Phoenicopterus ruber
Greater Flamingo [+]

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Phoenicriformes
Family: Phoenicopteridae
Genus: Phoenicopterus
species: Phoenicopterus ruber
+ITIS +WoRMS +Conservation Status

Description & Behavior

Who wouldn't recognize a greater flamingo, Phoenicopterus ruber? Reaching about 2 kgs in weight, these birds have long, spindly legs, gracefully curved necks and famously bright pink feathers, feet and legs. The Galapagos variety is slightly lighter in color, due to its diet. The greater flamingo's wingspan may reach up to 1.4 m. The hooked bill is pink with a black tip; no other bird has one like it.

World Range & Habitat

A social creature, the greater flamingo likes to be surrounded by many of its own kind; it lives and breeds in very large colonies or "pats" of several hundred individuals. It seems to prefer areas with plenty of mud and water, such as salt lakes, freshwater lakes and other lagoons. Its neotropical habitat stretches from central Peru to southern Argentina and Chile, including parts of Bolivia, Paraguay, southern Brazil and the Galapagos.

» GBIF occurrence data in Google Earth [Requirements | Tips] | Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) [World Map] | [about]

Feeding Behavior (Ecology)

Flamingos' long backward-bending legs aren't just there to look funny. The birds use their legs to stir up mud, then search for food—diatoms, seeds, blue-green algae, a few crustaceans and mollusks—in the muck, using their slitted beaks to filter it out. They will feed at any time of day or night.

Life History

Flamingos generally breed between March and mid-July, constructing nests out of mud that may reach 25 cm high and 40 cm in width. Some birds may return to the same nesting site year after year. Although the greater flamingo, like many birds, does form long-term pair bonds, it is probably also a bit of a cheater. During mating, the male tucks his legs under the female's wings. Once impregnated, the female usually lays a single egg, which she and the male take turns incubating for one month (28-32 days), straddling the nest with their long legs on either side. The egg is elongate and chalky white with a blood-red yolk. Babies are born agile, able to run and swim, but they do not look like their parents; they are gray with a straight bill (though the upper mandible may have a slight hook). They obtain their pink color by eating shrimp and other similarly pigmented aquatic creatures. Like many birds, the parents feed their young by regurgitation. The young are fledged (able to fly) in 75-77 days.

Comments

The greater flamingo's worst enemy is man. They are not a food species, although flamingo tongues were considered a delicacy in ancient Rome. However, flamingos are occasionally the target of hunters and habitat destruction has made life more difficult; flamingos are extremely sensitive to disturbance. (The birds themselves may cause some of this destruction. Although they help keep levels of small crustaceans, mollusks, and blue-green algae stable—by eating them—they may also flood their own lagoons if they wash away too much soil when creating their nests.) Other enemies include climatic changes, rising waters, disease and predators, especially on chicks.

References & Further Research

BioOne ~ CITES ~ Discover Life ~ GBIF ~ Google Scholar ~ ITIS ~ IUCN RedList ~ MarineBio Network ~ NCBI ~ SCIRIS ~ SIRIS ~ Tree of Life Web Project ~ Wikipedia

Ehrlich, P., Dobkin, D., and Wheye, D. (1988). The Birders Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds. New York: Simon and Schuster Inc.

Search the Web for Greater Flamingo » ARKive ~ Ask.com ~ Ask Jeeves ~ bing ~ deviantART ~ dmoz ~ Dogpile ~ Google Images ~ MySpace Images ~ OceanFootage ~ Picsearch ~ StumbleUpon ~ Yahoo! Images ~ YouTube

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Citation: Phoenicopterus ruber, Greater Flamingo - MarineBio.org. Retrieved , from .

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Phoenicopterus ruber Greater Flamingo [+]