Flamingos and other birds can communicate with each other and humans. Each bird has its unique language, which it uses to communicate with other birds of the same species and humans. They make use of body language and special vocalizations while interacting.
Humans can interact with flamingos by speaking gently, inviting them for food, water and shelter through feeders, learn their vocalizations and provide inputs in a slow step-by-step manner. Keep building trust with them will help humans interact efficiently with flamingos.
How do humans interact with Flamingos?
So, how do humans interact with flamingos? If you want to interact with the birds and understand their language, here are some of the tips you can consider for smooth interaction.
Talking softly with the birds
If you are a bird lover and want to talk to the birds, you can invite them to feed or drink water in your garden or balcony. Once they arrive, try to speak gently with them as they can get scared and fly away. Speaking gently will make them feel comfortable and ensure that you won’t harm them in any way.
I found a nice video as below on how to talk to birds.
Learn their vocalizations
Every bird tries to communicate differently, so try to observe the bird to learn the sounds they make in each situation. For example, they sing a song to attract mates, they make certain sounds to inform other birds about the danger, or while travelling. The young ones of birds make certain sounds to tell their parents that they are hungry. Observing such sounds and trying to understand them will help you to communicate with the birds effectively.
Teach them small words
While communicating with them daily, you can teach them small words like ‘Hello’, ‘Bye’, ‘Up’ and ‘Down’. Most of the birds prefer nonverbal communication, so you can teach them with gestures. Try to use such words often while talking to them so that they can get used to it and can understand what you are saying and respond accordingly.
Understand bird’s actions
As the bird prefers nonverbal language for communication, you can observe their actions while talking to you. For example, when they are cheerful and singing a song, they can flap their flapping pattern, and when there is a threat near them, they may be aggressively flapping their feathers. So the actions may vary in each situation. Understanding each pattern will help you to understand its body language in different situations, and even you can help them in some way if they are in danger or need your help.
Keep building trust and relationship with the bird
Once you have started interacting with the birds, try to keep a fixed routine for feeding and interacting with them so that it can become a habit for them. Talk to them by calling out their names, asking them about their friends, how they are feeling, are they comfortable or have a threat nearby, and if you have bonded with them nicely, they would definitely reply to you in their nonverbal way.
So, to have interactive communication with the birds, try to research or learn about their voice, tones, actions, physical body features in detail so that you can interpret easily what they are trying to convey. Simultaneously, you can also observe the birds in the garden how they interact with each other with the tone and body language in different situations for better understanding.
Are flamingos friendly to humans?
Flamingos are very calm in nature, and they don’t harm you until they feel threatened by your behavior towards them. Some zoos and special facilities where these flamingos are kept allow the visitors to feed flamingos. You just have to hold the food in your hand, and then the flamingo will bring their beak towards your hand and smoothly take the food. They are also left open to wander in the zoo and interact with the humans who have come to see them.
It is observed that the flamingos that are bred in captivity are friendly to humans as they have been with the humans for a long time. Also, if they are trained correctly by the human trainers, they can have a friendly gesture towards the humans because they usually don’t havny problem with them. They are known to build a strong and long-lasting bond with their mate and other fellow flamingos similarly if they can have a strong bond with the caretaker who has been with them throughout their life span.
As flamingos are wild birds, all of them are not friendly to humans. Flamingos that have been in the wild environment throughout their life might act aggressively with you even if you have a friendly attitude towards them. They usually don’t attack either any birds, animals, or humans, but in an extreme condition where they feel that they are not safe, they may attack with their sharp claws and hooky beaks which can easily tear the flesh.
How do humans cause problems for Flamingos?
Habitat destruction by humans has adversely affected the feeding and breeding grounds of the Flamingos. The construction of road and highways have made it easy for the humans and the land predators to travel to the places where Flamingos are seen in flocks. Also, the tourists, bird enthusiasts, and wildlife photographers frequently visiting the Flamingos cause disturbances in their lifestyle.
In ancient times, people used to eat Flamingo eggs as a delicacy, and their tongues were prepared as pickled and served to their guests. Also, Andean miners used to kill the flamingos to remove their fats as it was believed that the fats could cure tuberculosis disease.
Global warming is another problem that we humans have caused to Flamingos, as global warming might affect rainfall in some areas, and without rain, they cannot mate. It can also dry the lagoon and lakes where the Flamingos live. As they are social birds, they live in flocks near the water bodies. They cannot survive without the water, and therefore they can die if they don’t find fresh water. Humans also mine the land that contains various elements like Potassium, Nitrates, Boron, and Lithium.
Predators like pythons, large cats, coyotes, and many more are also threat to the Flamingos as the humans have destroyed their habitat and food sources, and hence they search for the flamingos in the nearby areas for food. These animals have always been a threat to the Flamingos, but the threat has increased more these days as compared to the early days.
