birds Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Favorite World Press

The FWP weekly digest of wondrous wildlife happenings
and other interesting items from the natural world

Creatures to meet | Things to learn
Things to do

Lisa S. French

1.5-minute read

What if New York City, the most densely populated urban area in the United States, could be transformed into a green oasis that’s also a haven for winged wildlife? Can we make more room for nature, so the city is less concrete and more jungle? You bet—think vertical!

There are roughly 36,700 acres of handily sun-facing rooftops in NYC—equivalent to 27,803 football fields or 44 Central Parks. That’s a whole lot of valuable space to create healthy, productive habitat for plants, pollinators, and feathered friends—sky meadows teeming with life—wildflowers, songbirds, butterflies, bees. Greening rooftops would not only make the city a force for nature restoration but would help to preserve wildlife in non-urban areas as well. Connecting fragments of habitat would provide migrating and breeding birds with access to life-sustaining vegetation and food resources where and when they’re needed most.

Researchers from Fordham University investigating the potential for NYC green roofs to attract semi-urban and non-urban birds compared avian visitors to green and conventional roofs in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx during spring migration and summer breeding seasons. They found that birds that typically avoid the Big Apple will make an exception for green roofs that provide the right combination of plants and insects for foraging.

With rapid urbanization and loss of green space, most migratory birds will encounter cityscapes in their travels. Providing rooftop recharging stations planted with bird and insect-friendly vegetation will help increase their odds of survival in a warming world. And green roofs aren’t just for the birds—they also benefit people by cleaning and cooling the air, decreasing noise, and reducing storm runoff. Plus, they’re more lovely to look at. Now that’s a sweet city!

You can check out some inspiring examples of NYC green roofs here and global living architecture projects here. And if you’d like to learn more about what it takes to turn regular old urban rooftops into beautiful life-sustaining habitats, watch this video from NYC Audubon.

Whether you’re urban or rural or somewhere in-between, if you’ve been topping up the winter chow to help out hungry local birds, you can get the inside scoop on the pecking order at the feeder and who comes out on top from Audubon. Here in Manhattan, it’s the doves—always the doves. Update: Be sure to have a look at Carla Rhodes’ wonderful snaps of New York birds getting their fair share—doves on cleanup crew.

Speaking of local birds, congratulations to the 2021 MLS Cup Champions—the New York City FC, aka the Pigeons. Well done and welcome back to your urban habitat!

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Lisa S. French December 14, 2021

A family of Superb Fairy-wrens in South Eastern New South Wales, Australia; brilliant blue and black father and cute brown chicks on a branch with leafy green background

Bestest Australian Bird: The Superb Fairy-Wren

1.5-minute read

Australia is home to some of the world’s most remarkable birds—brolgas, galahs, rosellas, currawongs—to name a splendid few. According to BirdLife International’s State of the World’s Birds report, like many species globally, Australia’s birds are threatened by the ongoing environmental stressors of habitat loss and climate change. For the past two weeks, to help raise awareness of the need to protect the island continent’s diverse avian wildlife, friends of the feathered cast their votes for the top-of-the-tree, best-in-beaks Bird of the Year.

The 2021 all-around favorite, announced on October 8, was the superb fairy-wren, a passerine, aka perching bird, that inhabits backyards and woodlands across eastern Australia and Tasmania. Although the fairy-wren edged out our preferred pick, the tawny frogmouth, by a chin feather, we can appreciate the songbird’s many winning attributes. For starters, it’s hard not to be positively inclined toward a creature called “superb”. In addition to their esteem-enhancing moniker, the dainty songsters have other champion qualities:

It takes a bird village:
Superb fairy-wrens raise their young in cooperative social groups. One to four male helpers support nesting parents by contributing to the defense and feeding of hatchlings.

