Who decides what a flamingo group does?
I know that it seems like the majority of my diary entries are about the bad weather and I can assure folks that I am not some wannabe weather forecaster, but hey, let's try and turn the rain, wind and hail into something positive and interesting concerning animal behaviour. The heavy rain and strong winds this past week at Slimbridge have accounted for some interesting flamingo activity and one that got me thinking about the dynamics of each flock of each species and who is involved in deciding what birds do and why they do them. As part of my PhD is to identify important individuals within a group, observations of the birds under different conditions can really pinpoint who might be responsible for the behaviours that the flamingos perform both individually and as a flock.
If you have evolved to live in a large group, it stands to reason that you will communicate with the other individuals around you and attempt to direct or coordinate the behaviour of all of your fellow animals. Flamingos, like most birds, are very colour-orientated and their bright pink plumage is a visual cue for what is going on with everyone around them. As well as colour, sound and movement are also involved in determining what flamingos do and why they do it. So I thought I would share a few videos of the birds' behaviour to illustrate my point.
So first off, here's a short clip of the Andean flamingos just before the weather changes and we all get a good soaking. The birds start to engage in their courtship behaviour of marching, with some other coordinated group displays. You can see in the video that some birds are clearly "leaders" and others are most definitely "followers". About twenty minutes later, when the rain, wind and hail had died down, the birds were paddling around, foraging as usual.
[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4P8aUIGdzs']
The next video is of the greater flamingo flock in the middle of the bad weather that caused the Andean flamingos to get all excited. I found their behaviour during this storm incredible to watch (even if I did get soaked through for the rest of the day!). Even though the birds could seek shelter, they all massed tightly together and faced into the storm in a similar way that you might see a group of penguins huddling together on the wildlife documentary. There is clearly some very specific flock organisation and decision making going on to make this happen so fluently... something to be investigated further I feel!
[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBCuN-pr-7s']
And finally, here's the lesser flamingos at Slimbridge looking like they are simply stampeding backwards and forwards but again, like the Andean clip, there is a lot of organised and coordination here. Spot the birds performing courtship displays with their necks (bringing them bill down sharply onto their neck) and squabbling with some individuals but avoiding argument with others... all of this incites other birds to take part too and soon the behaviour spreads throughout the group. So once again, not just pink ornaments but instead lots to look out for!
[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGDTJicdTYU']
