What do you think of this fact?
Hardly any animal is as tied to one color as the flamingo. Pink is basically its brand. Which makes this surprising: flamingos aren’t born pink. They have to eat their way there.
You are what you eat, literally
Flamingos eat algae and tiny crustaceans like brine shrimp. That food is packed with carotenoids, natural pigments, the same kind that make carrots orange. The flamingo filters them out of the water with its bill and processes them.
Enzymes in the liver break the carotenoids down into pigments, which end up in the bird’s skin and feathers. The more it gets, the stronger its color. A flamingo that goes without the right food for a long time can gradually fade.
Gray chicks with straight bills
Freshly hatched flamingos look nothing like their parents. According to Smithsonian’s National Zoo, they have white-gray downy feathers and straight bills. Their feathers come in bit by bit, and it takes several years for them to get the signature pink and the bent bill of the adults.
Until then, both parents feed the chicks a kind of milk. This crop milk is made by males and females alike in their upper digestive tract, and it’s full of protein and fat.
Not all pinks are equal
There are six flamingo species worldwide, and they don’t all look the same. Some are pale pink, others glow almost salmon red. How intense the color gets depends largely on how many carotenoids their particular diet provides.
Flamingos often stand on one leg. According to Smithsonian’s National Zoo, that may simply be less tiring, and it helps them save body heat.
A flamingo without its favorite food would be pretty plain. For this bird, pink isn’t in the genes. It’s on the menu.