The more you look at flamingos, the more curious they become. With their heads sunk into the water of the brackish lagoon, they hunt for food and their legs are just as deep in the water, in a regular and systematic way. Science does not yet know exactly whether to consider them closer to storks or ducks.
The presence of sand and clay banks facilitates their nesting, which takes place on the ground, in colonies of closely spaced nests which the females guard from the day the egg is laid until the end of incubation, which lasts twenty-seven days. The nest is a raised mound on which the bird lies to hatch. Its dome-shaped structure, mostly made of mud, is strong enough to support these animals, which can weigh up to four kilos and, in the largest birds, can be over one and a half metres tall.
The flamingo chick will not be able to feed itself for about three months and will be fed with a liquid substance secreted directly from the parents’ oesophagus and coloured red. Its voice will be recognisable to them even in the midst of large colonies.
One of the characteristics that the chick will inherit from its parents will be its long legs and its advancement with a movement that seems to bend its knees backwards. But… knees they are not! The joint in the middle of the flamingo’s leg is actually an ankle placed very high up, from which several bones branch off to form the base of the webbed foot. The knee is near the belly, made invisible by the feathers.
The bird, whose name in Greek and Latin is reminiscent of its purple wings, is famous for balancing stably on just one leg, even when sleeping. Bending one leg locks the short thigh of the other in a horizontal position, shifting the weight of the animal to the centre of the body, on the knee-ankle-foot axis.
It is not clear why flamingos assume this position; one theory is that it reduces heat loss from the body when in water or on cold days.
Whatever the technique and purpose behind the flamingos’ posture, admiring them at Pomposa is a real experience, especially since these birds have only been nesting in Italy since 1993.

– cover drawing by Emma Bonannini –