When picturing a flock of flamingos, we often imagine long pink legs planted in a shallow lake and heads submerged as they filter feed. Though it looks peaceful, there’s a lot going on beneath the surface. These birds are manifesting storms of swirling tornadoes, using their webbed feet and angled L-shaped beak to help them capture prey.

Flamingos standing serenely in a shallow alkaline lake with heads submerged may seem to be placidly feeding, but there's a lot going on under the surface.

Flamingos have developed an amazing variety of techniques to create swirls and eddies in the water to concentrate and eat brine shrimp and other organisms, a biologist found. They stomp dance to stir organisms from the bottom and concentrate them in whorls. The organisms are then drawn upward by a head jerk that forms a vortex. Meanwhile, their beak is chattering underwater to create vortices that funnel prey into their mouths.