Flamingos are Beauty Animal

Flamingos are famous for their bright pink feathers, stilt-like legs, and S-shaped neck. They’re also known for “running” on water, thanks to their webbed feet, to gain speed before lifting up into the sky. You’ll find flamingos throughout the world’s warmer regions, near shallow lakes and lagoons. Once airborne, flamingos fly with their long neck and legs outstretched. Flamingos fly in large flocks, sometimes with as many as hundreds of thousands of other flamingos. A flock of flamingos that large is quite a sight.

On the ground, flamingos fish while walking in shallow water and mud. 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.

A series of hairlike “combs” inside the flamingo’s beak act as a filter to separate food from muddy water.

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. The young find safety in the crèches and start to look for food on their own.

FAST FACTS
A flamingo’s color varies depending on its diet. Their vibrant pink or reddish color comes from eating algae and small crustaceans such as shrimp that have carotenoid pigments (carrots have them too). In the Caribbean area, flamingos have coral-red feathers. In South America, flamingos have pinkish-white feathers. 

The scientific name for the lesser flamingo is Phoeniconaias minor.

The American scarlet flamingo, or Phoenicopterus ruber, is becoming increasingly rare. It lives in the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, and along the coasts of Central and South America.

Adult flamingos stand between three and six and a half feet (0.9 to 2 meters) tall.

Flamingos can live from 20 to 30 years in the wild. In captivity, flamingos can live even longer.