Galapagos Islands

So Much On My Mind It’s A Wonder My Neck Doesn’t Snap.

July 16, 2020 — 9 Comments

F/6.3, 1/50, ISO 200.

American Flamingo 

What did one hat say to the other?

You stay here, I’ll go on a head.

Interesting Fact: The American flamingo has adapted to its shallow-water environment in several ways. It has evolved long legs and large webbed feet to wade and stir up the bottom of the water bed to bring up their food source to then be retrieved. To feed, it has evolved a specialized beak which is hooked downward and features marginal lamellae on the upper mandible, and inner and outer lamellae on both the upper and lower mandibles. These are adapted for filtering out differently sized food from water.[16] Depending on the food source in their area, diets depend on the exact morphology of their beaks on what can and cannot be strained out of them. It submerges its head under water to retrieve its food, and may have its head under water for long times, which requires it to hold its breath. Factors which affect the habitat choice of American flamingos are environmental temperatures, water depth, food source, accessibility of an area, and the presence of vegetation beds in feeding areas. If available food items do not meet the needs of the flamingos or the temperature is not appropriate to their requirements, they move to a better feeding or more temperate area. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_flamingo )

I Don’t Have A Drinking Problem, I Drink, I Get Drunk, I Pass Out, No Problem!

April 4, 2020 — 15 Comments

F/7.1, 1/200, ISO 320.

American Flamingo 

Why did the baseball player bring a rope to the game?

He wanted to tie the score

Interesting Fact: American flamingos are saltwater birds that ingest food with a high salt content and mostly drink salt water (with an osmolarity of usually 1000), hyperosmotic to the bodies cells . Also, though not commonly, they can drink fresh water at near-boiling temperatures from geysers. From their high-salt diet, they would lose more water and have a greater salt uptake. One way in which they osmoregulate is through the use of a salt gland, which is found in their beaks.[17] This salt gland helps excrete excess salt from the body through the nasal openings in the flamingo’s beaks. When these birds consume salt, the osmolarity increases in the blood plasma through the gut. This causes water to move out of the cells, increasing extracellular fluids. Both these changes, in turn, activate the salt glands of the bird,[18] but before any activity occurs in the salt glands, the kidney has to reabsorb the ingested sodium from the small intestine. As seen in other saltwater birds, the fluid that is excreted has been seen to have an osmolarity greater than that of the salt water, but this varies with salt consumption and body size. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_flamingo )