There is a small nationwide park “Nakuru” in Kenya, and in it – Lake Nakuru. It is there that a whole lot of 1000’s of pink flamingos nest yr after yr. The abundance of algae attracts different birds to this place. But flamingos are a particular dialog. It is their big flocks that make vacationers come from all around the world to benefit from the spectacle.
In the language of the native Maasai tribes, the phrase “nakuru” means “dusty place.”
Flying over the lake by helicopter will take your breath away from what you see – an enormous pink blanket sways tirelessly over the lake. On the banks of the “Nakuru” as much as one and a half million birds can collect directly.
Nowhere else on earth will you meet so many long-legged pink beauties.
Other names for flamingos are “chicken of fireplace” and “chicken of the morning daybreak.” And in one of many songs, it was sung that the flamingo is a “baby of the sundown.”
Birds really feel nice on this place and all because of numerous small crustaceans and algae that reside in shallow waters.
A particular characteristic of flamingos is a large beak curved nearly at a proper angle. With it, they filter meals out of the water.
Birds open their beak, decrease it into the water and drive it back and forth. Special plates positioned alongside the perimeters of the tongue lure small crustaceans and algae.
The attribute simply recognizable shade of the plumage is given by a particular pigment, which birds obtain from the shells of lacustrine crustaceans.
Lake Nakuru has a reasonably excessive salt focus. Very few dwelling organisms are capable of face up to its impact on the physique. In this case, it’s a flamingo. This reality was admired by Charles Darwin.
Birds don’t wish to fly. Basically, they stand on the bottom, and take off solely in case of hazard or to maneuver to a different place.
Natural enemies of flamingos are wolves, foxes, jackals, and enormous birds of prey, which, by the best way, want to settle close by.
However, catching flamingos just isn’t straightforward. As quickly as a number of birds succumb to the survival intuition and take off, their family members instantly rush after them. It just isn’t straightforward for any predator to decide on any particular prey from such a dwelling canvas.
Flamingos are all the time depicted standing on one leg. I’m wondering why? It’s fairly easy. So they attempt to reduce warmth loss, which they’ve via their naked toes. Storks and different long-legged birds behave the identical approach.
From the viewpoint of an individual, standing on one leg is extraordinarily uncomfortable. But this place doesn’t trigger any inconvenience to birds. The particular construction of the legs helps every of them face up to the burden of the physique and never bend beneath its weight.
In captivity, flamingos are capable of reside as much as 30 years of age. How lengthy they reside in nature just isn’t recognized for sure. Nevertheless, they’ve tailored properly to life in not the best circumstances. And they haven’t even modified a lot over the previous 30 million years, as evidenced by the skeletons discovered by archaeologists.
