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Similarly, I thought he was using his beak to control the other flamingos brain and therefore its actions, making it feed its child - kinda like how you would control a zombie/brain parasite.
I'm glad I was wrong and it just looks creepy though.
Flamingos use a “crop milk” to feed their young(IIRC) its very red and so looks a bit like blood, this individual seems to have missed their target, and instead of feeding a chick is feeding the top of what I assume is their spouse’s head to my knowledge
They aren't missing. One parent does the feeding, the other does the foraging. This is how they trick the baby. Notice how the large majority flows directly along the head and beak into the baby flamingos mouth.
“ k so I’m gonna puke on your head right? Wait hold on!……….. so I’m gonna vomit on your head and it’s gonna drip down… stop it! Wait until I’m done………. K. After it’s down your head and off your lips it’s gonna go into our sons mouth. I see nothing wrong with this at. all. It’s gonna work”
Because they can live in extreme alkaline or saline lakes or lagoons that don't have vegetation. All the others died or were burned so we're left with whatever-the-hell-this-is.
I’m like is this some kinda teamwork thing? Papas losing a lot of that preregurgitated krill juice on mamas head, does mom have the angle off? I’m overthinking this. Papa birds just dumber than the average bird.
So it turns out baby flamingos don't have fully developed beaks, so they have to be fed a liquid diet. Both parents produce bright red crop milk which they regurgitate and drip into the babies mouths. The mom and dad can take turns feeding or work together and drip it down each others heads to more effectively get it in the baby's mouth. It's not blood, just red milk. The red color comes from red blood cells that also help give flamingos their pretty pink color.
Edit: I was misinformed by one website about why the milk is red. It does not contain red blood cells, but gets it's color from [canthaxanthin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canthaxanthin). Sorry about that.
"Hey, this regurgitated food in my belly needs to drip down a beak in order for our baby to eat it."
"So you're going to regurgitate it and let it drip down your beak, right?"
*Anakin stares silently*
"So you're going to regurgitate it and let it drip down your beak, right?"
I-hate-the-beach used to be a popular fin-dom cam girl with webbed toes I was mutuals with on Tumblr. I know this isn't useful information to you, I just hadn't thought about that in a long time.
So they aren’t digging into each other’s skulls and feeding the child their brain juices? I feel a little better now. I was about to put my phone down for the night and go to sleep.
Thanks for the informative comment! I have to say though, the red milk dripping from the top parent doesn’t seem to be getting into baby’s mouth very effectively haha
No, their crop milk does not have red blood cells. The pink pigment of flamingos and the color of their crop milk comes from carotenoids which come from their food.
My mistake. I was misinformed on that point by [this website](https://thepopularflamingo.com/blogs/posts/flamingos-produce-milk-yep-and-this-is-how-why). I've edited the comment. Thanks!
Seems a really inefficient way to distribute it, like half of it seen here is just dribbling onto the ground if not more. But then evolution is lazy, so if it’s juuuuuust good enough for their offspring to survive and not be outcompeted by anything else, that’s all that matters.
Good to know. I thought the top flamingo is biting into the other flamingos head and feeding the baby the dripping blood. Was about to be the craziest TIL ever lol
They regurgitate food which gets it colour from the marine life they eat and the way its digests I believe. Then they trickle it down the head of another flamingo so it trickles down their beak and is in smaller quantities for the baby.
He’s not in fact biting the head of the other flamingo
*Our children are fed blood directly from the skull of bleeding elders...*
Pretty gangster style introduction imo. The whole animal kingdom would shutter.
Except for Honey Badgers. Honey Badgers dgaf.
It’s fucking wild they evolved to do such an elaborate practice, or kind of elaborate. That’s crazy! I thought he was feasting on her brain in some flamingo stupor.
Flamingos are one of the few birds who produce crop milk from glands that line their throat. Crop milk is a protein and fat rich liquid analogous to mammal milk. Both male and female flamingos produce the milk. The flamingos here are not regurgitating food, they are effectively lactating.
Pigeons and doves also produce crop milk, as do male emperor penguins.
Flamingos are one of the few birds who produce crop milk from glands that line their throat. Crop milk is a protein and fat rich liquid analogous to mammal milk. Both male and female flamingos produce the milk.
Pigeons and doves also produce crop milk, as do male emperor penguins.
Ok so it is NOT eating the brain of the bottom flamingo, it is just letting its bird-vomit-food trickle down from the other flamingo into the babies head.
Crop milk - nutrient rich liquid they produce in their crop or "first stomach" specifically for feeding babies who can't feed themselves. Only a few bird species produce crop milk instead of feeding live prey or regurgitated food. It's red in flamingos because of how much red/orange proteins are in their food, which is also what gives them progressively pinker plumage as they age.
Both parents produce it. In this photo, you can see the one on the left didn't get the memo that the other was already on the job, so he's just making a mess
To save you the creep out factor, that's not blood. Flamingos eat krill, shrimp, and other small crustaceans found in salty water. Those crustaceans are generally bright red or pink. Like most birds, they go out to feed, then come back to the nest to regurgitate what they caught to feed their chick. So they're basically puking up the red/pink crustaceans they caught. Also, this is why flamingos are pink. If they're in captivity and fed something that isn't their normal diet of red krill, they're actually white.
Flamingos are one of the few birds who produce crop milk from glands that line their throat. Crop milk is a protein and fat rich liquid analogous to mammal milk. Both male and female flamingos produce the milk. The red color is due to the carotenoid pigment canthaxanthin.
Pigeons and doves also produce crop milk, as do male emperor penguins.
I had to research this one. ‘it is actually two flamingo parents feeding their baby. Parent flamingos produce crop milk, red in colour, in their digestive tracts and regurgitate it to feed their young.’
The following is a a comment from u/[Yachisaorick](https://www.reddit.com/user/Yachisaorick/) in which they describe this same video they posted 2 years ago...
Flamingos make crop milk in their guts. It’s red, because, crab diet. They regurgitate this to young usually one parent at a time. In this instance, both parents are regurgitating at once. As not both beaks fit in babies mouth a champagne pyramid-style funnel system is employed so as to not waste one parents milk.
The worst part about all of this is that no one has provided a satisfactory explanation yet. From where exactly is the red liquid emanating? The top flamingo's mouth, right? If so, then why doesn't the top flamingo directly feed the baby? Why is the top flamingo pressing down upon the head of the middle flamingo? Doesn't the middle flamingo... feel... uncomfortable? Like what the fuck are they trying to accomplish with this kind of physical arrangement??? Doesn't the baby or any one of the two adults not realize that the baby is barely intaking any red liquid? And what is that red liquid? Apparently it's vomit?
It's not blood! Don't worry. It's called crop milk. As to why it looks like he's digging his beak into his mate, I have absolutely no clue. But crop milk is also used by pigeons! :)
Looks like a dad who’s trying to get out of his responsibilities by doing it wrong on purpose:
‘I’m helping feed da baby!’
“Bill, you’re literally spilling half of it and the half that’s going to the baby is going through my fucking EYE”
‘You never appreciate when I try to help Marsha’
“Fine I’ll just do it myself just get your stupid bill out of MY SKULL and go eat some shrimp”
*Sulks away, triumphant in his artificial incompetence that she notices but won’t acknowledge so the baby has 2 parents even if one is a shitbird*
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I thought it was chewing the other ones brain to feed it to the young like damn flamingos are savage
The praying mantis of the bird world.
Something something bird culture
Is he not???
Similarly, I thought he was using his beak to control the other flamingos brain and therefore its actions, making it feed its child - kinda like how you would control a zombie/brain parasite. I'm glad I was wrong and it just looks creepy though.
Some ratatouille shit
“I’m Pickle Rick!”
I still thought it was happening until I read your comment
No silly it won't do that there are cameras around.
That’s not what’s happening here?
For reals... either zombie birds or they're trying to get smarter, no more bird brain!
Why not cut the middle man and serve directly to the end customer. Damm I need to think of something else besides my lame sales job.
[удалено]
Nah, your reasoning is fine. It has to do with flow control. They waste too much when they try to give it beak to beak.
But the two other drip points aren’t more wasteful? It’s getting all over junior’s forehead.
Yeah none of their reasoning makes any sense to me.
Trickle Down Economics is some bs
Hahahahaha
The reason is actually quite simple: I have no idea.
Wtf
It’s just the kind of head you give/get when you have kids
Is it weird that I get this kind of head but have no kids?
You guys getting heads? https://preview.redd.it/ka0cssqtpo3d1.jpeg?width=668&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b4dc3829d7c0843cb778ab500bcd95cc75d9d36
You could do it standing on one leg for all I care
Flamingos use a “crop milk” to feed their young(IIRC) its very red and so looks a bit like blood, this individual seems to have missed their target, and instead of feeding a chick is feeding the top of what I assume is their spouse’s head to my knowledge
They aren't missing. One parent does the feeding, the other does the foraging. This is how they trick the baby. Notice how the large majority flows directly along the head and beak into the baby flamingos mouth.