Winged chameleons:
During mating season, the plumage of the male superb fairy-wren changes from a muddy brown to a striking shade of blue. While female fairy-wrens prefer the males that turn blue first and stay blue the longest, when it comes to life expectancy, changing colors puts male birds at a competitive disadvantage because that vibrant hue also attracts predators. As a result, according to researchers at Monash University, male fairy-wrens in blue mode have learned to be super cautious. Compared to their brown flock mates, they spend more time foraging for food in hiding and they’re the first birds out of the bush in response to alarm calls—file those adaptive risk avoidance skills under survival of the bluest.

The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs:
In the avian world, males commonly sing more frequently and produce more complex songs to attract mates. However, superb fairy-wrens are equal opportunity vocalists. Both males and females sing solo year-round and tutor their sons and daughters in familial trills, twitters, and tweets. Have a listen.

And with those songbird snippets, we wrap up the 2021 Australian Bird Of The Year competition. To celebrate all of this year’s contestants, author and illustrator Georgia Angus has created a downloadable poster for your viewing pleasure. It’s free, it’s beautiful, and you can get it here. A hearty congratulations to the superb fairy-wren! Don’t despair, tawny frogmouth—you’ll get another chance to strut your feathered stuff in 2022.

Just a reminder: the southern hemisphere’s best-in-bird competitions continue with Forest & Bird’s New Zealand Bird of the Year, from October 18 through October 31. At the moment, we’re leaning toward the rockhopper penguin, but the royal spoonbill is pretty darn hard to resist. Hmm, and what about the southern brown kiwi… It’s a veritable bird watchers paradise down there!

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Lisa S. French October 9, 2021

Bird’s Eye Compass

1-minute read

Oh, the places they’ll go…

Every spring and autumn, one in five birds travel the byways and flyways of our planet between northern breeding grounds and southern winter sanctuaries. Some species migrate astonishing distances nonstop—no layovers, no in-flight movies—like the bar-tailed godwit, which flies 7,000 miles between Alaska and New Zealand, in just seven days.

So how do nature’s long-distance frequent fliers choose the best possible migration route and stay on course to reach their destination? Send over the video if we’re wrong, but we’re pretty sure that no one has ever seen a bird consulting a sat-nav app with an intensely focused look on its feathered little face. Through evolutionary adaptation, avian navigators have developed a special retinal flight guidance mechanism that helps them to perceive altitude and direction. To locate where they need to go to survive takes no more effort than the blink of an eye.

According to new research in Nature, migratory songbirds like the European robin have photosensitive proteins in the retina of their eyes that get activated by light and function as a compass that follows directional information from the Earth’s magnetic field. The birds’ brains automatically interpret the magnetic signals that guide them north to food resources and safe nesting grounds in the spring and south to warmer habitats in the fall. Because she’s smart like that, Mother Nature has equipped our feathered friends with precisely what they need to successfully manage life-sustaining comings and goings.

FYI – U.S. Bird Health Bulletin: Songbirds in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern states are currently facing an unknown disease epidemic. Until wildlife researchers can determine the origins, the Audubon Society has up-to-date information and precautionary recommendations to prevent the spread of disease on your patch, how to report sightings and symptoms, and how to handle stricken birds. The pathogen is most common in young Blue Jays, European Starlings, Common Grackles, and American robins, so keep your eyes peeled out there for birds with vision problems, eye swelling, and neurological symptoms.

On a cheerier note, if at long last you’re planning on hitting the flyways and highways to do a bit of roaming of your own this year, whether you’re an old-school map-o-philiac or a sat-nav nomad, wishing you safe and very happy travels.

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Lisa S. French July 14, 2021

Snowy Owl In The City

1-minute read

Bird-wise, it’s been a pretty exciting week here in the Big Apple! In an extraordinary occurrence and much to the delight of nature-deprived city dwellers, on Wednesday, a strikingly beautiful snowy owl flaunted its feathered finery in Manhattan’s Central Park. For a wild creature not accustomed to a flock of camera-wielding humans, the lone owl appeared to maintain an unruffled bird-i-tude despite all of the additional attention.

Why the unusual NYC stopover this particular January? Although some snowy owls spend the entire year on their breeding grounds in the treeless Arctic tundra, others migrate to southern Canada and the northern United States in winter, sometimes traveling as far south as Texas, Florida, and the Carolinas. While New York State is within the avian predators’ normal fly zone, they typically bypass Manhattan. According to Cornell University and Scientific Reports, during migration, snowy owls are most often found in agricultural fields, and along shorelines of oceans and lakes. What the birds look for in a home away from home is owl chow—primarily, small rodents. The large owls may eat more than 1,600 lemmings a year—about 4.5 a day, in addition to other rodents, rabbits, birds, and fish. During seasonal migration, snowy owls follow food resources, adjusting their flight trajectory based on environmental conditions to arrive back in the Arctic at the right time for successful breeding. Because rodents cluster together under snow, the owls may prefer to hunt over snow-covered terrain, although they can also locate prey in snow-free areas.

Well, we did have a dusting of snow here on Wednesday. Plus, the Central Park ball fields make for an appealing, tundra-esque landing site. And when it comes to rodents, yeah, we can certainly help out with those. Whatever the specific reason for the park pit stop, this owl lover was glad to have the feathered fellow nearby and hope it swoops in again at its earliest convenience! FYOI (for your owl information), we’re expecting snow again on Monday—fingers crossed for a return visit. Keep your eyes and ears peeled, New Yorkers!

To learn more about the snowy owl, we highly recommend the beautifully photographed, aptly named Snowy Owl by Paul Bannick. If you’d like to live an owl-friendly life, and who wouldn’t, the International Owl Center offers some useful tips to help welcome and protect the beloved birds. And to receive alerts for all rare bird species in your area, be sure to sign up for notifications from eBird. Happy birdwatching!

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Lisa S. French January 29, 2021

Charmingly Chubby Champion

1.5-minute read

We’ve got some exciting news about an important election! Forest & Bird, one of New Zealand’s leading independent conservation organizations, have announced the results of the 2020 Bird of the Year contest. The winner is—drumroll please—one of our favorite birds Down Under, and the world’s only flightless parrot, the charismatic, critically endangered kākāpō. Take a bow your royal feathered green-ness—no bird waddles quite like you!

Once widespread across New Zealand, the parrot’s populations have been decimated by habitat loss and the introduction of invasive predators. Although the number of kākāpōs has been increasing from a low of just 18 birds in 1977, according to the IUCN, there are currently only 209 on the planet.

The slow-moving, ground-dwelling kākāpō can live up to 95 years, given a fighting chance. Scientists continue to work intensely to save the rare species from extinction through captive breeding and identification and protection of safe habitat. The ultimate goal of conservationists is to establish a self-sustaining population of the beloved birds as part of a healthy island ecosystem.

You can learn more about the kākāpō and all of the beautiful Bird of the Year contestants here.

On a related creature-conservation note, if you’d like to help bee the change, through November 30th, non-profits, schools, and community organizations in the U.S. can apply to the Bee Conservancy through their Sponsor-A-Hive program for a custom bee house to host mason, leafcutter, and carpenter bees. While spring may seem a long way off, flowering plants in need of pollination will be popping up before you know it!

And since it is Monday, we leave you with a sweet, soothing dose of musical sunshine to help ease you into your week.

Wherever you are in the world, stay safe and be well.

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Lisa S. French November 16, 2020

Hummingbirds: They’re Cool Like That

1.5-minute read

When it comes to achieving a serious level of avian chill, according to research from the University of New Mexico, South American hummingbirds are in a league of their own. These mini masters of hovering flight can significantly lower their overnight body temperature and rate of metabolism to ensure they live to fly another day. This short, inactive state, referred to as torpor in biology lingo, is similar to a very compressed period of hibernation. For hummingbirds that live in cold, high-elevation habitats, having the ability to enter a state of deep torpor is essential to their survival.

Researchers studying torpor as an adaptation to extreme environments in six species of tropical hummingbirds native to the Andes recently recorded the lowest body temperature to date amongst birds—3.26 °C in the black metaltail, aka Mettalura phoebe. By comparison, the body temperature of animals that hibernate for many days or weeks, like bears, groundhogs, and hedgehogs, drops to about 5 °C.

So why have these zippy, little nectar sippers developed such an exceptional chill skill? For an animal that weighs between 2 and 4 grams and has the highest mass-specific metabolic rate of any vertebrate, surviving in a cold, wet, low-oxygen environment is no small feat. To maintain its body mass, a hummingbird’s daily intake of nectar can exceed its total weight. According to the National Park Service, an average man would have to eat 285 pounds of meat daily to maintain his weight if he had the tiny bird’s metabolism. That’s one Whopper patty a minute for 19 hours! Plus, sustaining hovering flight of up to 4,000 wing beats per minute at 4,000 metres above sea level takes an incredible amount of energy.

To help maximize their fat reserves, Andean hummingbirds boost their caloric intake before bedtime and roost in thermally insulated caves, but torpor is their survival superpower. The more time hummingbirds spend torpid overnight, the lower their energy loss. Apparently, hummingbirds that deeply chill while they snooze don’t lose, and that energy conservation is one of the primary reasons why these mesmerizing creatures can persevere in harsh mountain environments. Isn’t evolutionary adaptation remarkable!

Speaking of hummingbirds, if you’d like to give your back-to-school brain a rest why not take a crack at the Audubon Hummingbird Wing Beat Challenge! Gather the kids or your favorite avian-loving adult(s) and see if you can flap your arms as fast as a hummingbird beats its wings. Start slow and try to match the American crow’s 20 wing beats per 10 seconds and then see how close you can get to the 500 wing beats of the broad-tailed hummingbird. Full disclosure, we only made it to 50 before we strained muscles that we didn’t know we had, but we bet you can top that. Happy flapping!

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Lisa S. French September 19, 2020

Owl Alone

2-minute read

Just one. That’s how many Norfolk Island boobook owls (aka morepork owls) were left on the small, South Pacific territory of Australia in 1986. Decades of extensive deforestation of the large, old-growth trees the birds depended on for safe nesting had reduced the population of the small, spotted owls to a sole female survivor. With a shortage of trees to nest in and no other owls to nest with, the last Norfolk Island boobook was in reproductive dire straits—owl alone. In 1987, concerned scientists determined to ensure the world’s rarest owl wouldn’t be the end of her species’ genetic line came up with a conservation strategy for matchmaking in the wild.

When it’s a matter of preserving DNA representing thousands of years of evolutionary adaptation in a specific environment, it’s not as if any old owl would do for the lone bird’s mate. To ensure the offspring of the last Norfolk Island boobook would carry on her unique traits, Australian conservationists imported two male New Zealand boobooks, her nearest genetic relatives, for a species-saving liaison. The Norfolk Island boobook took to one of the feathered New Zealand fellows almost immediately, and the two owls produced five hybrid offspring. The population continued on an upward trajectory and by 1995 there were nine new hybrid owls resulting from the original Norfolk Island/New Zealand match up. It looked as if the assisted avian pairing had paid off. But in 2012, the birds hit another rough patch and stopped breeding for close to a decade.

To help overcome the dual pressures of invasive predators and habitat loss, avian ecologists from Australia’s Monash University added more nesting boxes and owl monitors to Norfolk Island National Park in hope of encouraging the birds to carry on. And in April of 2020, researchers made an exciting discovery—two utterly adorable hybrid owl chicks were located, putting an end to a long reproductive dry spell for a bird species perched on the edge of extinction.

Some may ask why preserving the genome of one little owl is so important in the grand scheme of things. There are many reasons to conserve species, including the right to existence, ethical considerations, and cultural significance, as well as maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Conservation interventions that protect the island bird’s forest habitat can also benefit other threatened flora and fauna.

