Flamingo Friday: The Fight(?)

Last Saturday I walked through the zoo with a (very patient) friend, and we stopped, of course, to watch the flamingos.

When we got there, all of the flamingos were snoozing peacefully, heads tucked under(ish) their wings and one foot in the air in the best relaxed manner.

And quite suddenly they began honking and squawking, lifting their heads and waving their necks like provoked cobras as they threatened each other with their beaks. My friend jerked back as they began their ruckus, and her moment of surprise was quite vindicating to me: no one else anticipates this behavior either, and its instigation is entirely inexplicable to us humans.

Equally inexplicable is its just-as-precipitous end—when, with nothing (to my eyes) having been resolved, two (or five) flamingos that have been billing at each other in the most pugnacious fashion cease their imprecations and go back to one-legged sleep.

It won’t astonish you to learn that I don’t have any answers here. I can only point out that this fleeting (yet characteristic) flamingo weirdness highlights the value of spending time with animals, and watching them more than once, so that we at least get the chance to observe these short encounters, even if we can’t explain them.

And having satisfied my need to moralize, I bid you all a good weekend.

{A note: I do write all text and take all pictures. Please do not reproduce either without my permission.}