The Chilean Flamingo lives in South America and they typically like to stay in shallow alkaline water (high pH), brackish water. This water is saltier than fresh water, but not as salty as sea water. The area around this water is desert like because of the alkaline water.
They usually eat aquatic invertebrates, diatoms and algae. Many of these organisms are found in the alkaline water.
Because of the Chilean Flamingos habitat, it does not interact with too many animals due to the fact that they live in higher pH waters.
When the weather gets cooler, the Chilean Flamingo likes to stand on one leg and pull up the other one. This helps them keep warm and it is said that this is the most comfortable position for them.
The Chilean Flamingo has a narrow niche because it only likes to eat the little organisms in the water. If the water becomes polluted or contaminated and little organisms die, the Chilean Flamingo has nothing else to eat, and they will starve to death.
Behavioural Adaptation of the Chilean Flamingo
1. The Chilean Flamingo is not born pink, they are born white, but their diet contains carotenoid pigments which cause their feathers to grow with a pink pigment. Scientist say that this adaptation is based how successful breeding is. The brighter the colour, the more successful in making offspring. This is an advantage to some Chilean Flamingos because they can find a mate relatively quickly.
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The structural adaptations of the Chilean Flamingo:
1. Chilean Flamingos feed with their bills upside-down. They put their heads in the water and filter feed. They have little hairs on the top half of their bills which act as a filter to clean the water they drink. This is a adaptation because if the flamingo drinks unclean water they could possibly die or get very ill.
2. When a baby Flamingo is born, it is fed crop milk, a secretion of the upper digestive tract for the first days of its life. This helps the baby grow strong and healthy. After the baby is big enough, they leave the nest and make a group called creches. They are now able to find food on their own and provide for themselves.
Differences between the Chilean Flamingos:
1. The colour of pink they are, is a continuous trait because there are so many tints and shades of pink that you can't group certain flamingos by their colour.
2. How far the black extends on their beaks, is a continuous trait because it depends on how long their beak is, which can determine the length of the black.
3. How long their legs are, is a continuous trait because there are baby Flamingos, adult and elderly Flamingos.There all different heights within an age group.
4. Their weight, is a continuous trait because some of them eat more than others and some are just smaller in general.
5. Their height, is a continuous trait because it depends on how tall the parents are, and every Flamingo is different, so there is a wide range on how tall the Flamingos are.
6. How long their the necks are is a continuous trait because there is so many factors that could change neck length,like genetics, and not every Flamingo has the same genes so there are so many possibilities of neck length.
7. Wing span, is a continuous trait because it depends on how big the Flamingo is, and if they are all different sizes that means that there are many lengths of wing spans. An adult Flamingo wouldn't have the same wing span as a baby Flamingo.
8. The size of their body (torso),is a continuous trait because it all depends on the weight of the Flamingo because most of the weight is concentrated on the torso, so if they weigh a lot then the torso must be pretty big.
9. The angle the beak bends at is a discrete trait because the beak can only bend so much and if it's bent at, for example, 90 degrees there must have been a birth defect.
10. The amount of black feathers they have is a discrete trait because some Flamingos don't have them and some do. There are only 2 options.
http://www.theanimalfiles.com/images/chilean_flamingo_1.jpg
