A Filter Feeder is an animal that feeds by sieving small food items from water.

Many invertebrate filter feeders, such as bivalve molluscs and sea squirts, are sessile animals that collect food by pumping water through or across their bodies.

Vertebrate filter feeders, such as baleen whales, collect their food by trapping it while they are on the move and filtering it from the water with baleen plates.

Flamingos are filter feeders and their beaks are specially adapted to separate mud and silt from the food that they eat.

Also see:
Deposit Feeder
Suspension Feeder