Pink flamingo. Flamingo - the sacred bird of the Egyptians, standing on one leg

Flamingo (lat. Phoenicopterclassae) is the only family of birds in the order Flaminidae with long thin legs and a flexible neck, a large beak curved downward, the horny plates of the tongue and jaws of which help it filter food obtained from water and silt. The hind toe on the paws is either poorly developed or absent at all; The front toes form a swimming membrane.

The plumage of birds is soft and loose, absent on the head in the area of ​​​​the eyes, bridle and chin. The tail is short. Includes six species: Andean flamingo, red flamingo, lesser flamingo, common flamingo, Chilean flamingo and James's flamingo.

The body length of an adult bird ranges from 105 (Chilean flamingo) - 110 (red flamingo) to 130 centimeters (pink flamingo), weight - 3.5 - 4.5 kilograms. Distributed in Southwest Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia, Central and Southern North America. School birds nest in colonies (sometimes tens of thousands of individuals) on shallow sea coasts and salt lakes.

All flamingos are pink. Perhaps only in songs.... In fact, the color of flamingo plumage varies from white to red and even crimson. Somewhere in the middle, of course, is the pink tint inherent in the largest species of flamingo - the pink flamingo. The tips of a flamingo's wings are black. Males and females are colored the same. The degree of brightness of the plumage depends on the carotenoid, a substance that enters the bird's body with food. Birds living in captivity, as well as young birds, receiving insufficient amounts of carotenoids, have white feathers. To preserve their color, flamingos in captivity are fed not only seafood, but also carrots.

Flamingos live in the south. In Southeast (Southern Afghanistan) and Central Asia (Northwest India), Africa (lakes of Kenya, Southern Tunisia, Morocco, Northern Mauritania, the Cape Verde Islands), South (Andean flamingo) and Central America (red and Chilean flamingo). Colonies of pink flamingos are found in Sardinia and the south of France (Camargue nature reserve, at the mouth of the Rhone River) and Spain (Las Marismas).

Flamingos live in colonies. And quite large: in one colony you can sometimes count up to a million birds. Flamingos settle on the banks of small reservoirs, shallow waters, lagoons, and do not disdain those near which no other living creature will live: for example, near very salty or alkaline lakes. It is also interesting that flamingos live not only on the plains, but also high in the mountains - for example, in the Andes.

Before they take off, flamingos run through the water. This is true, usually the run length is 5-6 meters and occurs in shallow water. In the sky, a flamingo flies in the shape of a cross, stretching out its neck and legs.

Flamingos stand on one leg because at this time they are warming the other. Flamingos have long legs, there are no feathers on them, and accordingly, the heat from such a surface, especially in windy weather, disappears very quickly. It is to preserve heat that the flamingo stands on one leg, especially since such a position, due to the physiological specifics of the flamingo’s paw, does not present any difficulties for the bird.

Flamingos eat fish. In fact, they feed on other aquatic food: algae, seeds of aquatic plants, insect larvae and small crustaceans (planktonic crustaceans), which supply the flamingo's body with carotenoid. If there is a shortage of food in their places of residence, flamingos can fly to get it within 30-50 kilometers to other lakes. The process of flamingo absorption of food looks quite interesting: the bird plunges its head with its beak into the water, moves from foot to foot, and thus drives water with possible food past its beak, which filters edible from inedible. Flamingos feed at any time of the day and regardless of weather conditions.

Flamingos build nests from mud. Male flamingos do this. The nests have the shape of a conical column with a truncated top and a bowl-shaped recess on top. Unlike the nests of other birds, flamingo nests are bare - they have no grass or any other insulating vegetation. The size of the nest is from 10 to 60 cm, the diameter at the base is 40-50 cm. The nest usually contains from 1 to 3 olive-green eggs. Flamingo nests are located next to each other, usually at a distance of 50 to 80 cm. Future parents sit on the nest with their legs tucked under them, and stand up from it, resting their beaks on the ground and only then straightening their legs.