As conservation strategies go, most researchers agree that the intentional hybridization of endangered animals is far from a perfect solution. But when there is only one isolated bird of its kind remaining, as in the case of the Norfolk Island boobook, hybridization may be the only option left to maintain its distinctive genetic traits. There’s a saying that perfect is the enemy of great, and these owl hybrids are living proof because they sure look great to us. The last little boobook just needed a bit of extra help to be owl-right!

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Lisa S. French May 28, 2020

Wow, What a Bird!

4.0-minute read

In the midst of the oh, no, it’s officially a pandemic news cycle, we thought you could do with a little featured-creature comfort. So allow us to introduce the tawny frogmouth (Podargus strigoides) for your viewing pleasure—one of those critters you may look at and think “I don’t know what it is, but I know that I like it.” The muppet-esque night bird, while fairly common across Australia, is far from your average winged tree dweller. To get you the lowdown on the 2019 Bird of the Year second runner-up, we’ve gathered some frogmouth facts from Tawny Frogmouth (Second Edition) by double doctorate Gisela Kaplan Emeritus Professor in Animal Behavior at the University of New England in New South Wales.

If you’re gazing at the tawny frogmouth and thinking, “Wow, what a bird!” you may be surprised to learn that historically not everyone has been as enamored with what we think are its obvious charms. Starting in the 18^th century, the poor animal was saddled with rather unflattering common and scientific monikers right out of the egg and has continued to face a bit of bird bullying ever since.

The tawny frogmouth was first classified as belonging to the nocturnal order of birds Caprimulgiformes in 1758 by Swedish naturalist and botanist Carolus Linnaeus, father of the binomial nomenclature system, Systema Naturae. The name Caprimulgus, which roughly translates to “goatsucker,” originated in a primitive myth that frogmouths milked goats or sucked their blood at night. In 1801, the shambling, short-legged Australian native bird received its genus classification Podargus from the Latin for “gouty old man,” followed by the equally deflating (unless you are a frog) common name “frogmouth” in 1895.

Goat-sucking, gouty, old, frogmouth—so far-not so good. As if that sad string of descriptors weren’t enough to take the wind out of its wings, in the 1960s, the tawny frogmouth was assessed as “grotesque, ugly, weak-footed and altogether stupid and silly.” In a more recent editorial pile on, it was harshly labeled again as the “world’s most unfortunate looking bird.” While a bird by any other name may still be a stupid, silly, ugly, goatsucker according to some, bad bird reviews and unfortunate species names haven’t stopped the tawny frogmouth from becoming the second most popular feathered flier in Australia. As Dr. Kaplan illuminates in her fascinating treatise on the beloved animal, there is far more to the delightful tawny frogmouth than meets the eye. Here are some highlights:

One of 14 frogmouth species, the tawny frogmouth (TF) can only be found in Australia, where it makes its home in both arid and humid forests and woodlands, preferring the large horizontal branches of old-growth trees for nesting. Highly adaptive, the bird is comfortable dwelling around humans and will also nest in suburbs, towns, gardens, and parks. Although the tawny frogmouth may have a slightly owlish look, it is more closely related to the nightjar, which also belongs to the Caprimulgiformes or “goatsucker” order.

The tawny frogmouth is one of the island continent’s largest nocturnal birds. Males weigh between 440 and 600 grams and females between 157 and 555. By comparison, the average song sparrow weighs about 24 grams. While the tawny frogmouth is relatively long-lived, documented at 13.75 years in the wild and 32 years in captivity, only about 30% make it to adulthood, falling victim to both predators and pesticides. Voracious carnivores, TFs eat snails, slugs, mice, and frogs, and a wide variety of insects, including poisonous invertebrates like centipedes and scorpions. The bird’s large, wide beak is especially effective at “pulping” hard-to-eat stinging wrigglers. Tawny frogmouths form loyal partnerships for life and can be observed roosting side by side on the same branch, bodies always touching. Equally dedicated co-parents, males and females build nests together and take turns incubating eggs and keeping hatched nestlings well-fed until they learn to hunt on their own and are old enough to fly.

