The American Flamingo is a large species of flamingo closely related to the Greater Flamingo and Chilean Flamingo. It was formerly considered conspecific with the Greater Flamingo, but that treatment is now widely viewed as incorrect due to a lack of evidence. It is the only flamingo which naturally inhabits North America.
Similar species: Flamingos
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Uploaded Dec 31, 2021. Captured Sep 13, 2016 12:36 in HVPP+2W Brugelette, Belgium.
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"The bill is uniquely adapted for filter-feeding, and its shape is not shared among any other family of birds. Their large bills consist of layers of horny plates used to filter out prey from the water. In contrast to other birds, flamingo's bills are essentially reversed. Flamingo's lower mandibles are larger than the upper, which is not rigidly attached to the skull. Thus when it eats, the upper mandible moves as opposed to the lower, which is completely reversed from all birds and mammals. This reversal is largely attributed to flamingos' method of feeding by submerging their heads upside-down."
https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Phoenicopterus_ruber/ Posted one year ago