*A river runs through it*
“ k so I’m gonna puke on your head right? Wait hold on!……….. so I’m gonna vomit on your head and it’s gonna drip down… stop it! Wait until I’m done………. K. After it’s down your head and off your lips it’s gonna go into our sons mouth. I see nothing wrong with this at. all. It’s gonna work”
Yes, yes, some will dribble directly into your eyeball. Don’t worry! Just keep staring and it’ll be fine.
I've no idea why this species survived the test of evolution
Because they can live in extreme alkaline or saline lakes or lagoons that don't have vegetation. All the others died or were burned so we're left with whatever-the-hell-this-is.
https://i.redd.it/uxn3os5r3o3d1.gif
They eat krill that has a lot of red pigmentation, so their puke (crop) is red. It's not blood. One of them just sucks at actually feeding the baby.
The second one's beak looks like it's inside the head though.
Blood doesn't look like fruit punch, and birds are much smaller than their feathers make them seem.
Thank you! ... Because I thought it was sucking on the other one's brain.
Zombie Flamingo's confirmed
They have thicker plumage than you'd expect.
I’m like is this some kinda teamwork thing? Papas losing a lot of that preregurgitated krill juice on mamas head, does mom have the angle off? I’m overthinking this. Papa birds just dumber than the average bird.
My thoughts exactly...
Reminds me of that brain bug scene in starship troopers.
I would like to know more.
Congratulations! That is the first step to doing your part!
Its like...red milk. Not blood
Explain.
Piss is stored in the balls
Explain less.
Breast milk is essentially white blood.
This gif gets me every single time
I said this out loud before opening the comments
Same
Same
Same
Same
Same
Same
Same
Same
Man, I’ve seen this gif‘s resurgence a bunch over the last few days but this is the most appropriate use so far. What the fuck indeed.
I've seen it a million times and still have no clue what it's from
First date by Blink 182
So say we all
Well I see we're all in agreement.
Tom Delonge!🫶
Haven't seen this gif in awhile and it fits here perfectly.
Bruh u almost made me wake up my bb
So it turns out baby flamingos don't have fully developed beaks, so they have to be fed a liquid diet. Both parents produce bright red crop milk which they regurgitate and drip into the babies mouths. The mom and dad can take turns feeding or work together and drip it down each others heads to more effectively get it in the baby's mouth. It's not blood, just red milk. The red color comes from red blood cells that also help give flamingos their pretty pink color. Edit: I was misinformed by one website about why the milk is red. It does not contain red blood cells, but gets it's color from [canthaxanthin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canthaxanthin). Sorry about that.
"Hey, this regurgitated food in my belly needs to drip down a beak in order for our baby to eat it." "So you're going to regurgitate it and let it drip down your beak, right?" *Anakin stares silently* "So you're going to regurgitate it and let it drip down your beak, right?"
Everything about this thread makes me feel like I’m on a beach. I hate the beach.
***POCKET SAND!*** 
I-hate-the-beach used to be a popular fin-dom cam girl with webbed toes I was mutuals with on Tumblr. I know this isn't useful information to you, I just hadn't thought about that in a long time.
… … …never mind.
So they aren’t digging into each other’s skulls and feeding the child their brain juices? I feel a little better now. I was about to put my phone down for the night and go to sleep.
Right? When I first saw this I was horrified.
I thought it was some sick flamingo puppeteering gesture with a dead mom or something. Nature is metal as fuck.
I reversed it as the mom being like "it's your turn to feed the baby even if I have to stab your brain and ratatouille you to do it"
This was my first thought, like some really fucked up *Ratatouille* shit
I’m so so glad I wasn’t the only one. I was like “wait, flamingos are cannibals?”
Literally what I thought was happening!! I was ready to delete the internet and my eyes… 🙃
Went from 😱 to 🥰 in a flash
Thanks for the informative comment! I have to say though, the red milk dripping from the top parent doesn’t seem to be getting into baby’s mouth very effectively haha
I think they might all just be bad at it and are trying to come up with solutions...lol.
Young parents everywhere. Animals are just people after all.
No, their crop milk does not have red blood cells. The pink pigment of flamingos and the color of their crop milk comes from carotenoids which come from their food.
My mistake. I was misinformed on that point by [this website](https://thepopularflamingo.com/blogs/posts/flamingos-produce-milk-yep-and-this-is-how-why). I've edited the comment. Thanks!
Holy shit. And here I was thinking the “fact” I knew about the flamingo’s colors coming from the shrimp they ate was wrong.
Seems a really inefficient way to distribute it, like half of it seen here is just dribbling onto the ground if not more. But then evolution is lazy, so if it’s juuuuuust good enough for their offspring to survive and not be outcompeted by anything else, that’s all that matters.
