The belief is widespread that the unusual red color of bird's milk in Flamingo is due to the addition of blood to it - either from the body of a nursing parent, or from the broken head of the second. We decided to check how correct such explanations are.

Information about Bloody The diet chicks Flamingo can find On various resources, from the media and popular science sites to posts on blogs. For example, RIA Novosti tells About him like this: “In vegetable milk, there is some blood, since blood vessels burst in the esophagus in birds. It is noteworthy that this happens only during the period of feeding. Scientists believe that blood rich in minerals is a mandatory component of the nutrition of chicks. ” A similar version puts forward “Satellite Kyrgyzstan”: “When Flamingo feed the chicks, blood vessels burst in their esophagus. Blood mixes with plant "milk", and it acquires a red color. " Entertainment users Portals and social networks Even accurate figures are given - supposedly Flamingo milk for 23% consists of a parent's blood. Write about blood in bird milk and portals about natureas well as official website Moscow zoo.

Flamingo, like some other birds (Pigeon, parrots, imperial penguins), during the period of feeding offspring Produce A special secret is goiter, or bird, milk. Moreover, both parents, as a rule, do this, and not just a female (exception - Imperial penguins, in whom only the male produces goiter milk). Goiter milk Contains A lot of protein and fats, while there are almost no carbohydrates in it and there is completely no lactose characteristic of most mammalian mammals. In flamingos, this secret is more liquid, and, for example, the pigeons have a curdled consistency. Flamingo They feed chicks with goiter milk up to six months, for one feeding chick Maybe Eat a portion equal to almost 20% of your weight.

In 2014, researchers of the Fort Wort zoo in Texas Studied The composition of the goiter milk of American (red) flamingos, living on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Researchers caught still not flying individuals at the age of six to seven weeks weighing more than a kilogram and with a visually filled goiter (that is, parents recently fed them and the nutrient secret has not yet been digested and learned). 30 ml of goiter milk was selected from each individual and carefully studied the obtained samples. The milk turned out to be a high protein content (from 22% to 50%), fats (from 30% to 75%), and calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium, iron and zinc were also present. There were no traces of blood cells as part of goiter milk.

Red color, the researchers found out, the substance received a completely different reason-in the milk of Flamingo there were pigments from the group of carotenoids, beta-carotene and cantaxantin. Beta-carotene also responsible, for example, for the orange color of carrots and red tomatoes, and cantaxantin Gives Specific coloring crustaceans, some species of fish, mushrooms of the foxes, as well as the yolk of eggs in some birds. Cantaxantin is also widely used in the food industry (for example, for Giving bright color salmon meat), in medicine (for stabilization states patients with porphyria, eczema, psoriasis and vitiligo) and in cosmetics (as a component for tablet Avtosagarov).

Exactly Carotinoidsobtained from crustaceans and algae - the main part of the diet of flamingos - and Color Their feathers are in shades of pink and red. The same pigments, as it turned out, are also present in a nutritious secret of the nursing individuals, giving it a unique bloody tint. And although no one has studied the walls of the esophagus of adult Flamingo on the presence of injuries and ruptures, the absence of traces of blood components in abyss milk convincingly prove that it certainly does not contain. Moreover, since foods from food, apparently, are concentrated in abyss milk in nursing birds, they are less in the rest of the body, so during the period of feeding, Flaming feathers are slightly faded.

Thus, there is no reason to believe that Flamingo chicks really receive at least some part of parental blood with milk. The same dyes are given unusual coloring by this secret, thanks to which Flamingo feathers have a characteristic pink and red color.

Image on the cover: frame from video