Lamellae Filter Food of Different Sizes

Biological Strategy

Andean flamingo

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Capture, Absorb, or Filter Organisms

Many living systems must secure organisms for food. But just as one living system must capture its prey to survive, its prey must escape to survive. This results in capture and avoidance strategies that include trickery, speed, poisons, constructed traps, and more. For example, a carnivorous plant called the pitcher plant has leaves formed into a tube that collect water. Long, slippery hairs within the tube face downward. When insects enter the tube seeking nectar, they lose their footing and slide inside, unable to climb out and escape being eaten and digested by the plant.

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Birds

Class Aves (“bird”): Eagles, hawks, sparrows, parrots

Birds are evolutionary engineering marvels. They are descended from dinosaurs, but are far from our idea of heavy, scaly reptiles. Of the specific adaptions that set them apart, most notable is flight—although some mammals can fly, birds take the prize for abundance in the skies. Many birds have hollow, lightweight skeletons and specially-designed wings to help them stay aloft. They also have feathers made of keratin that help them stay warm, attract mates, and improve navigation and aerodynamics in flight. In contrast to their dinosaur ancestors, they lack true teeth and have replaced them with specialized beaks and bills.

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The bill of the flamingo filters food of various sizes using compex rows of hair-like structures called lamellae.

Image: Tambako The Jaguar / Flickr.com /

Flamingo vocalizing in the Walter zoo (Gossau, Switzerland), shows lamellae.

Image: Wikimedia Commons /

Phoenicoparrus jamesi, a group of Jamess Flamingos at Laguna Hedionda in Bolivia.

“The bill is adapted uniquely for filter feeding. The bill is lined with numerous complex rows of lamellae, which filter the various small crustacea, algae, and unicellular organisms on which flamingos feed.¹⁴ Flamingos feed with their head upside down so that the maxillary bill takes on the function of the mandibular bill and vice versa.^7,18 The feeding process requires a series of tongue movements and opening and closing of the beak, which allows food items to be filtered by the lamellae and eventual ingestion. Unwanted items such as mud and saltwater are pushed out by the tongue.^7,8 The bill anatomy varies among flamingo species, depending on dietary preferences (see Table 15-1).” (Fowler and Miller 2003:129)

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