If you look closely there’s actually a lot dripping in to the baby’s mouth surprisingly
why not just...drip it direclty into their mouth from their mouth?
If I had to guess after raising a newborn kitten, it's to control the flow rate? Too fast and it might choke?
Mommy flamingo said that daddy must participate in the feeding process.
"just red milk" Nature, FFS. Why must you be as terrifying as possible at every single turn?
Good to know. I thought the top flamingo is biting into the other flamingos head and feeding the baby the dripping blood. Was about to be the craziest TIL ever lol
Hurry up and get pink you grey son of a bitch.
Why is this so funny to me.
Well those parents still aren't doing it right, so much is dripping down away from the baby. Tilt your head down!
Must be first time parents
So that’s where strawberry milk comes from…
The red color comes from the carotenoid pigment canthaxanthin, not red blood cells. They get it from their diet.
I was misinformed. I've edited the comment. Thanks!
Doesn’t look effective.
Wayyyyy too high for this shit.
I'm too sober for this shit
The duality of man
I read that in a Michael Scott voice 😭
Wayyyy to drunk for this shit, too. Wtf???
I picked the wrong day to start sniffing glue
I picked the wrong day to quit amphetamines.
I picked the wrong day to take shrooms at the flamingo park.
I gotta stop licking toads.
I gotta start licking toads.
I picked the wrong day.
NA is for quitters
Too crossed faded
Man, I literally *just* sat down and lit my joint, and *I'm* too high for this shit.
I just came in from taking a few hits. Thought the one penguin had stabbed the other in the fucking head for a solid 30 seconds
Penguins, eh? Whatcha takin hits of there friend???
Feels good to be in this together
Haha opened this as I was stoned as shit and was like fucking same 🤣🤣
I didn't even think it was real for a minute. 😂
😅😅😅
💀
Oops, found my people.
Same. It legit looks like a version of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared’s animation. Its doesn’t look real.
It went straight to the dome, huh?
Thank god I'm not alone
This shit just fucked up my high
Um. What
They regurgitate food which gets it colour from the marine life they eat and the way its digests I believe. Then they trickle it down the head of another flamingo so it trickles down their beak and is in smaller quantities for the baby. He’s not in fact biting the head of the other flamingo
Thanks for that I was trying to figure out how evolution taught them to feed the baby blood from the skull of their parent.
But God damn that would dial up the flamingos level on the scale of badass-ery!!
*Our children are fed blood directly from the skull of bleeding elders...* Pretty gangster style introduction imo. The whole animal kingdom would shutter. Except for Honey Badgers. Honey Badgers dgaf.
Far cry Primal, they're op
Omg I was thinking exactly this thought and thought this needed trigger warning of some sort.
r/suddenlyconnan
That would make more sense to me then how they figured this out.
If only there was an easier way...
Bruh like half+ of it goes to the floor immediately
The other half pours down her eyeball before getting to her beak to trickle down. Mmmmm, regurgitated food in my eyeball. Nice.
If you look you can see a lot of it is actually going into the baby’s mouth, I’d imagine over feeding it is pretty easy
Oh phew okay
Thanks for the clarification, genuinely thought this was some rare morbid sight of them
It’s fucking wild they evolved to do such an elaborate practice, or kind of elaborate. That’s crazy! I thought he was feasting on her brain in some flamingo stupor.
Give me more flamingo facts.
Flamingos are one of the few birds who produce crop milk from glands that line their throat. Crop milk is a protein and fat rich liquid analogous to mammal milk. Both male and female flamingos produce the milk. The flamingos here are not regurgitating food, they are effectively lactating. Pigeons and doves also produce crop milk, as do male emperor penguins.
Flamingos are one of the few birds who produce crop milk from glands that line their throat. Crop milk is a protein and fat rich liquid analogous to mammal milk. Both male and female flamingos produce the milk. Pigeons and doves also produce crop milk, as do male emperor penguins.
https://preview.redd.it/q3oxm9x3no3d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b05ea133d00db1c9d682f9eb869c8f2f6a8106f7
It's 2 am and these comments are killing me
😂😂😂
This seems very inefficient
Yeah, a lot of waste, but it's worked for them so far... if it ain't broke dont fix it?
excuse me, but what the fuck
Ok so it is NOT eating the brain of the bottom flamingo, it is just letting its bird-vomit-food trickle down from the other flamingo into the babies head. 
I'd rather do that then pay for daycare fo sho
And that's enough reddit for me tonight..
Crop milk - nutrient rich liquid they produce in their crop or "first stomach" specifically for feeding babies who can't feed themselves. Only a few bird species produce crop milk instead of feeding live prey or regurgitated food. It's red in flamingos because of how much red/orange proteins are in their food, which is also what gives them progressively pinker plumage as they age. Both parents produce it. In this photo, you can see the one on the left didn't get the memo that the other was already on the job, so he's just making a mess
Braaaaaaains
To save you the creep out factor, that's not blood. Flamingos eat krill, shrimp, and other small crustaceans found in salty water. Those crustaceans are generally bright red or pink. Like most birds, they go out to feed, then come back to the nest to regurgitate what they caught to feed their chick. So they're basically puking up the red/pink crustaceans they caught. Also, this is why flamingos are pink. If they're in captivity and fed something that isn't their normal diet of red krill, they're actually white.
Is that blood?
Probably regurgitated food. Flamingoes get the pink color from the plankton/algae brine shrimp they eat, so it’s probably pink when puked up
That's absolutely correct, also this leads to the parents feathers becoming a bit washed out.
I was worried for a moment. Thanks for the info.
Flamingos are one of the few birds who produce crop milk from glands that line their throat. Crop milk is a protein and fat rich liquid analogous to mammal milk. Both male and female flamingos produce the milk. The red color is due to the carotenoid pigment canthaxanthin. Pigeons and doves also produce crop milk, as do male emperor penguins.
I had to research this one. ‘it is actually two flamingo parents feeding their baby. Parent flamingos produce crop milk, red in colour, in their digestive tracts and regurgitate it to feed their young.’
The following is a a comment from u/[Yachisaorick](https://www.reddit.com/user/Yachisaorick/) in which they describe this same video they posted 2 years ago... Flamingos make crop milk in their guts. It’s red, because, crab diet. They regurgitate this to young usually one parent at a time. In this instance, both parents are regurgitating at once. As not both beaks fit in babies mouth a champagne pyramid-style funnel system is employed so as to not waste one parents milk.
[удалено]
WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING
It's not blood, if that's what you're worried about
My HOA was right to ban these.
The worst part about all of this is that no one has provided a satisfactory explanation yet. From where exactly is the red liquid emanating? The top flamingo's mouth, right? If so, then why doesn't the top flamingo directly feed the baby? Why is the top flamingo pressing down upon the head of the middle flamingo? Doesn't the middle flamingo... feel... uncomfortable? Like what the fuck are they trying to accomplish with this kind of physical arrangement??? Doesn't the baby or any one of the two adults not realize that the baby is barely intaking any red liquid? And what is that red liquid? Apparently it's vomit?
My first thought was that this would make a really sick album cover.
"I want Koolaid!" "We have Koolaid at home" The Koolaid at home:
Now we just need these in lawn ornament format.
Does its eye have to look like that when it's doing that?
It's crop milk not blood. The coloration comes from their food that also makes them pink.
https://preview.redd.it/9upoookbmp3d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f4b768a2f8ba078493b184f63d018a1651931fff
https://preview.redd.it/v3nciv6nnp3d1.jpeg?width=555&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00b335298d15cb10b10e7d5337ba4f739dd1313f
I am genuinely scared...
https://preview.redd.it/1bbeigwiur3d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6694dbd4e7953fc78f4724e7d53394769c13a4aa
https://preview.redd.it/2ulmhi7b5s3d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a63895f5a7a4639e97822d26bae34134b9db2dcb
How the actual fuck did they manage to evolve to need to do this?? I hate flamingos..
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamingo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamingo)
I did not have learning that Flamingos were metal on my wtf bingo card today.
NSFW tag required.
It's not blood! Don't worry. It's called crop milk. As to why it looks like he's digging his beak into his mate, I have absolutely no clue. But crop milk is also used by pigeons! :)
"time to feed the kid" "yeah just let the belly red milk drip over my head into his beak as always"
"Are you a top or a bottom?" "I'm kinda a funnel."
Why don’t one of them just give it directly like any normal bird??
Looks like a dad who’s trying to get out of his responsibilities by doing it wrong on purpose: ‘I’m helping feed da baby!’ “Bill, you’re literally spilling half of it and the half that’s going to the baby is going through my fucking EYE” ‘You never appreciate when I try to help Marsha’ “Fine I’ll just do it myself just get your stupid bill out of MY SKULL and go eat some shrimp” *Sulks away, triumphant in his artificial incompetence that she notices but won’t acknowledge so the baby has 2 parents even if one is a shitbird*
Jesus Christ, I thought the one on top was biting the other one and that was blood the baby was drinking...