American flamingo

Food/Eating Habits

These flamingos eat algae, small seeds and aquatic invertebrates such as brine, fly larvae, shrimp and mollusks. Flamingos usually feed while wading in shallows, using their feet to stir up mud on the bottom. They put their head to the surface (so that the bill is upside-down, with the tip pointing backward) and sweeps their head from side to side.

By a rapid action of the tongue, they pump water in and out of the slightly opened bill. The way in which the upper and lower parts of the bill fit together, combined with the comb-like plates on the bill’s edges, make it a useful tool for sieving food from water.