Ever been told not to play with your food?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Flamingos feed by dancing around with their heads underwater. But what’s going on underneath the surface?
Dr. Victor Ortega-Jimenez and team at Georgia Tech dove headfirst into the question. They filmed munching flamingos at the Nashville Zoo.
Turns out, flamingos use their unique beaks to make tornado-like vortexes to catch their prey. Then, they rapidly open and close their beaks – a method called chattering – which sucks food right up! They also shuffle their feet to stir prey into their vacuum system!
They capture so many particles this way, researchers believe it could advance water filtration.
Talk about giving something a whirl!
Reference: V.M. Ortega-Jimenez, T. Yee, P. Rohilla, B. Seleb, J. Belair, & S. Bhamla, Flamingos use their L-shaped beak and morphing feet to induce vortical traps for prey capture, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 122 (21) e2503495122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2503495122 (2025).