Flamingo: Why are Flamingos Pink
Flamingo nests consist of mud.
A flamingo’s nest resembles a small mud volcano, accommodating a single big egg. Flamingos exhibit monogamous behavior, with both parents collaborating effectively. Both contribute to nest construction and egg incubation. Flamingo chicks emerge with white-gray down feathers and a straight beak. It takes several years for them to attain their characteristic pink hue and hooked bills.
The Smithsonian’s National Zoo has housed flamingos since its establishment almost 130 years ago. Since the early 1990s, Bird House managers have endeavored to breed flamingos, successfully welcoming approximately 120 chicks throughout the years. A congregation of flamingos atop nests constructed from mud that resemble miniature volcanoes. A flamingo in the foreground shelters a chick beneath its wings, as others are positioned in the distance.
Flamingos derive their pink coloration from their diet.
Flamingos truly embody their diet. Numerous plants synthesize natural pigments in red, yellow, or orange hues, known as carotenoids. Carotenoids impart the orange hue to carrots and render mature tomatoes red. They are also present in the minute algae consumed by brine shrimp. As a flamingo consumes algae and brine shrimp, its body metabolizes the pigments, resulting in the coloration of its feathers to pink.
Flamingos are filter feeders and invert their heads to consume food.
The phrase “filter feeder” may evoke thoughts of baleen whales or oyster reefs; yet, flamingos also qualify as filter feeders. They consume algae, minute seeds, diminutive crustaceans (such as brine shrimp), fly larvae, and various flora and fauna inhabiting shallow waters. During feeding, a flamingo will invert its head in the water, orienting its bill towards its feet. It subsequently oscillates its head laterally, employing its tongue to expel and intake water through its bill. Comb-like structures along the bill’s edge function as a filter, allowing water to escape while retaining food particles.
A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance.
A collection of crows is referred to as a murder, while a collection of geese is termed a gaggle. What is the term for a bunch of flamingos? A display of flamboyance! Alternative collective nouns for flamingos are stand, colony, and pat.
The Zoo’s iconic Bird House may be undergoing restorations, yet keepers persist in caring for around 60 Caribbean flamingos (also known as American flamingos) behind the scenes. In their natural habitat, flamingos occasionally congregate in the thousands. Scientists believe that around 200,000 Caribbean flamingos exist in the wild, with populations in the Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico, and the southern Caribbean, along with a tiny group of perhaps 400-500 in the Galápagos Islands.
There are six species of flamingos.
Alongside Caribbean flamingos, there exist lesser, greater, James’s (or Puna), Chilean, and Andean flamingos. Greater flamingos inhabit regions of Africa, Asia, and Europe. They represent the largest and tallest species of flamingo. Chilean, Andean, and James’s flamingos are exclusively located in South America. The Andean flamingo is the rarest among the six species, with a population of fewer than 40,000 individuals. Lesser flamingos inhabit regions of Africa and southern Asia. They are the little flamingos and the most prevalent. Over 2 million lesser flamingos illuminate the sky and coastlines with their pink feathers.
Do not be misled by appearances – a flamingo’s knees do not flex posteriorly! Flamingo legs flex similarly to human legs. The structure resembling a flamingo’s knee is, in fact, its ankle joint. The knees of a flamingo are situated higher on the legs, obscured by the body and plumage. Perplexed? Consider a flamingo balancing on its toes. When the leg flexes, it is the ankle that is observed articulating.
Certain flamingos inhabit severe conditions.
Flamingos are generally located in shallow saline or brackish waters, where saltwater and freshwater converge. Certain flamingo species reproduce and nurture their offspring in highly saline bodies of water known as alkaline or “soda” lakes. The elevated concentration of carbonate salts in these lakes is sufficiently caustic to cause skin burns, rendering the water inhospitable for most fauna.
Researchers continue to elucidate the distinctive features of a flamingo’s physiology, such as its resilient leg integument, which enables it to endure extreme aquatic environments. Excessive salt can be fatal for certain flamingo chicks if salt rings accumulate on their legs, hindering their ability to walk. Flamingo parents nourish their chicks with a secretion known as crop milk.
