Often thought of as passive filter-feeders, flamingos are actually rather ingenious predators.
The eccentric-looking pink birds prey on small creatures such as brine shrimp. These critters move around in the water and tend not to be concentrated in a single place. To overcome this potential problem, the flamingos have evolved a surprising strategy to bring these animals together so that they can swallow them up in one go.
By using their floppy, webbed feet to churn up mud, and jerking their heads up and down in the water like plungers, flamingos create underwater tornadoes that suck prey animals inside.
Keeping their heads upside down and chattering their beaks, the birds create many small tornados alongside this larger one, which directs the concentrated prey into their beaks. All this makes for a much more efficient meal than waiting for prey to come to them.
Flamingos also use a different method to create tornados, called skimming. Using their specially adapted beaks and S-shaped necks, they push their heads forward while clapping their beaks underwater, creating a sheet-like vortex that also helps them catch more prey.
Lead author of the study, Victor M. Ortega Jiménez, became inspired to study flamingo feeding behaviour during a family trip to the zoo. “I noticed individuals creating circular, concentric waves at the surface of the water,” he tells BBC Wildlife. “It made me wonder what they were doing.”
By studying video of Chilean flamingos while they were feeding, and building mechanical and computational models, Dr Ortega Jiménez and his team were able to discover exactly how flamingos use their heads, beaks and feet to create tornadoes that concentrate prey.
Flamingos are the only birds known to use this strategy, but other species such as phalaropes (a wading shorebird) also generate underwater tornadoes to catch their food.
So, while foot-stomping, beak-chattering, head-jerking and skimming is a unique flamingo strategy, tornado-creation as a method for catching prey has evolved more than once in the animal kingdom.
Main image: flamingo feeding. Credit: Victor M. Ortega Jiménez
More amazing wildlife stories from around the world
- Puzzling sound leads Amazon expedition team to stunning discovery
- “It’s surreal coming face-to-feathers with a bizarre bird you've waited half a lifetime to see”
- "Want to hear a tiger cub roar? It’s unforgettable!” Camera trap captures rare moment in Asian jungle
- This flamboyant bird is known for its colourful 'eyes' and elaborate courtship – but it’s not actually a peacock…