Ten Tawny Frogmouth Features

If you’re thinking, that bird is all eyes, you are correct. The tawny frogmouth’s large, frontally positioned peepers take up 30 percent of its skull and enable the night hunters to see in very low light.
The TF can move those big eyes in opposite directions at the same time to increase its field of vision, and the bird’s iris color can change from yellow to red which is believed to indicate agitation or anger. Handy!
One of the few species of birds with obvious eyelashes, the tawny frogmouth also sports rare, feather tufts on top of its beak.
The TF’s tongue is tiny and paper-thin, and the inside of its mouth is green. That’s right, green!
Those thick layers of luxurious-looking mottled feathers insulate the frogmouth from heat, cold, rain, and insects, and provide excellent camouflage from a long list of predators including ravens, owls, falcons, lizards, snakes, cats, and foxes.
Masters of disguise, tawny frogmouths strategically nest in trees with grey-brown bark color and shingled texture similar to their plumage. To become one with the branch, the birds stretch out their bodies and heads, flatten their feathers, close their eyes to a slit, and think tree.
When camouflaging fails, the tawny frogmouth resorts to poo fighting to deter predators like lace monitor lizards and snakes. A thorough misting with show-stopping fecal spray disguises the bird’s scent, putting the slippery interlopers off their meal. They don’t call the tawny frogmouths “the skunks of the air” for nothing.
Quite chatty, TF’s communicate through a variety of vocalizations that are believed to express a range of emotions including, hunger, fear, annoyance, affection, and sadness.
One of the tawny frogmouth’s most extraordinary vocalizations and displays of emotion occurs when a nestling has lost its parents or when a juvenile is about to leave its family territory. The young bird emits a “gut wrenching” whimpering that is strikingly similar to the sound of a human infant crying in pain.
No long strolls for these birds. Fliers and sitters, known as a perch and pounce sedentary predators, tawny frogmouths rarely use their feet for walking.

As an animal behaviorist and wildlife rehabilitator who has studied, cared for, and lived alongside tawny frogmouths, Dr. Kaplan has come to know them as affectionate, gentle, and curious animals with distinct personalities. Her utterly engaging analysis makes it clear why the bird’s detractors got it all wrong. Obviously, the tawny frogmouth’s beauty is more than a few finely mottled feathers deep.

And that’s your WW creature capsule for the week. Should anyone ever ask, “Hey, do you know anything about that Australian tawny frogmouth?” now you can confidently reply, “Why, yes. Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.”

Until next time, take good care and be well.

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Lisa S. French March 14, 2020

Best Bird

It’s bird award season in the southern hemisphere–that special time in late spring when birdwatchers around the world cast their votes online for the annual “it” bird of New Zealand. On November 11, this year’s favored flapper, the endangered yellow-eyed penguin, toddled past its top rival, the charismatic kākāpō, to be crowned 2019 Bird of the Year by New Zealand’s leading independent conservation organization Forest & Bird.

The yellow-eyed penguin, also known as the hoiho, which is Maori for noise shouter, is the world’s oldest and rarest penguin species—only 225 pairs of the seabird remain on New Zealand’s mainland. With its distinctive yellow peepers, pink feet, and slate-blue back and flippers, the hoiho is an unmistakable presence in the island nation’s coastal forests. Generally a solitary, quiet bird, the yellow-eyed penguin earned its Maori moniker due to the high-pitched braying sound it makes in nesting areas.

The Bird of the Year competition was launched in 2005 to raise awareness of New Zealand’s many remarkable native bird species and the threats to their survival. Currently, 80% of New Zealand’s birds are in trouble, and one out of three are at risk of extinction, including the hoiho and the kākāpō. You can learn more about all of the 2019 Forest & Bird contestants and their conservation status here.

If viewing all of the feathered finery down-under has you suffering from a bout of birdwatcher’s envy, here are some resources, tips, and upcoming events for budding and full-blown birders up-top:

You can get facts, photos, and vocalizations for more than 600 North American bird species at Cornell Labs ultimate online ornithology resource, allaboutbirds.org.