The “milk” of a flamingo is generated in its crop, a section of its throat, and subsequently regurgitated through its mouth. A flamingo’s crop milk is rich in beneficial proteins and lipids, despite its unappealing nature. Both parents are capable of producing crop milk to nourish a flamingo chick until it reaches independence in feeding.
Indeed, flamingos possess the ability to fly.
While you may be accustomed to observing flamingos congregating in substantial numbers on land, they are also capable of flight. Certain flamingos will migrate to breed, relocate to a different body of water as seasons shift, or go to warmer, lower-altitude regions during winter. Flamingos frequently travel large distances at night.
Flamingos are capable of sleeping while standing on one leg.
Flamingos are capable of standing on one foot for extended durations, sufficient to induce sleep. What is the rationale behind their balancing act? Research indicates that flamingos use greater muscular effort when standing on two legs, implying that standing on one leg may be less fatiguing. Researchers also contend that a unipedal posture may assist flamingos in maintaining warmth. Birds dissipate bodily heat via their extremities. Flamingos can minimize heat loss through their legs and feet by standing on one leg and tucking the other behind their abdomen.
Where to see flamingos in Africa
The soda lakes of the Great Rift Valley in Eastern Africa serve as the favored habitat for this renowned bird. The Great Rift Valley extends from Northern Syria to Mozambique and is significant both anthropologically and geologically; it is commonly considered the cradle of humanity, symbolizing the gradual divergence of the African continent and is expected to eventually form a new ocean.
The soda lakes represent a unique geological characteristic of the region. These shallow, level lakes are distinguished by exceptionally high alkaline concentrations, attributable to a distinctive interplay of meteorological and geological factors.
The astonishing aspect: While most creatures would rapidly succumb in this harmful environment, the flamingo flourishes. The primordial conditions of the soda lakes are ideal for algae and brine shrimp, essential components of the flamingo’s diet, which it filters with its uniquely adapted bill. This diet is responsible for the flamingo’s distinctive pink coloration; notably, flamingos are born with grey feathers that progressively transform to pink in the wild due to a natural pigment called canthaxanthin found in their food: brine shrimp and blue-green algae.
They are also specially equipped to endure the detrimental alkaline waters. In the absence of fresh water, they may consume boiling alkaline water from glaciers near the lakes and filter it through their elongated necks. Their elongated legs are coated in durable scales, enabling them to endure prolonged durations in otherwise intolerably toxic environments.
Nearly two million of these remarkable species assemble among three of Kenya’s Great Rift Valley lakes: Lake Nakuru, Lake Bogoria, and Lake Elmenteita. While all the lakes present an opportunity to observe flamingos in their natural environment, Lake Elmenteita stands out as an extraordinary site for avid photographers; being lesser-known than the other soda lakes, it gives the potential for stunning photographs against a striking landscape.
Lake Elementaita, referred to as Ol muteita (‘place of dust’ in the Maasai language, is a vast landscape that evokes a primeval epoch. The shallow, effervescent lake is bordered by the ‘Sleeping Warrior’ (a solitary hill known for its likeness to a recumbent figure) and Ol Doinyo Eburu (a dormant volcano).
Visitors will observe flamingos wading elegantly over the polluted waters, and they may also glimpse the lake’s other significant inhabitants. The Great White Pelican is among these species; Lake Elementaita serves as the sole nesting place for these emblematic birds in East Africa, and their nests can be observed on rocky outcrops across the lake.
Flamingos inhabit Lake Natron in Tanzania, located at the foot of Africa’s sole active volcano, Oldonyo Lengai.
During a safari in Uganda, one can observe flamingos in Queen Elizabeth National Park, situated in the Western arm of the Great East African Rift Valley. The soda lakes of Bunyampaka, Katwe, Nyamunuka, Maseche, and Bagusa are premier locations for observing flamingos in Uganda.