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Flamingos are famous for their bright pink feathers, stilt-like legs, and S-shaped neck.

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Flamingos are famous for their bright pink feathers, stilt-like legs, and S-shaped neck.

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When a flamingo spots potential dinner-favorite foods include shrimp, snails, and plantlike water organisms called algae-it plunges its head into the water, twists it upside down, and scoops the fish using its upper beak like a shovel. They are able to "run" on water, thanks to their webbed feet, to gain speed before lifting up into the sky.

Flamingos build nests that look like mounds of mud along waterways. At the top of the mound, in a shallow hole, the female lays one egg. The parents take turns sitting on the egg to keep it warm. After about 30 days, the egg hatches.

Flamingo young are born white, with soft, downy feathers and a straight bill. The bill gradually curves downward as the flamingo matures. Both parents take care of the newborn flamingo, feeding it a fluid produced in their digestive systems. The young leave the nest after about five days to join other young flamingos in small groups, returning to the parents for food. The parents identify their chick by its voice. After about three weeks, the adults herd young flamingos into large groups called crèches where they start to look for food on their own.

Most flamingo species are not endangered, although the Andean flamingo is listed as vulnerable, and the Chilean, Lesser, and Puna flamingos are near threatened.

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Flamingos are famous for their bright pink feathers, stilt-like legs, and S-shaped neck. When a flamingo spots potential dinner-favorite foods include shrimp, snails, and plantlike water organisms called algae-it plunges its head into the water, twists it upside down, and scoops the fish using its upper beak like a shovel.

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- GREATER FLAMINGO(Africa, southern Europe, Middle East, western India)
-LESSER FLAMINGO( sub-Saharan Africa,  western India)
-AMERICAN FLAMINGO( Florida, Caribbean  Islands, Colombia to Venezuela)
- ANDEAN FLAMINGO( southern Peru, Bolivia, northern Chili, northwestern Argentina)
- CHILEAN FLAMINGO( Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, northern Chile, northwestern Argentina)
- JAMES'S FLAMINGO( southern Peru, Bolivia, northern Chile, northwestern Argentina)

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Blue-green and red algae, diatoms, small insects, crustaceans, molluscs, and small fishes make up the main diet of flamingos.
A flamingo's pink or reddish feather, leg, and facial coloration come from a diet high in alpha and beta carotenoid pigments. Zoo flamingos will turn white if their diet does not contain live shrimp. Flamingos use their large  upside- down beaks to filter shrimp out of the water and  to separate mud and food. The mouth of the flamingo is covered in little hairs called lamellae which assist in the filtering of water and  flamingo also has a rough tongue which they also use to help it to filter food out of the water.

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Food Preferences & Resources

Blue-green and red algae, diatoms, larval and adult forms of small insects, crustaceans, molluscs, and small fishes make up the main diet of flamingos.

A flamingo's pink or reddish feather, leg, and facial coloration come from a diet high in alpha and beta carotenoid pigments, including canthaxanthin. The richest sources of carotenoids are found in the algae and various invertebrates that make up the bulk of a flamingo's diet.

The shape of flamingo's filtering bill determines its diet. A flamingo will either have a shallow or a deep-keeled bill.

Lesser, James', and Andean flamingos have deep-keeled bills and feed mainly on algae and diatoms.

Greater, Caribbean, and Chilean flamingos have shallow-keeled bills and feed on insects, aquatic invertebrates, and small fishes. Caribbean flamingos eat larval and pupal forms of flies and brine shrimp as their main food.

Slight differences in diet and habits prevent competition among flamingos that share feeding grounds.

Food Intake

Lesser flamingos eat an estimated 60 g (2.1 oz.) dry weight to fulfill their daily food requirements. Through slow-motion photography, researchers discovered that these birds pump water through their bills 20 times a second to filter their food.

