Flamingos Are Not Born Pink

If you have ever stood in front of a flamingo enclosure at a zoo and stared at that impossible shade of pink, here is something worth knowing: not one of those birds was born that colour. Baby flamingos hatch with soft white or grey down, looking nothing like the vivid birds they will become. The colour you see on an adult flamingo was not there at birth. It came from lunch.

Flamingos get their colour entirely from their diet. They feed on algae, brine shrimp, and small crustaceans that are rich in natural compounds called carotenoids — the same family of pigments that makes carrots orange and tomatoes red. As the flamingo's body processes these compounds, the pigments are deposited into the feathers and skin, gradually shifting the bird from grey-white to the striking pink or orange-red that makes flamingos instantly recognisable. The richer the food supply, the deeper the colour. Flamingos living near abundant feeding grounds tend to be far more vividly coloured than those fed a poor diet.

Flamingos feed in a way that looks almost accidental. They wade into shallow water, tip their heads completely upside down, and use their uniquely shaped beak as a filter. Water and mud flow in through the front and are pumped out through the sides, while tiny food particles — algae, shrimp, seeds — are trapped inside and swallowed. This filter-feeding method only works when the beak is held inverted. The flamingo's beak is one of the most precisely adapted tools in the animal kingdom, shaped over millions of years to do exactly one thing in exactly one position.

A group of flamingos has one of the most fitting names in the English language: a flamboyance. With their vivid colour, their habit of gathering in enormous synchronised flocks along the edges of lakes, and their tendency to perform coordinated group displays during breeding season, the name barely needs explaining. Flamingos are deeply social birds — they nest in colonies that can number in the thousands, and pairs often stay together for several years. Take one flamingo away from the flock, and it becomes visibly stressed. Put it back, and it settles almost immediately.

So the next time you see a flamingo and admire that extraordinary shade of pink, remember: it did not come with the bird. Every feather was earned, one tiny shrimp at a time. The colour is not decoration — it is a record of everything the flamingo has eaten, written in the language of pigment.