Morgan's Blog

What do you think about a tropical holiday? The beach, sipping on refreshing drinks all day and the su- over there! Stands a pack of flamingoes with they’re long necks and newborns. Some are pale pink as others have reddish pinkish feathers! They’re very beautiful except from their babbling noises. For the past few weeks we’ve been researching on a animal and their adaptations. But what are adaptations? Adaptations are things that animals do or parts that a animal has like fur of a polar bear, how dogs bark to protect it’s territory or how snakes produce venom.

I decided to research on flamingos, but firstly what are flamingos? Flamingos are big birds with beaks and long legs but live in lakes, wetlands and oceans. They’re 6 species of flamingos as some examples are the scarlet flamingo the live in The Bahama’s, Cuba, Haiti and along the coast of Central and South America, but that is just one specie of flamingos as they’re more! The appearance of flamingos are the pink or black feathers of flamingos, their long necks and the long legs.

Flamingos live on diets on algae, shellfish, molluscs and crustaceans. All of these foods contain pigments called carotenoids which is what makes flamingos feathers pink, without these types of foods their feathers can fade to white due to the lack of carotenoids. This is why when they are kept in zoos they’re feed a diet containing carotenoids. Carotenoids are pigments which is a mix of yellow, orange but mostly red which gives colour to autumn leaves, tomatoes and other plants.

Behavioural adaptations are adaptations which control what they do or behave as it could have to do with keeping out predators or mating calls. Flamingos make babbling noises to keep predators away which makes them scared of coming to their sight, they also do this to attract other flamingos so that they stay together which is why you’ll find them in large groups most of the time. In order for flamingos to rest they put all of their weight one leg and rest, like us and other animals that lay down in order to rest but for flamingos their legs are to long in order to lay down to rest like other birds and animals but can stable balance on one leg so they use that in order to rest. Flamingos can fly so when they fly they like to stay together while flying and also like to travel to their area’s of the world which can take weeks and months.

Structural adaptations are adaptations that have to do on how their bodies work or look which might be layers of fat or big wings. Flamingos have big beaks in order to get food from the water like shellfish and algae and drain the water from it’s beak and then eats. They also have long necks so their beaks can reach the water to get food because if their beaks are to short they won’t be able to get their food and carotenoids pigments. Their webbed feet helps them place their feet perfectly into the sand and dirt so they don’t fall into the water due to their slender bodies and weight. Flamingos have average sized wings because they are still flying birds but they don’t do this most of the time but their wings can adapt to their weight in order to fly. They do swim in the water sometimes to which is how they can squeeze their legs into their body to make their legs smaller so they can swim normally.

Physiological adaptations are adaptations which are produced on the body that could protect them from predators or feed their babies. Flamingos feather can be from pale pink to reddish pinkish or even black! This depends on where they live say for example flamingos in South America have pink feathers. When flamingos feed their babies they produce a pink fluid that comes from the feathers into the baby’s mouth, this substance is made in the digestive system of the parents called crock milk which only 3 birds produce this stuff such as pigeons, penguins and flamingos.

Give me a example of a behavioural adaptation of any animal and how does it use this adaptation in the wild?