If you’d like to get a handle on how birds in your neck of the woods will be impacted by climate change under different warming scenarios, Audubon scientists have created an amazing app for that: Survival By Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink. Just type in your U.S. postal code to find out which birds in your county will be affected by increasing global temperatures and how you can help support the Audubon mission.

From December 14 through January 5, you can put your bird-by-bird watching to really good use by participating in the 120^th annual Christmas Bird Count, helping to collect data that will be used to analyze the health of bird populations across the Americas.

And because winter really is coming, here’s a zero-effort habitat gardening tip: rather than cutting back any perennials on your patch, go wild and leave seed-bearing plant tops intact as a snack station to attract winter bird fly-bys. Not tidy perhaps, but tasty, and tasty rules when it comes to keeping the feathered ones in full chirp mode.

Whether you are slogging through snow in the north or celebrating spring in the south, wherever you walk through the beauty of the world, remember to keep an ear out for the winged wonders. That’s a free Earth music download—and it’s good for you!

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Lisa S. French November 21, 2019

Flourishing Flamingos

If you find yourself sloshing around a lagoon on the coast of southern Africa and happen upon a long-necked, spindly-legged, petite pouf of avian pinkness and think “Hmm, that one’s not quite the full flamingo,” you would be correct. Standing up to three feet tall but weighing only three to six pounds, Phoeniconaias minor, a.k.a. the lesser flamingo, is the smallest and one of the most brightly colored of six species of flamingo. What lesser flamingos lack in size, they make up in numbers, forming million-strong mega-flocks in their African home. These very vocal gatherings also known as stands, colonies, or the aptly named flamboyance, help to ward off a long list of potential predators including lions, leopards, cheetahs, jackals, and hyenas. When you are on everyone’s menu, there is safety in numbers.

Like other wading birds, the lesser flamingo is dependent upon the healthy functioning of biodiverse coastal ecosystems for food. Lesser flamingos are filter feeders, skimming blue-green algae, insects and the occasional crustacean from the water through sieve-like structures called lamellae which line their boomerang-shaped bills. All flamingos stand on both legs when feeding, but tuck one leg under their plumage for up to four hours when sleeping. This famed one-legged posture, which long puzzled scientists, has now been attributed to the wading bird’s need for thermoregulation. Standing around in cold water for hours every day, even in a warm climate, can cause a rapid drop in body temperature. Researchers estimate that keeping one leg high and dry helps flamingos reduce heat loss by up to one-half.

This avian adaptation works in conjunction with the rete mirabile, a rather beautiful-sounding Latin term meaning “wonderful net” which refers to the intricate, fine web of arteries and veins that also serves to minimize heat loss in warm-blooded vertebrates. In flamingos, this arterial net functions to preserve upper body heat when their feet and legs are immersed in cold water during prolonged feeding and sleeping sessions.

These champion waders are also able, if awkward, fliers. Gangly necks and legs outstretched, lesser flamingos are capable of reaching speeds of up to 35 miles per hour. Although non-migratory, the birds do relocate in response to changes in climate that affect water levels and food supplies.

With coloration ranging from pastel to coral to bubble-gum pink, the eminently preen-worthy feathers of the flamingo species are a function of “you are what you eat.” Flamingo chicks are born grey or white, slowly acquiring their happy hue over several years as a result of consuming beta carotenoids. Carotenoids, which are found in foods like carrots, squash, apricots, and the blue-green algae favored by flamingos, are broken down by the liver into yellow, orange, and red fat-soluble pigments which are transmitted to plumage—no carotenoids in the diet, no pink in the flamingos.

While lesser flamingo populations are estimated to be between 1.5 and 2.5 million, the species is listed as near threatened by the IUCN as numbers are decreasing due to predation, habitat loss and illegal poaching. Here’s to hoping the smallest pink feathered ones hang on in there—lesser but not less than.

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Lisa S. French September 16, 2019