Greater flamingo
- Class: Birds (Aves)
- Order: Herons, storks (Ciconiiformes)
- Family: Flamingos (Phoenicopteridae)
- Genus: Phoenicopterus
- Species: Phoenicopterus ruber
- SubGenus: P. r. roseus
Size
The flamingo grows to 130 cm in height, and between 2 and 4 kg in weight.
Ecology
The flamingo is one of the most numerous birds in the world, and the five different flamingo species comprise of an estimated five million birds. Flamingos do not breed every year, this decreased opportunity to breed is offset by having exceptionally long life-spans. They are very social birds, living and breeding in large colonies on shallow, alkaline or saline lakes and lagoons with caustic waters.
Food habits
Flamingos stir up mud with their long legs, and then strain food from the muddy mixture using their beaks. They eat diatoms, seeds, blue-green algae, molluscs and several types of crustaceans. Longevity Flamingos live for 30 years.
Reproduction
Into a mud-constructed mound the female lays one, sometimes two eggs, and for four to five weeks they are incubated by both parents. Following hatching the chicks are fed a substance resembling dark red ‘milk’, called crop milk. This is excreted from the parents’ upper digestive tract, and both male and female of the parents feed the chicks by this method (flamingos share this trait with pigeons).
Conservation status
Flamingo populations vary in in size from year to year and their reproduction rates fluctuate depending on water levels at breeding or possible drought, and availability of food. Generally, the flamingo is not considered endangered