Flamingos feed their chicks with a special liquid. A kind of bird milk, consisting of special secretions of the glands of the lower part of the esophagus and proventriculus, semi-digested crustaceans and algae. The nutritional value of this liquid is quite comparable to the nutritional value of mammalian milk. Little flamingos feed on bird “milk” for the first two months of their lives and intensively grow their beaks to feed themselves.

Common poaching has led to the worldwide decline of flamingos. And the destruction of the nests of pink-feathered beauties. One of the flamingo species, the James flamingo, inhabiting the Bolivian and northern Argentine Andes, was generally considered extinct at the beginning of the last century; it was found only in 1957. At the moment, flamingos are listed in the Red Books of many countries, including the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Russian name- Pink (common) flamingo
Latin name- Phoenicopterus roseus
English name- Greater flamingo
Class- Birds (Aves)
Squad- Flamingoformes (Phoenicopteriformes)
Family- Flamingidae (Phoenicopteridae)
Genus- Flamingo (Phoenicopterus)

Until recently, pink and red flamingos were considered subspecies of the same species, but are now distinguished as independent species.

Conservation status

Currently, the species is not in danger of extinction, but its numbers are unstable. It is listed in the International Red Book as being of least concern for the next 10 years - IUCN (LC), and is also included in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora - CITES II.
In Russia it is a non-breeding, migratory and regular migrant. As a rare species, the pink flamingo is included in the Red Books of Russia and Kazakhstan.
The reason for the decline in numbers is the reduction of suitable nesting places and the disturbance factor.

Appearance

Flamingos cannot be confused with any other bird due to the peculiarities of their body structure and the amazing color of their plumage. These are quite large birds (height 120–145 cm, weight 2100–4100 g, wingspan 149–165 cm), with females smaller than males and slightly shorter-legged. The flamingo's head is small, its beak is massive and in the middle part is sharply (knee-shaped) bent downwards. The jaw apparatus is highly specialized in filtering water in search of small food. The beak contains horny plates, on which various phyto- and zooplankton (small animals and plants living in the water column) settle during feeding.
Flamingos have very long legs, with 4 toes, the three front ones being connected by a swimming membrane. The back toe is small and located above the foot. The thin neck in a calm state is curved in the shape of the letter S. The plumage of these birds is loose and soft. Flamingos swim well, but their feathers get wet, and the birds prefer not to go into deep water.
Flamingos often settle on salt marsh lakes and strain their food from salt water. They also drink brackish or alkaline water. However, they are not in danger of “salinization” of the body - these birds have well-developed salt-excreting glands.
The color of the plumage is pale pink, the ends of the wings are black. The pink color of the plumage is due to the presence of pigments in the tissues - fat-like coloring substances of the carotenoid group. Birds obtain these substances from food, from various crustaceans. In captivity, after 1–2 years, the pink-red tint of the plumage usually disappears due to a monotonous diet. But if you specifically add red carotenoids contained in carrots and beets to flamingos’ food, the birds’ color always remains rich. Young birds are gray-brown; they “put on” their adult plumage only in the third year of life.

Spreading

Lifestyle and social behavior

Flamingos are active during the day; at night, these birds sleep.
Flamingos are strictly colonial birds: they nest and feed in large groups. The distance between nests and feeding or resting birds can be only a few centimeters. At nesting sites, birds only protect the nest itself.
Between birds living in such a “communal” apartment, interactions are periodically observed that look like “quarrels”: flamingos begin to cackle loudly, standing opposite each other and fluffing up their feathers. The “quarrels” stop as suddenly as they began, the birds remain in their places and continue to go about their business.
When a flock is feeding or resting, individual birds remain alert, which allows the entire flock to avoid danger in time. Flamingos suffer to a greater extent not from predators, but from climate vicissitudes (droughts, floods) and the unpredictable hydraulic regime of reservoirs.
In the northern part of their distribution, flamingos are migratory. The main part of the Kazakh population winters in the Krasnovodsk and Kyzylagach reserves; some birds fly to Iran for the winter.

Nutrition and feeding behavior

The basis of the pink flamingo's diet is the small reddish crustacean Artemia and its eggs. In addition, flamingos feed on other crustaceans, as well as mollusks, insect larvae, and worms. They look for food in shallow water areas. Flamingos can feed in the same body of water where they nest, but if there is little food, they can make long flights every day to more feeding bodies of water (30–40 and even 50–60 km).
Having entered the water, the birds trample with their feet, slightly stirring up the silt, and then filter this suspension with their beaks. When feeding in shallow water, birds lower their heads so that the mandible is below the surface of the water, and the mandible is above it. Moving their heads in different directions and using their tongues as a piston, flamingos filter water and silt. At great depths, the entire head, and sometimes the neck to the shoulders, is immersed in the water.
Flamingos drink brackish and fresh water during rain, licking drops of water running down their plumage.

Vocalization

Reproduction

Flamingos nest in large colonies of up to 20,000 pairs (in India - up to 2,000,000 pairs). Breeding by individual pairs is unknown. Preference for nesting is given to highly saline and alkaline lakes, often with a high content of caustic soda, gypsum and hydrogen sulfide. Lakes off the coast are covered with a salty or gypsum crust, under which there is liquid mud. From this mud and shell rock, flamingos make nests that rise above the water like high hummocks. Their shape resembles a truncated cone, and their height is more than half a meter.
Flamingos are monogamous; they can form pairs for one season or for several years. Courtship is accompanied by loud calls, ritual posturing with outstretched wings and ruffled feathers, as well as group ceremonial runs with high legs and sudden stops. The mating ritual is strictly species-specific, so even if a colony is formed by several species of flamingos, mixed pairs are not formed and hybrids are unknown.
There are 1–2 large white eggs in the clutch. Both partners take part in incubating and feeding the chicks. Incubation lasts 27–33 days, and in hot areas it rather turns into protecting the masonry from overheating. The chicks hatch covered with down, sighted and with a straight beak. By the time the chicks hatch from the eggs, the parent's crop approximately triples in size. A creamy mass, the so-called goiter milk, begins to be released from the crop, which is a mixture of semi-digested crustaceans, larvae of aquatic insects and secretions from the walls of the crop itself. It is light pink in color due to the presence of carotenoids with the addition of approximately one hundredth of the blood of nursing birds, the composition of which is similar to mammalian colostrum. The parents regurgitate this “bird milk” and feed it to the chicks from beak to beak.
The chicks leave the nest a few days after hatching and, at about a month of age, change their first downy plumage to a second one. At 2 weeks of age, the baby flamingo's beak, which was straight when hatched, begins to curve. Downy chicks, having already left the nest and left for a while without their parents, who have flown away to feed, gather in groups and are under the supervision of the few “duty teachers” remaining on site. Adult birds returning from feeding feed the chicks by regurgitating food from the crop.
The feathers of the chicks begin to grow in the second month, and the young acquire the ability to fly on the 65-75th day of life; at the same age, their filtering apparatus is finally formed. The color of young birds remains gray for a long time; only in the third year of life does it acquire a bright color, characteristic of flamingos. They become adults at the age of 3–4 years, and begin breeding in the 5th year of life.

Lifespan

In the wild, they apparently live up to 30 years, and in captivity even longer (up to 40 and even 50 years).

The story of life at the zoo

Flamingos are represented very widely in the collections of zoos around the world - the bird is cute, displayable, and easy to keep. In the history of the Moscow Zoo they have always been there. Most of the flamingos on display are red. There are a few pink ones - these are older birds that arrived at the zoo before the reconstruction of the 90s. In our zoo, pink flamingos are kept together with red ones. Birds of different species do not conflict, but do not form mixed pairs.
The flamingo's diet includes the maximum of what we can offer them. These are grated carrots, minced fish, dry gammarus, special high-protein feed with the necessary vitamins and microelements. All this food is filled with water, and the birds strain out what they need from this liquid mixture. We give liquid food once a day, and dry feed constantly. In a zoo it is impossible to provide the same level of carotenoids in their food as they consume in the wild, so we add dietary carotene to their food.
The difficulty in keeping flamingos is the selection of food so that both vitamins and protein content are balanced.
In summer, flamingos are kept in an open enclosure on the Big Pond, in winter - in a warm room adjacent to this enclosure, where they are perfectly visible behind glass. We move the birds to a warm room at temperatures close to zero - when night frosts begin.

Description and features of flamingos

Beauty, grace, special charm and uniqueness... These are the words that most clearly describe the unique and amazing bird that lives on our planet - flamingo. Thin long legs and a graceful flexible neck make this bird a real beauty pageant model. Look at photo of flamingo and you will see for yourself.

Flamingo bird the only representative of its order, which is divided into certain species. Flamingo species:

Flamingo James,

Common flamingo

red flamingo,

Andean flamingo,

Small flamingo,

Chilean flamingo.

These bird species make up the entire flamingo population. The appearance of a bird largely depends on the genus to which it belongs. The smallest flamingo is the lesser flamingo. His height is about 90 centimeters, and adult flamingo weight reaches almost 2 kilograms.

The largest of the flamingos is considered pink flamingo, it is approximately twice as heavy as the small flamingo, its weight reaches approximately 4 kilograms, and flamingo growth is about 1.3 meters. However, males are usually slightly larger than females.

Characteristic features of flamingos are their long legs, especially the tarsus. The fingers, which are directed forward, are connected to each other by a swimming membrane, which is quite well developed. The rear toe is small and its attachment point is slightly higher than the other toes.

It has been observed that birds very often stand on one leg; the reason for this behavior, according to scientists, is thermoregulation. Birds stand in cold water for hours; in order to reduce heat loss at least a little, they raise one paw up so that there is no contact with the water and no heat exchange.

Flamingos have a massive large beak, which is bent in the middle at almost a right angle, and the top of the beak points down. Flamingos have special horny plates that form a kind of filter so that the birds can extract food from the water.

The body structure and muscles are very similar to the structure of the stork. The graceful long neck has 19 vertebrae, the last of which is part of the dorsal bone. The pneumaticity of the skeleton is generally quite well developed.

Flamingo color can vary from white to red. A special pigment is responsible for the color of flamingos' plumage - astaxanthin, which is somewhat similar to the red pigment of crustaceans. The color of young flamingo birds is usually brown, but after molting it becomes the same as that of adults. Flamingo feathers are quite loose. An interesting fact is that when molting, the primary flight feathers, of which flamingos have 12, fall out simultaneously and the bird loses the ability to fly for up to 20 days.

The flamingo's flight type is quite active; the birds often flap their relatively short wings. When flying, flamingos stretch their long neck forward, and they also keep their long legs extended throughout the flight. Until the moment they take off from the ground, the flamingos make a long run at the start, and then rise into the air.

Character and lifestyle of flamingos

The habitat of flamingos is quite wide. These delightful birds live in eastern and western Africa, India, and also in areas of Asia Minor. Europe is also the habitat of flamingos. The south of Spain, Sardinia and France are the usual habitat of these birds. South and Central America and Florida are also attractive for bird life.

Flamingos settle on the shores of lagoons and small reservoirs. They choose long coastlines, as they live in colonies. One flock can contain up to hundreds of thousands of individuals. Flamingos tolerate both low and high temperatures well, so they can even settle on the shores of a mountain lake. Birds always choose reservoirs with salty water, in which there is no fish, but many crustaceans live. To wash off the salt and quench their thirst, they fly to reservoirs or sources of fresh water.

Currently, the number of flamingos is sharply declining. Active economic activity often leads to the fact that flamingos simply cannot settle in some areas. Sometimes, due to human activity, water bodies become shallow or dry up, and birds are left without a place to live.

The concentration of harmful substances in water in many areas has increased significantly, and this leads to the fact that flamingos are forced to look for new places to live. And, of course, poaching, this type of activity brings considerable losses. Flamingos are listed in the Red Books of many countries and are protected by law.

Reproduction and lifespan of flamingos

Flamingos are paired birds. They choose one partner for life. For flamingo offspring build unusual nests. The construction of the nest is carried out exclusively by the male. The nest is a column with a cut off top, the height of which is approximately 60 centimeters and the diameter is about 50 centimeters.

The basic material for building a home for chicks is silt, dirt and small shells. The nest is specially built so high, since the water level should not exceed it so that the offspring are not harmed.

The female lays one to three eggs; they are quite large and white in color. The eggs are incubated for a month, this is the responsibility of both parents. Birds sit on their eggs with their legs tucked in, and in order to rise, they first rest with their beak and only then straighten up.

After the chicks are born, they are fed with special bird milk, which is a mixture of esophageal juice and semi-digested food. This food is very nutritious, so it is quite enough for the full development of the offspring.

Already a few days after birth, the chicks are quite strong, they can leave the nest and wander nearby. The ability to fly appears after the 65th day of life. By this time, they can already eat fully on their own.

At this time, the chicks have the size of an adult, but differ in the color of their plumage. Sexual maturity occurs after the third year of life, at the same age the bird acquires the full plumage of an adult bird. The lifespan of a flamingo is about 40 years, but it often happens that the bird does not live such a long life, but dies earlier for various reasons.

Flamingo food

Flamingos live on the banks of water bodies, so they are forced to get their food right there. Basically, flamingos obtain food for themselves in shallow water. Thanks to the special structure of their beaks, birds filter water and obtain food for themselves. These special birds have something like a float above their beak, which is why they can keep their heads in the upper layer of water for a long time.

The flamingo takes water into its mouth, closes it, after which filtration occurs, as a result, all the plankton that comes across is food for the bird. Flamingos eat a large number of crustaceans, mollusks and algae. In addition, flamingos eat various larvae and worms.

It is also surprising that flamingo food carry out around the clock, that is, they obtain food for themselves both during daylight hours and at night. Especially when feeding chicks, flamingos need complete and high-quality nutrition so as not to weaken and lose all their strength.

Grace, beauty, unique charm and grace - these are the words that can most accurately describe the unusual and colorful birds that inhabit our planet. Flamingo is a real beauty among the representatives of its class. It is rare to see such a well-built creature - a flexible thin neck and long graceful legs unusually adorn this bird and make it a truly unique creature created by nature.

Description

The only representative of the order Flamingidae. The detachment is divided into six types:

• Pink (regular).
• Small.
• Red (Caribbean).
• Chilean.
• James's Flamingo.
• Andean.

The entire population existing today consists of only these six species. The birds are similar in build and shape, but depending on whether they belong to one of the species, they may have some distinctive features. For example, the lesser flamingo is the smallest of all living birds of the order Flamingiformes. The height of an adult reaches only ninety centimeters, and the weight stops at around two kilograms.

The largest representative of this order is the pink or common one; the weight of such a bird can be four kilograms, which is twice as much as the weight of a small flamingo. The height of this species can reach one hundred and forty centimeters. Males are almost always larger than females of the same age.

A distinctive feature of these birds is the length of their legs, and especially the distance between the shin and the toes. Her toes point slightly upward and there are well-developed membranes between them for swimming. The hind toe is the smallest of all and is located higher than the others.

Ornithologists note that flamingos, when in cold water, often tuck one leg up. This behavior is explained by the fact that by standing on only one leg, birds reduce the amount of lost heat in order to avoid freezing.

Birds of this class have very interesting and well thought out beak by nature. It extends from the muzzle at a right angle and then bends down. It contains a kind of filter consisting of special horny plates. With its help, the flamingo filters the water to swallow only the food.

With their skeletal system and muscles, flamingos are similar to birds such as storks. The flamingo's long and graceful neck consists of nineteen vertebrae, the last of which is part of the dorsal bone. There are air cavities in the bones, which provides them with strength and lightness with a fairly small thickness.

Color

varies from white to red. The color of the feathers of these birds depends on the concentration of a special natural pigment called astaxanthin. This pigment gives the plumage a pink or red tint of varying brightness and saturation. The feather cover of flamingos is distinguished by its looseness.

