FOOD
HABITS:
Flamingos use their long legs to stir up mud. They then use their beaks to
strain food out of the muddy mixture. In the wild they eat diatoms, seeds,
blue-green algae, a few crustaceans and molluscs. At Flamingo Park they are
fed a special high-protein diet to maintain their pink colouration.
BEHAVIOUR:
Flamingos are social creatures, living and breeding in very large colonies.
The
word flamingo comes from the Latin word for flame.
Egyptians worshipped the flamingo as the living embodiment of the Sun God
Ra. Romans considered flamingo tongue to be a delicacy! They are sometimes
called firebirds because many species prefer
to frequent hot, volcanic mud flats.
There are three different species of flamingo at the Park ~ Chilean, Lesser
and Caribbean, numbering well over a hundred in total.
The Chilean colony has been breeding successfully since 1982 and surplus stock
has been exported around the world to set up new breeding programmes.
REPRODUCTION:
Flamingos breed during the months of March through to July.
Nests are constructed of mud and the female lays one egg, which she and the
male incubate for one month. During incubation, flamingos straddle the nest,
placing their long legs either side of it. The egg is elongate and chalky
white and the yolk is blood red. The chicks are born grey with a straight
bill, the upper mandible with a slight hook. The young chicks are fed by their
parents by regurgitation. They are agile, good at running and swimming from
an early age.
CHILEAN FLAMINGO
Scientific Name:
Phoenicopterus chilensis
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION:
Peru and Uruguay to Tierra del Fuego - South America
CONSERVATION STATUS:
Special Concern
SUMMARY:
Certainly one of the most picturesque and beautiful of the world's birds.
Flamingo's necks and legs are longer in proportion to their bodies than those
of any other species. They have long sinuous necks and extremely long slender
legs.
Plumage is pale in colour, with darker pink and black wings. Pink colouring
comes from a pigment the bird consumes.
