Flamingos dye their sun-faded feathers to stay pretty in pink

Declan Denning

Mr. Ippolito

Core Chemistry/ Current Event #1

10/27/21

 

“Flamingos dye their sun-faded feathers to stay pretty in pink”

By Rebecca Dzombak

Dzombak, Rebecca. “Flamingos Dye Their Sun-Faded Feathers to Stay Pretty in Pink.” Science News, 26 Oct. 2021, www.sciencenews.org/article/flamingo-feathers-dye-pink-biology#:~:text=Flamingos%20dye%20their%20sun-faded%20feathers%20to%20stay%20pretty,fight%20sun%20bleaching%20of%20their%20precious%20neck%20feathers.  

 

The article titled “Flamingos dye their sun-faded feathers to stay pretty in pink” discusses how flamingos actually take steps to spruce themselves up for mating season to be more marketable to the other flamingos. Flamingos get their red color from carotenoids that come from their diet of shrimp and other algae. The study was conducted by Maria Cecilia Chiale where she collected dozens of neck feathers from flamingos who had died in France and scanned them to analyze their color. She then took half of them and exposed them to sunlight on a roof and kept the other half in darkness. Forty days later she scanned the feathers again and revealed  that the exposed feathers were paler. Before the exposure, Chiale also extracted carotenoids from each feather and found that the feathers with more carotenoids kept their color longer.  The study shows that the flamingos actually maintain their red colored necks by rubbing their necks with a serum they produce near their tails throughout their mating season in order to attract partners. Once they secure a mate and reproduce the flamingos stop putting the dye on their feathers.

This study reveals that social creatures like flamingos who live in flocks actually have rituals and communication as part of their mating. It shows that there is an actual ritual and measure of attractiveness within the flamingo flock. This has an effect on society because it shows that in order to survive and reproduce, species do have rituals that must not be interrupted. The researcher found that “Initially, the behavior was for waterproofing, but since it reinforces the color signal of the feathers…it helps in the social communication of flamingos.” This article 

reveals that social creatures have a desire to find a partner whether they be human or flamingos.

One of the strengths of this article is that it is well-written and really grabs the reader’s attention. The article also really creates a visual of understanding how the red color of flamingos happens. One of the weaknesses of the article is that the sample size used by the researcher is way too small- she only collected dozens of neck feathers from flamingos. The researcher definitely needs to not only increase her sample size, but also limit the variables in the experiment so that the results can definitively prove the cause of why the flamingos are rubbing their necks to prevent the loss of the red color.