When they dip their curved necks into the water, the birds use their feet, heads, and beaks to create swirling water tornadoes to efficiently group their prey together and slurp up them up. When feeding, the birds use their feet to churn up the sediment at the bottom of shallow water. The flamingos then propel the sediment forward with little whorls that they draw up to the surface by jerking their heads upwards like a plungers–creaing these mini water tornadoes. The motion creates sheet-like vortices that trap prey. It could help engineers develop better systems for concentrating and sucking up tiny particles from water, potentially the ultra prolific microplastics.