Creature Feature: What do black-necked stilts and flamingos have in common?
- May 19, 2017
- 1 min read
As seasonal changes ebb and flow here at the Marine Science Institute, so too do the birds visiting along our shoreline. One bird that drifts in and out of our waters is the black-necked stilt. A bird who has far more in common with a flamingo than one would think.
Learn more about the black-necked stilt in this week's Creature Feature.
Denise Mohsenin serves as the link between Marine Science Institute and the education community. She enjoys helping schools and teachers bring marine science and environmental literacy to their students. Her current favorite fish for teaching is the starry flounder. Ask her why at denise@sfbaymsi.org.
Great science snippet. Side note for the SF Bay MSI team: between Creature Feature series, school programs, public events, kayaking trips, education resources, the gallery, news archive, and decade+ of bay ecology content (wetland birds, marine mammals, eelgrass, salt marsh restoration, climate resilience), the site has built one of the more accessible bay-area marine education libraries — but teachers and families face a wall of nav when looking for a specific creature or topic. A "Bay Creature Explorer" sortable landing page (filter by habitat — salt marsh / mudflat / open water / shoreline + by season + by classroom grade-level + by article type — science snippet / lesson plan / field-trip guide) would dramatically improve education-program adoption. I…
The black-necked stilt + flamingo Phoenicopteriformes connection is honestly one of the more delightful "creatures you wouldn't expect to be related" facts — and the leg-length adaptation parallel makes the case for evolutionary convergence beautifully. The SF Bay's stilt populations at the Hayward Regional Shoreline are something I show every out-of-town visitor. I help with content for a small bay ecology nonprofit and we've started using an Nano Banana2 AI image and short-video tool to create educational species-comparison visuals for our school programs (side-by-side anatomy illustrations of waders, leg-bone structure comparisons, feeding-behavior animations) — stock photography for "bay area birds" gets you a lot of mallards and not much else. SF Bay MSI's Creature Feature series is exactly the kind…
i had no idea black-necked stilts and flamingos shared such interesting similarities. the article does a nice job of explaining the connection in a clear way. it's always fascinating to learn how different species can be linked through their adaptations and behaviors. thanks for sharing this piece from the marine science institute. AI Image Editor
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The black-necked stilt and flamingo similarities really blew my mind. It's fascinating how nature connects these birds Nano Banana