A much slower filtration rate was found in the Caribbean flamingos - only 4 to 5 times a second to filter out their daily food requirements of 270 g (9.5 oz.) dry weight.

Methods of Collecting and Eating Food

Standing in shallow water, flamingos lower their necks and tilt their heads slightly upside-down, allowing their bills to hang upside-down facing backward in the water.

Flamingos sweep their heads from side to side just below the surface of the water to collect their food if they have a deep-keeled mandible. If the mandible is shallow-keeled, a flamingo sweeps its head from side to side deeper into the mud to collect its food.

A flamingo filters its food out of the water and mud with a spiny, piston-like tongue that aids in sucking food-filled water past the lamellae inside the curved bill. The fringed lamellae filter out food, and the water is passed back out of the bill.

In addition to filtering food into the bill, lamellae also exclude foods that may be too large or small for the flamingo.

Standing in water, flamingos may stamp their webbed feet to stir up food from the bottom.

Zoological Diet

Flamingos are fed a varied diet in zoological environments in order to maintain their pink coloration, as well as their general health.

SeaWorld and Busch Gardens feed flamingos a diet that includes all the nutrients needed for optimal health. The flamingos are fed in a specially designed feeding trough.

Water Intake

Flamingos seek out fresh water for drinking.

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Blue-green and red algae, diatoms, larval and adult forms of small insects, crustaceans, molluscs, and small fishes make up the main diet of flamingos. A flamingo's pink or reddish feather, leg, and facial coloration come from a diet high in alpha and beta carotenoid pigments, including canthaxanthin.

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They usually breed once a year. They start to breed between 3 to 6 years old.

Usually flamingos lay one large egg at a time (the eggs weigh to 115 to 140 grams). However, it can lay two eggs at a time but its uncommon that both eggs will hatch. Eggs hatch after 30 days. Milk that comes from the flamingos throat can be produced by both parents to feed their young until two months of age. It's called crop milk. It is red color. And it's similar to mammal milk.

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Egg Laying

Flamingos most often lay one large egg. Eggs range in size from about 78 by 49 mm (3 x 1.9 in.) and 115 g (4 oz.), to 90 by 55 mm (3.5 x 2.1 in.) and 140 g (4.9 oz.).

The egg is oblong in shape, similar to that of a chicken.

The egg is usually chalky white, but may be pale blue immediately after it is laid.

Females have been known to lay two eggs, but this is rare.

Incubation

Incubation begins soon after the egg is laid. The incubation period is between 27 and 31 days.

Both the male and female take turns incubating the egg by sitting on top of the nest mound.

During incubation, flamingos will stand, stretch their wings, and preen themselves frequently.

A parent bird carefully lifts and turns the egg with its bill.

Eggs that fall from the nesting mound are not retrieved.

Hatching

Hatching takes between 24 and 36 hours.

The chick calls frequently as it breaks out of the shell.

The chick breaks through the shell using a growth on its bill called an "egg tooth". The egg tooth is not a true tooth and falls off soon after the chick hatches.

Flamingo parents appear anxious while their chick is hatching. They stand, look at the egg, and vocalize.

The adult stands, looks down, and gently preens and nibbles at the emerging chick.

Chick at Hatching

Newly-hatched chicks have gray or white down feathers, a straight red bill, and plump, swollen red or pink legs.

The leg swelling decreases approximately 48 hours after hatching, and the red bill and legs turn black in seven to ten days.

After hatching, a flamingo chick is not very agile. Movement is limited to pushing its wings or lifting its head.

Care of Young

Parents are able to recognize their own chick by sight and vocalizations. They will feed no other chick.

A flamingo chick will leave the nest after four to seven days, when it is strong enough to stand and walk. Parents keep a close, protective watch on their chick as it explores its habitat.

Chicks gather in large groups called creches (French for "crib"). Parents are able to locate their own chicks in the creche at feeding time.

