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Flamingos are unique creatures when it comes to feeding. They have a specialized beak that is designed for filtering food from the water. They use their beak to scoop up water and then push it out through their beak, trapping small organisms like algae, shrimp, and insects in their bristle-like filters.

Flamingos are often seen standing on one leg while feeding. This behavior helps them conserve energy and maintain balance while sifting through the water for food. They will often move their head from side to side, using their beak to sweep through the water and catch their prey.

Flamingos are social feeders and will often feed in large groups. This allows them to cover more ground and find food more efficiently. They are also known to engage in synchronized feeding, where they will all move their heads in unison to create a wave-like motion in the water, stirring up food for everyone to eat.

Overall, flamingos have a fascinating feeding behavior that is both efficient and cooperative. Their unique beak and feeding habits have evolved to help them thrive in their watery habitats. Watching a group of flamingos feed is a mesmerizing sight, as they work together to find and consume their food in a synchronized and graceful manner.

Flamingos are filter feeders, and in that respect resemble whales and oysters more than they do most birds. Many complex rows of horny plates line their beaks, plates that, like those of baleen whales, are used to strain food items from the water. The filter of the Greater Flamingo traps crustaceans, mollusks, and insects an inch or so long. The Lesser Flamingo has such a dense filter that it can sift out single-celled plants less than two-hundredths of an inch in diameter.

Flamingos feed with their heads down, and their bills are adapted accordingly. In most birds, a smaller lower beak works against a larger upper one. In flamingos this is reversed; the lower bill is much larger and stronger, and the fat tongue runs within the bill's deep central groove. To complete the jaw reversal, unlike other birds (and mammals) the upper jaw is not rigidly fixed to the skull. Consequently, with the bird's head upside down during feeding the upper bill moves up and down, permitting the flamingo's jaws to work "normally."

Part of the flamingo's filter feeding is accomplished simply by swinging the head back and forth and letting the water flow through the bill. The tongue also can be used as a pump to pass water through the bill's strainer more efficiently. It moves quickly fore and aft in its groove, sucking water in through the filter as it pulls backward, and expelling it from the beak as it pushes forward. The tongue may repeat its cycle up to four times a second.

Flamingos are not the only avian filter feeders. Some penguins and auks have simple structures to help them strain small organisms from the water, and one Southern Hemisphere genus of petrels (Pachyptila, prions, or whalebirds) and some ducks have filtering devices.