Order: Phoenicopteriformes

Family: Phoenicopteridae

 

Size:  male: 90 cm; female: 80 cm

Weight: male: around 1.5 to 2.2 kg; female: around 1.2 to 2.0 kg

 

Key Features: It has a long neck and long legs, a bent bill and a large body. Shorter and darker pink than the greater flamingo, lesser flamingos also differ in the colouration of the beak. Lesser flamingos have a deep red bill, tipped with black, whereas the bill of greater flamingos is light pink, tipped with black. The lesser flamingo has faint pink feathers with black primaries and secondaries, and deep crimson legs. The eyes are yellow to orange and are surrounded by a maroon ring. Males are slightly taller than females, and juveniles have brown feathers and a dark grey beak.

 

Voice: flight call is a high pitched “kwirrik”. Feeding or walking birds give a low murmuring “murrrh-murrrh-errh”.

 

Breeding: During the breeding season, following this impressive display, flamingos pair up and build a mud nest up to 30 centimetres high to protect it from flooding and to keep it cool. A single chalk coloured egg is laid and then incubated by both parents in 24 hour shifts for about 28 days. After hatching, the grey chick eats its own shell and is then fed a liquid soup by its parents for the next few months.

 

Diet: Lesser Flamingo sucks in water and mud to catch algae. It feeds on small insects and crustaceans.

 

Habitat: Non-breeding birds may also be found on coastal mudflats, salt works and sewage treatment works where salinities are high.

 

Habits: The lesser flamingo feeds in the pose characteristic of flamingos, with the long neck bent over and the bill upside down in the water. The tongue is pumped in and out to suck in the salty, alkaline water and mud. Filters in the bill catch microscopic algae floating in the water. Perhaps fortunately, flamingos have a poor sense of taste and no sense of smell. Courtship in this species is visually spectacular, and can take place throughout the year, both on and away from the breeding grounds. Groups of birds, numbering from a few to several hundred, gather to march back and forth, all going in the same direction. They stand tall with their necks stretched upwards and flap their wings out to flash the colours of their feathers. 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

References:

Zimmerman, D.A., Turner, D.A. and Pearson, D.J. (1999) Birds of Kenya and northern Tanzania. Christopher Helm Ltd, London.

 

Childress, B. (2005) Pers. comm.

 

Phoenicopterus minor. In Oiseaux. Retrieved on July 04th, 2014 from Oiseaux.net http://www.oiseaux.net/oiseaux/phoenicopteriformes/lesser.flamingo.html

 

Phoenicopterus minor. In The Big Zoo. Retrieved on July 04th, 2014 from, http://www.thebigzoo.com/Animals/Lesser_Flamingo.asp

 

Photo Courtesy

Charles J Sharp, Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons