A Few years ago ornithologists estimated that there were about six million flamingos in the world. This included all the flamingos in Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as those of the Americas. Unfortunately these beautiful and unusual birds are decreasing in number although in many areas they are now protected by law.
The most colourful flamingos are those of the New World, especially the American flamingo which lives in the Caribbean and parts of South America. The adult American flamingos have pinkish-red feathers instead of the pinkish-white feathers of the birds living in the Old World.
Flamingos have a five-foot wingspread and stand about five feet tall. They have very long legs and necks, and fly with them outstretched. They are usually seen feeding or flying in fairly large groups. On their colonial breeding grounds the flock may number as many as twenty thousand birds.
The beak of a flamingo is very different from that of any other bird. The top part of it is bent down and almost looks as if it had been broken. When the flamingo feeds, it lowers its head so its bill is upside down on the shallow bottom of the salty mud flat. Then it scoops up mud, algae, and small shrimp. The bird has special filters on its beak and bristles in its mouth so it can get rid of any shells or other inedible objects.
Flamingos live on salt flats in almost desert-like regions where few other creatures can live. Those that nest inland do so on shallow salt-water lakes like those in Kenya in Africa. One advantage of such areas is that there are almost no predators, and since these birds nest on the ground their eggs and young are therefore safe from other animals. However, nesting areas may be flooded or become too dry. Then a whole season may pass without any young flamingos being raised. Flamingos may also be frightened from their nesting areas by low- flying aircraft, and desert their nest for that season.
The American flamingos usually arrive at their nesting places in the Caribbean in February. They often come by night in small flocks until there are several thousand of them on one small island. They soon begin their displays. Long lines of females weave back and forth across the salt flats. The males stand about in small groups occasionally flicking their wings and pecking at one another. The air is filled with the sound of constant gabbling. Finally pairs are formed and cone-like nests of mud are built.
The female lays a single white egg in the nest. Both the parents take turns sitting on it for about a month. They usually exchange places in the morning and in the evening, giving each other a chance to feed.
When the young bird hatches, it is covered with white down which is later replaced by grey down. It stays in the nest for several days and then joins a flock of other young flamingos its own age. The young bird then may be fed by any adult bird, and not just by its own parents. When they first hatch the babies’ beaks are not curved, but by the time they are six weeks old they have the same type of curved beaks as their parents.
By the time they are two and a half ; months old the young flamingos have developed their first brownish-white feathers and are able to fly. Flocks begin leaving the nesting grounds for the wintering grounds on other Caribbean islands and in South America. Not until they are four years old do the young birds acquire adult plumage and return to their ancestral nesting grounds to breed.
There are three other species of flamingos found in South America—the Chilean, the Andean, and the James’s. They differ in color of feathers, bills and legs. The An- dean and James’s flamingos breed on salt water lakes high in the Andes. For a long time it was thought that the James’s flamingo was extinct, but in 1957 ornithologists discovered some of these birds in a mountain lake in Bolivia. Two other ornithological expeditions were made to lakes in this region, and nesting flocks of James’s flamingos were found. A few of these rare birds were captured and taken to the Bronx Zoo in New York City in 1960.
The flamingos found in Europe, Asia and Africa are white with light pink wings. Their nesting colonies are in Spain and France as well as in the Near East, India and Africa. The birds which nest in Europe spend the winters in Africa, Flamingos have been in existence in the world for a long time. Fossil remains date back about forty million years. Some five thousand years ago a Neolithic artist painted the picture of one on the wall of a cave in Spain. This painting can still be seen today.
Flamingos Pictures