Juvenile flamingos have feathers of a brownish hue, but after the first molt, young individuals receive plumage, like that of adult birds. Interestingly, when they molt, they lose their twelve flight feathers and lose the ability to fly for about ten to twenty days.

Flamingos are active flyers. Their wings are relatively short for such a long body, so the bird has to flap them quite frequently to stay in the air. Before the flight, they make a long run-up, and only after gaining the required speed can they take off from the ground and fly. During flight, these birds straighten their graceful necks. They also stretch their legs.

Habitat and lifestyle

Flamingos have a lot of places where they prefer to settle. They can be found in Europe and parts of Asia Minor, eastern and western Africa. India is also part of the habitat of these delightful birds. South and Central America, Florida are common places inhabited by flamingos. France, Southern Spain and Sardinia also attract these birds with their natural resources.

To live, pink flamingos choose the shores of lagoons and various reservoirs of great length, as they live in flocks. One colony can consist of up to one hundred thousand birds. Flamingos tolerate both high and low temperatures well, so they can be found even near mountain lakes. In the reservoirs that these birds choose to live:

• Salty water.
• The fish don't live.
• A large number of crustaceans live.

If birds need to wash salt crust off their feathers or are thirsty, they fly away for a while to reservoirs or springs with clean fresh water.

Today, the flamingo population is rapidly declining and may soon be on the verge of extinction. The fact is that active agricultural activity in the habitat areas of these birds destroys places suitable for flamingos to live. Soon this may lead to the fact that these wonderful creatures simply will have nowhere to settle.

Often, human actions lead to the fact that the reservoirs that are the habitat of the colony become shallow or dry up. In such cases, the birds have to leave their usual place and go in search of a new home, which may lead nowhere. Pollution of the environment and natural waters also leads to the migration of flamingos. Poachers often pour chemical poisons directly into water bodies to make it easier to catch depleted fish. Currently, flamingos are already listed in the Red Books of many countries around the world and are under the protection of representatives of the law.

These birds have quite a large number of natural enemies. These include:

• Jackals.
• Foxes.
• Gray and red wolves.
• Eagles and kites.

Reproduction

Flamingos are birds that live in pairs. The female and male choose their own mate and remain together for life. Only males build nests for their offspring; female flamingos do not take any part in this. The finished nest looks like a column with a cut off top, about sixty centimeters high and about fifty centimeters in diameter.

To build a nest, males use:

• Shells caught from a pond.
• Dirt.

The nests are located along the banks of reservoirs and their rather high height is due to the fact that the birds are concerned about water getting into them. If water floods inside the shelter, the chicks may choke and drown.

Females lay one to three white eggs, quite large in size. Both parents take turns incubating the chicks, giving the partner the opportunity to rest and eat. When incubating eggs, birds tuck their legs under them. In order to stand up, they rest their beak on the ground and only after that begin to rise.

The parents feed the hatched chicks with their special bird's milk. This so-called milk consists of digestive juice and semi-digested food. This food contains many nutrients and promotes the full development of chicks.

To get stronger, chicks need only three - five days. At this stage of life, they are already able to independently get out of the nest in order to explore the nearby area. Baby flamingos do not stray too far from the nest and parents, they usually just wander around. By the sixty-fifth day after birth, the chicks are already able to feed themselves and they begin to develop the ability to fly. By this time, the chicks have already reached the size of adult birds and differ from them only in their plumage. Full plumage, like that of adults, appears in flamingos in the third year of life. At the same time, sexual maturity of these birds occurs.

In their natural habitat, flamingos can live for about forty years, but very often it turns out that the bird does not live that long, but dies earlier, for various reasons. The following can lead to premature death of flamingos:

Diet

Since flamingos settle along the shores of various bodies of water, they are forced to get their food there. For this they look for shallow water and put their head in the water. Using a special filter made of horny plates, they filter the liquid and look for food in it. Above the flamingo's beak there is a process resembling a float. With its help, these extraordinary creatures are able to keep their heads in the upper layer of water. There, the flamingo sucks a small amount of water into its mouth and passes it through its natural “filter.” As a result, the liquid is spat out, and the plankton living in the reservoir remains and goes to feed the birds. Also, flamingos do not deny themselves the pleasure of eating:

• Various crustaceans.
• Algae.
• Crustaceans.
• Insect larvae.
• Worms.

