Why Flamingos Fade

Colour is dietary. A breeding flamingo will strip its own plumage to feed its chick.

Carotenoids from algae and brine shrimp are deposited into growing feathers. Take them out of the diet and the bird goes white within a moult cycle.

During chick-rearing, parents produce a carotenoid-rich crop milk and visibly pale as they transfer pigment to the young. The parent's fading is a direct readout of parental investment.