Have you noticed that lots of flamingos and other water birds often stand on one leg? Mike Toms explains why… <\/p>
Though a number of theories have been proposed to explain why some birds – including flamingoes<\/a> – stand on one leg, a behaviour known as apodal resting, research has finally produced an explanation. <\/p> A study on captive Caribbean flamingos<\/a> has revealed that standing on one leg helps to conserve warmth. This probably also applies to other waterbirds, such as various species of wader<\/a>.<\/p> Cold water draws away body let so, for birds that spend a lot of time wading, it makes sense to minimise losses by placing only one limb in the water, keeping the other tucked up in the plumage.<\/p> The scientists ruled out other mooted benefits, notably to reduce fatigue in the legs, shorten the time needed to take flight and improve balance, through studies of individually marked birds.<\/p> Discover more fascinating bird facts<\/strong><\/p> Have you noticed that lots of flamingos and other water birds often stand on one leg? Mike Toms explains why… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":41284,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/why-do-flamingoes-stand-on-one-leg.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/why-do-flamingoes-stand-on-one-leg-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/why-do-flamingoes-stand-on-one-leg-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/why-do-flamingoes-stand-on-one-leg-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/why-do-flamingoes-stand-on-one-leg-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/why-do-flamingoes-stand-on-one-leg-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/why-do-flamingoes-stand-on-one-leg-2048x1366.jpg",2048,1366,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Have you noticed that lots of flamingos and other water birds often stand on one leg? Mike Toms explains why...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/41283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why do some birds stand on one leg?<\/h2>
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