Flamingos: The Water-Bending Physics Masters

Short Wave

NPR

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4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 May 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

Riddle us this: Which animal is pink, curved beaked and a master of the physics required to create water tornadoes? If you guessed flamingos, you're right. New research out this month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that across a range of harsh environments, flamingos have become masters — of physics, fluid dynamics and so much more — all in pursuit of their filter-fed prey. Short Wave host Regina G. Barber sits down with biomechanics researcher Victor Ortega Jiménez to hear all of the incredibly involved lengths these birds go through to get their prey.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:05.4	Hey, shortwavers, Emily Kwong here with my co-host and our resident physicist Regina Barber.
0:10.7	Hey, Gina.
0:11.4	Hey, I have a really important physics question for you.
0:15.3	Okay, what?
0:16.9	Okay. Do you like flamingos?
0:18.3	I love all birds, but flamingos are among the weirdest and the coolest.
0:22.7	I think so.
0:23.6	What does that have to do with physics?
0:25.0	I'm going to show you a video of one feeding now.
0:27.3	Okay.
0:27.6	Go ahead and pull it up.
0:29.4	Oh, this is cute.
0:30.4	Okay, so yes, we have the classic pink leggy flamingo, but he's eating by dipping his head in the water. Yeah, he's got this
0:37.8	curved beak at the end of his long neck and this large tongue. And I guess I didn't know
0:42.6	they did this. He's stomping his feet in the water too, like pep, pep, pep, yeah, yeah. And you'll
0:46.7	notice his head is like upside down, like his eyes are going in first into the water. Yeah.
0:50.9	And this pretty unusual feeding behavior like caught the eye of Victor Ortega Jimenez,
0:55.7	and he studies biomechanics.
0:57.7	Oh, so he studies how living things move.
0:59.6	Yes, correct.
1:00.6	So back in 2019 during a trip to the Atlanta Zoo, Victor saw the flamingos feeding, like,
	...

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