One of the highlights of our safari at Lake Nakuru was getting out of the matatus near the shore to experience a “flamboyance” of flamingos up close—or as close as they’d let us get. Flamingos are strange creatures. Contrary to their iconic one-legged pop culture pose, they spend a lot of time with their heads in the water, scooping up and filtering algae (their food) using special hairy structures (lamellae) built into their unusual bent beaks. Each of us has some prototypical idea of what a “bird” is (e.g. wings, feathers, beak, flies), yet I am amazed at how much variation and adaptation there exists among birds alone, at how specialized something as “basic” as a beak can be.

Panoramic “crop” of flying flamingos

Another panoramic crop of flying flamingos