* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia
I have captured that photograph for La Vanguardia Readers’ Photos in the Ebro Delta, where we can see this pair of flamingos with their colorful plumage. But, if you look at the image, one has his entire head in the water and the other does not.
The question that this scene raises for us is the following: Why is it accompanied when the flamingo puts its head into the water? Well, because they are not stupid and they know that, when they are submerged, they are vulnerable.
Flamingos are aware that it is dangerous to put your head in the water and not know what is happening on the surface. For this reason, they make sure that, when they dive to look for food, there is always another flamingo next to them watching, as happens in this photograph.
There is another element in this image that may catch our attention: the beak of the flamingo that does not have its head immersed in the water. Is there anything peculiar about it?
Well the answer is yes, because, in the vast majority of birds, the lower beak is smaller than the upper one. But, in the case of flamingos, it is the other way around because it is easier for them to feed face down by activating their large oral aspirator.