Incredibly, pink flamingos constantly search for food, regardless of the time of day. That is, these birds are busy searching for food both during the daytime and at night. This takes a lot of time especially during the period of feeding the chicks, since they need a complete and varied diet in order to quickly grow and get stronger.

According to recent research by scientists, pink flamingos are one of the most ancient birds on Earth. Nowadays, the population of these birds has decreased significantly and has become unstable, which became the reason for the registration of birds in the International Red Book.

Geography of residence

The largest populations of pink flamingos live in Africa and India. These birds can also be found in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Russia, Spain, Southern France, Iran. For their residence, pink flamingos choose small bays of sea coasts, or shallow salt lakes.

Pink flamingos looking for food.

Pink flamingos in flight.

Appearance

Pink flamingos cannot be confused with other birds, thanks to their unique body structure and unique plumage. The height of the birds can reach 145 cm, with an average weight of only 2.2 - 4.2 kg, males are slightly larger than females.

Pink flamingo: photo of a bird in flight.

The crooked beak of a pink flamingo.

Pink flamingo: photo of the beak from a lower angle.

Long-legged female pink flamingo.

Pink flamingo: close-up photo of head and beak.

Pink flamingo: beautiful photo.

Pink flamingos coo.

The photo shows another distinctive feature of pink flamingos - a small head with a massive beak, steeply curved down. This structure of the beak is determined by the bird’s nutrition - the need to filter water in search of small food. The bird's neck is very thin and curved in the shape of the letter S.

The plumage of pink flamingos has a loose structure, which is why it quickly gets wet, so the birds usually live only in shallow water. Their feather color is truly unique - soft pink with black wing tips. This color of flamingo feathers is due to the presence in the tissues of coloring pigments of carotenoids, which birds obtain by eating crustaceans. If the bird falls into captivity, then after two weeks this color disappears. Birds “receive” their pink plumage in the third year of life; young birds have gray-brown feathers.

Diet and behavior

The diet of pink flamingos is based on small crustaceans and their eggs. Birds can also feed on insect larvae, worms, mollusks and algae. Usually flamingos look for food in the same body of water where they nest, but if there is not enough food, they make daily long-distance flights to other bodies of water.

Pink flamingos themselves can become prey for other feathered predators - falcons, kites and eagles, which settle near flamingo colonies. These birds can also be harmed by foxes, wolves and jackals.

Pink flamingos and seagulls in shallow water.

Pink flamingos before flight.

Pink flamingos fly over the water.

A pink flamingo dances on the water.

A group of male pink flamingos.

Pink flamingo takes off, rear view.

A pink flamingo accelerates before takeoff.

A flock of pink flamingos on the lake.

Pink flamingos are looking for food in dirty water.

Head of a pink flamingo.

Reproduction

Pink flamingos become sexually mature at 4-5 years of age. They always nest in large colonies, sometimes up to 200,000 pairs. If you take a photo of the mating dances of pink flamingos, you will immediately notice that all movements are performed by the flock absolutely synchronously.

Both the future father and mother take part in the construction of the nest. Shell rock and mud are used as building materials for nests; the structure is obtained in the shape of a truncated cone, up to 50 cm high.

Pink flamingos form pairs for both one season and several years. A flamingo clutch usually contains one or two white eggs, both partners incubate the offspring, and after 27 - 33 days the chicks are born. By the time the chicks hatch from the eggs, the crop of both parents has tripled in size, from which “goiter milk” begins to be secreted - a mixture of semi-digested food and secretions from the crop itself, it is with this mass that the chicks are fed from beak to beak. The nutritional value of this food is similar to that of mammalian milk. The chicks are born covered with the former down, the growth of feathers begins in the second month, and the chicks become winged at 65-75 days.

Pink flamingos choose a mate.