Adults feed their chicks a secretion of the upper digestive tract referred to as "milk". "Milk" secretion is caused by the hormone prolactin, which both the male and female flamingo produce.

"Milk" is 8% to 9% protein and 15% fat, similar to mammal milk.

"Milk" is red in color due to the pigment canthaxanthin. Chicks store this pigment in the liver, to be deposited in their adult feathers when they grow.

Chick Development

Flamingo chicks are able to swim before they are typically old enough to leave the nest for good.

Young chicks have been seen imitating feeding methods while standing in shallow water.

Chicks begin to grow their flight feathers after 11 weeks. At the same time, the bill begins to hook, allowing the chick to feed itself.

Chicks lose their juvenile gray or white color gradually over a two or three year period, at which time their pink feathers begin to show.

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All About Flamingos - Hatching & Care of Young| SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment

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Flamingos most often lay one large egg. Eggs range in size from about 78 by 49 mm (3 x 1.9 in.) and 115 g (4 oz.), to 90 by 55 mm (3.5 x 2.1 in.) and 140 g (4.9 oz.). The egg is oblong in shape, similar to that of a chicken.

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The feathers under their wings (flight feathers) are black. You only see them when the birds are flying.

The Andean flamingo is the only species with yellow legs.

A group of flamingos is called a flock ( can be up to 200 birds).

There are 19 bones in a flamingos neck.

The bend halfway down the flamingos leg is actually its ankle, not its knee.
Flamingo legs can be longer than their entire body.
Flamingo can stand on one leg without any muscle activity at all.

1 out of 300 people has an irrational phobia  of flamingos.

There are more plastic flamingos in the USA then real ones.

Flamingos feel most secure when they are crowded together.

Some flamingos tolerate water temperatures more than 150*F (66*C) and night temperatures of –22*F (-30*C).
The flamingo is the national bird of the Bahamas.

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WHY DO FLAMINGOS STAND ON ONE FOOT EVEN WHEN THEY ARE ASLEEP?

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WHY DO FLAMINGOS STAND ON ONE FOOT EVEN WHEN THEY ARE ASLEEP?

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The flamingo is actually sleeping when it is on one leg but the strange thing is, that only half of the flamingo is actually asleep - the half that contains the leg still standing remains active. The flamingo then swaps over so that the remaining side can get some rest and the side that was sleeping becomes active again.

Some think that flamingos stand on one leg to dry it off from time to time, since they spend so much time in the water. Others think they stand on one leg because they only turn off one side of their brains when they sleep.
Another popular theory holds that standing on one leg could be a form of camouflage. Fish can probably think that it's not a flamingo but a reed or small tree.

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Q: Why does flamingo stand on one leg?
A: Because it would fall if it lifted up both legs.

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Hearing

Flamingos have good hearing. Vocalizations are important and may be used to keep flocks together and for parent-chick recognition.

Eyesight

Vision plays an important role in helping flamingos synchronize collective displays of several hundred to several thousand birds.

Some biologists believe that a flamingo's night vision is poor, but better than a human's.

Like most birds, flamingos have well-developed color perception.

In zoological settings, flamingos recognize their uniformed keepers among visitors.

Tactile

Tactile organs on the tongue can be used to ensure that only food is ingested.

Taste

The sense of taste is poorly developed in birds.

Smell

Flamingos have little or no sense of smell.

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Flamingos have good hearing. Vocalizations are important and may be used to keep flocks together and for parent-chick recognition. Vision plays an important role in helping flamingos synchronize collective displays of several hundred to several thousand birds. Some biologists believe that a flamingo's night vision is poor, but better than a human's.

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I can think of a blue jay because they are not pink, they do not stand on one leg and don't have webs between their feet, they are small, and they do not eat shrimps or algae, and they do not live in zoos.

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(Hilarious) Andean flamingo mating dance | NATURE | "Andes: The Dragon's Back"

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A new word i learned: lamellae- little hairs that cover flamingo's mouth