12 September 2011, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 100–300 mm at 300 mm, ISO 400, 1/2000 at f8]
All content © 2011 Pete McGregor
22 September 2011
Flamingo, Isla Isabela, Galápagos
12 September 2011, Panasonic Lumix GH1, 100–300 mm at 300 mm, ISO 400, 1/2000 at f8]
All content © 2011 Pete McGregor
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3 comments:
Beautiful, with the soft background and the reflection - but what is the evolutionary 'sense' behind that colouring?
What a beautiful colour it is.
I always spend time looking at the feather detail in your bird photographs and marvelling at it.
That flamingo seems to have distinct joints in its neck. I've never noticed that in long-necked birds before.
RR, thank you. Apparently the colouring derives from the diet — the tiny crustacea they strain from the water. I don't know whether it confers any adaptive advantage, but I'm mindful of the warning by Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontion that not everything has an evolutionary 'function'.
Lesley, thank you. Those kinks in the neck (vertebrae?) struck me, too — I'd never noticed them before (although I've only seen flamingos once before, in Gujarat.
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