Flamingos are a type of bird in the Phoenicopteridae family. Four species of flamingos are distributed throughout the Americas, including the Caribbean, and two species are native to Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Characteristics of flamingos

Flamingos are large birds identifiable with their long necks, sticky legs, and pink or red feathers. The flamingo represents the saying “you are what you eat”. The pink and red colors of flamingo feathers come from eating pigments found in algae and invertebrates.

The flamingo represents the saying “you are what you eat”.

There are six species of flamingos, according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS):

• Great flamingo
• Flamingos are fewer
• Chilean flamingo
• Andean flamingo
• James Flamingo
• American flamingo.

Greater flamingos are the tallest species. It is 1.2 to 1.45 meters tall and weighs up to 3.5 kg. The smallest species is the little flamingo, standing 80 cm and weighing 2.5 kg. The wingspan of flamingos ranges from 95 cm to 150 cm.

Where do flamingos live?

• American flamingos live in the West Indies, Yucatán, in northern South America and along the Galapagos Islands.
• Chilean, Andean and James flamingos live in South America.
• Large and small flamingos live in Africa.
• Greater flamingos can also be found in the Middle East and India.

Flamingos are water birds, so they live in and around lagoons or lakes. These bodies of water are likely to be saline or alkaline. Flamingos do not normally migrate, but changes in climate or water levels in their breeding areas will cause them to relocate.

What do flamingos eat?

Flamingos eat larvae, small insects, green and red algae, mollusks.

Flamingos eat larvae, small insects, green and red algae, mollusks, crustaceans and small fish. Because of their ability to eat both plants and meat, they are omnivores.

Flamingos are pink because the algae they eat are loaded with beta carotene, an organic chemical that contains a red-orange pigment. (Beta carotene is also present in many plants, but especially in tomatoes, spinach, pumpkins, sweet potatoes and, of course, carrots). The krill and crustaceans that flamingos eat contain similar carotenoids.

The levels of carotenoids (organic pigments) in their food vary in different regions of the world, which is why American flamingos are often bright red and orange, while The lesser cranes of drought-stricken Lake Nakuru in central Kenya have a lighter pink color.

If a flamingo stops eating food containing carotenoids, its new feathers will begin to grow in a much lighter color, and its red feathers will eventually fall out. The feathers molt and lose their light pink color.

What a flamingo eats depends on the type of beak it has. Lesser, James’s and Andean flamingos have what is called a short bill, which feeds mainly on algae. Greater, Chilean, and American flamingos have shorter beaks, allowing them to eat insects, invertebrates, and small fish.

To eat, flamingos will stir up the bottom of the lake with their feet and drop their beaks into the mud and water to find food.

Habit

Groups of flamingos are called flocks. Flamingos work together to protect each other from predators and care for their young.

It is believed that flamingos are “monogamous” pairs. Once they mate, they will stay with that mate. A group of flamingos will mate at the same time so that all the chicks will hatch at the same time. Pairs will nest in mud piles and the females will lay one egg at a time.

Each egg is slightly larger than a large chicken egg, measuring 78 to 90 mm long and 115 to 140 grams. The eggs will take 27 to 31 days to hatch and the newly hatched chicks will weigh only 73 to 90 g.

Baby flamingos are gray or white. They will turn pink during the first few years of life. Flamingos live 20 to 30 years in the wild or up to 50 years in a zoo.

Baby flamingos are gray or white.

Conservation status

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, no flamingo species are currently considered endangered. Chilean and James flamingos are considered near threatened because their populations are small or declining, according to the IUCN report.

Other interesting facts

Fossil evidence indicates that the flamingo group is evolutionarily very old and existed about 30 million years ago.

It is not known why flamingos often stand on one leg, but it is theorized that keeping one of their legs out of cold water helps them conserve body heat. It also seems to be a comfortable resting position for it.

Although it is believed that flamingos are tropical birds, they can also live and thrive in cold environments as long as they have access to plenty of water and food.

In East Africa, more than 1 million flamingos have been known to gather together, forming the largest known flock

Flamingos can detect rain 500km away

Flamingos in Africa rely on the bustling life of freshwater lakes. But many of the lakes they depend on are ephemeral, prone to drying out almost completely.

But on Namibia’s arid coast, large flamingos appear to signal when it’s raining because the usually dry Etosha Pan area lies 500km away. It may be that birds are sensitive to microscopic drops in atmospheric pressure that signal impending rain.

But no one knows whether this is true, and if so, how they do it. Like the sense of magnetism, the weather sense of flamingos and other birds is a mystery.

Flamingos bully each other

This surprising behavior was seen in all six flamingo species at the wetland center and one flamingo was even seen lunging at another that was fast asleep on one leg.

Further research is needed on why birds do this, as confusing behavior does not appear to be immediately beneficial to the bird, especially since intentional collisions use more energy and have risk of injury.