5 Fascinating Facts About Flamingos (Phoenicopteridae)

These unmistakable waterbirds seem ludicrously proportioned, especially when flying overhead, dangling their long legs and neck. Two species flamingos occur in southern Africa: the greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) is the larger and has a black tip to its pale bill; the lesser flamingo (Phoenicopterus minor) is smaller pinker, with a dark red bill.

Their huge gatherings in the soda lakes of the rift valley are among the world’s most impressive wildlife spectacles.

• Flamingos feed with their heads upside-down, scything their bills back and forth underwater to filter minute organisms, and pumping out excess water with their tongues. This is the same basic technique as a whale filtering plankton through its baleen plates.
• Though the two species often occur together, greater flamingoes feed on larger organisms, whereas lesser flamingoes live almost entirely on blue-green algae, so competition is avoided.
• Flamingoes on their breeding grounds display in tightly synchronised formation, hundreds of birds switching their heads from side to side in a ‘flag dance’ and ‘saluting’ with bright scarlet wings.
• Despite their gangly appearance, flamingoes can swim well when out of their wading depth.
• Flamingos obtain their pinkness from pigments called carotenoids, which are found in the tiny crustaceans on which they feed. In captivity they require a special diet in order to retain this colouration.

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By Mike Unwin

UK

Mike is an award winning wildlife writer, editor of Travel Zambia magazine and author of the Bradt Guide to Southern African Wildlife.

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