Swan neck, chopstick legs... Flamingos are born with an enviable good face and are loved by many people.
In recent years, coupled with its girlish pink feathers and elegant, elegant shape, the flamingo has also caught fire in the fashion circle, and designers like to use flamingos as some clothing collocations and room decorations.
The picture above is a bedroom designed with the image of a flamingo, is it very beautiful to be pink and tender?
Flamingos are named after their fire-red feathers, but some people go to the zoo to see flamingos and are surprised to find that some flamingos have white feathers. Aren't they still discolored?
Needless to say, it's really possible to fade!
Flamingos are a common name for a class of birds, and there are 6 species of flamingos that exist worldwide, namely the Caribbean Red Stork (p. ruber), Chilean red stork (p. Chilensis), the Great Red Stork (p. roseus), phoeniconaias minor, Peruvian red stork (phoenicoparrus jamesi) and phoenicoparrus andinus.
Each species of flamingo is slightly different in appearance, with the Caribbean Red Stork being the reddest in color and scarlet all over its body.
The Chilean Flamingo distinguishes itself from the other 5 species of flamingos in that its legs are red only in the knees.
The Great Red Stork is the largest, with a little pink on its body, but both legs are pink.
The size of the little red stork is smaller than that of the big red stork, just like a miniature version of the big red stork, but there is still a difference between the two of them, that is, the mouth of the little red stork is all black, and the mouth of the big red stork is mostly pink.
The Peruvian Red Stork and the Andean Red Stork are also more distinguishable, and their beaks are both yellow, which distinguishes them from the other four flamingos. Among them, the Andean red stork has a yellow mouth and yellow legs. For details, you can see the following figure:
Comparison of 6 flamingos
Flamingos inhabit mainly tropical and subtropical regions, including saline lakes in North and South America, the Caribbean and the Galapagos Islands, Africa, Madagascar, southern Europe, South-West Asia, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. Some bird lovers have occasionally photographed several flamingos in the wild in China, and the number and number of discoveries have increased in recent years, but the real flamingos have to go to the zoo, which is difficult to encounter in the wild.
Flamingos are large wading birds that prefer to feed on small shrimp, algae, etc. on shoals. They like to live in groups, usually thousands of them together, and the larger groups can even have more than 100,000. Flamingos sound similar to geese, and thousands of flamingos gathered together are deafening. However, the flamingo's personality is very gentle, a little timid, and sometimes a little silly.
For example, the flamingo in the following GIF is really stupid and cute, and it is called "erha" in the bird.
In addition to its pink feathers, the flamingo stands on one leg. Flamingos are said to be able to stand on one leg for 4 hours.
The reason for standing on one leg is currently inconclusive, but several theories have been proposed, one is that because the flamingo's leg is soaked in the shoal for a long time, the one-legged standing is to reduce contact with the ground, thereby preventing the loss of heat and maintaining body temperature; another is that the flamingo's leg is soaked in water for a long time, and the single-legged stand can reduce fungal infections or parasitic infections, and some people think that the flamingo stands on one leg to alternately use the legs to prevent the legs from bubbling in the water.
In addition, you may not think that although flamingos live in groups, they practice monogamy, and once they identify as partners, they will be loyal for the rest of their lives. Interestingly, flamingos also have homosexuality, and it is said that at Zoo Atlanta, there was a pair of male flamingos who had been in love for a lifetime, and they once hatched small flamingos together, of course, the eggs were stolen from "someone else".
Back to the issue of flamingos fading. Flamingos' feathers are not red for several reasons:
1. Lack of astaxanthin
To our surprise, the flamingo is not actually born scarlet or pink, it is originally white, and the red color comes from the accumulation of astaxanthin.
Earlier we learned that flamingos feed on plankton in saline lakes, which are rich in astaxanthin, and after flamingos eat them, the digestive system will break them down, and then deposit them in the body, and combine with fat, reacting on feathers, which has become what we see now.
Generally speaking, the process of deposition turning red takes 2 to 3 years, so adult birds aged 1 to 2 years are still white before the color deposition is completed. In addition, flamingos will also use the grease secreted by their tail to apply feathers, which will make their feathers more uniform and colorful, and if they stop applying, the feathers will slowly fade.
Some may wonder why other wading birds don't eat scarlet or pink like flamingos. There is currently an explanation for this problem, that is, scientists have found that birds want to form red, in addition to ingesting carotenoids from food, they also need to undergo some enzyme metabolism in the body, many birds that do not show red actually have the potential ability to produce red feathers, but due to the difference in the expression of CYP2J19 enzyme in different tissues, it eventually leads to the diversity of colors.
2, the age is still young, has not yet completed the sedimentation process
When the little flamingo is born, it is actually gray, its feathers are as hairy as the newly born ducklings and geese, and the mouth of the little flamingo is not curved. When they mature, the feathers turn red (usually pink or vermilion until the third year) and the mouth becomes curved. In addition, the baby flamingo will stand on one leg when it is born, and this wave of genetics is also very strong.
3. Variety problem
Through the previous introduction, we can see that there are several species of flamingos that are not all vermilion or pink, only the Caribbean red stork is completely red, and several other species are mostly white on the body.
This is the secret of the color formation of flamingo feathers, nature is really amazing! Later, if you see a flamingo with white feathers in the zoo, you will know what the reason is!