of the teguments (skin or, mainly, feathers). Birds do not produce all the pigments or colors they present, most of them come from food. Thus, birds can create melanin, giving black or brown in different shades, the absence of this pigment translates to white. Other colors such as yellow, orange, red or green are acquired with food.
There is only one group of birds, belonging to the family of musophagi, which produce real pigments in addition to melanin, these pigments are uroporphyrin III that gives it a violet color and turacoverdine, the only truly green pigment known in birds.
Bird feathers have thousands of functions, such as camouflage, finding a mate, or establishing a territory. In addition, the feathers of a bird can provide a lot of information about the individual, such as the state of health, sex, lifestyle and life moment in which they are located.
Generally, birds change their feathers at least once a year, this change does not occur randomly, each region of the body has no feathers at any given time. There are also concrete changes that occur only before the heat or at the time of reproduction of the species, resulting in a plumage different from the rest of the year, usually more striking and striking, whose objective is to find a mate.
The color and shape of the feathers are determined by genetics and hormonal influence. Feathers are mainly composed of keratin, a protein produced and organized by epidermal cells before the pen begins to leave a follicle through the skin. Structural variations of keratin produce optical effects that, when combined with different pigment distributions, result in different color patterns in birds.
Did you know that flamingos are migratory birds? Learn more about the characteristics of these birds and also examples in this Animal Expert article.
Pink flamingos are filter birds. To feed, dip your head in the water by placing it between your legs. With their help and with the beak, they remove the sandy bottom that causes the organic matter between its beak, closing it and pressing with the tongue, taking out the water leaving the food trapped in one of the fine leaves it has. at the edge of the beak, comb-shaped.
The diet of pink flamingo is varied and unsist selective due to the way it feeds. By filtering water, flamingos can consume small aquatic organisms, such as insects, crustaceans, molluscs, worms, algae and protozoa.
Now that you know why pink flamingo is pink, also look at this peritoAnimal list with the 10 birds that don’t fly.
Of all the organisms from which flamingos feed, they can acquire pigments, but mainly Artemia salina makes flamingos pink. This little crustacean lives in very salty marshes, hence its name.
When flamingo eats it, during digestion, pigments are metabolized to bind to fat molecules, traveling to the skin and from there to feathers when plumage changes. As a result, it has one of the most striking features of pink flamingo. Flamingo puppies only turn pink when they change plumage when they are adults.
On the other hand, it is known that the males of the pink flamingo during the warm season extract an oil from their uropigial gland, located at the base of the tail, of a strong pink color, which is extracted by the feathers to have a more attractive appearance for the female.
See below for some photos of flamingos
If you want to read articles similar to Why pink flamingo is pink, we recommend that you visit our Curiosities of the Animal World section.