Order: Ciconiformes

Family: Ciconidae

 

Size:  up to 120 - 145 cm

Weight:  2.1 to 4.1 kg

 

Key Features: instantly recognisable by its long, thin neck and legs, colourful plumage and distinctive downward-bending beak. As well as being the largest of the flamingo species, it is also the palest, with white to pale pink plumage, contrasting red shoulders, and black tips to the wings. The legs are pink, the eyes yellow, and the beak is pale pink, with a black tip. The female is smaller than the male, and juveniles are grey-brown with some pink in the underparts, wings and tail, and the legs and beak are mainly brown.

 

Voice:  call is a goose-like, honking ka-haunk.

 

Breeding: lays a single egg, which is incubated for 27 to 31 days. At a week or so, the chick leaves the nest and joins a crèche. Amazingly, the adult flamingo is able to locate its chick from amongst the hundreds or thousands of others, by its call. The chick fledges after 65 to 90 days, but does not reach sexual maturity before 3 years old. Most of the birds will not breed for the first time until 5 to 10 years old. The greater flamingo may live for over 40 years in the wild.

 

Diet:  feeds on small crustaceans, molluscs, worms, insects, crabs, and perhaps small fish. Plant material is also taken, including grass seeds and shoots, decaying leaves, and algae.

 

Habitat: inhabits relatively shallow water bodies, including saline lagoons, salt pans, estuaries, and large saline or alkaline lakes.

 

Habits: feeds with its head down and its upper jaw movable and not rigidly fixed to its skull.

 

Conservation Status: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. and Sargatal, J. (1992) Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

 

Burnie, D. (2001) Animal. Dorling Kindersley, London.

 

Flamingo Resource Centre (July, 2014) http://www.flamingoresources.org/

 

BirdLife International (2014) Species factsheet: Phoenicopterus roseus. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on July 04th, 2014.

 

Photo Courtesy

Yathin S Krishnappa, Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons