Flamingo. Habitat and lifestyle of flamingos

Russian name- Pink (common) flamingo
Latin name- Phoenicopterus roseus
English title- Greater flamingos
Class- Birds (Aves)
Detachment- Flamingos (Phoenicopteriformes)
Family- Flamingos (Phoenicopteridae)
Genus- Flamingo (Phoenicopterus)

Until recently, pink and red flamingos were considered subspecies of the same species, currently they are isolated as independent species.

conservation status

Currently, the species is not in danger of extinction, but its numbers are unstable. It is listed in the International Red Book as causing the least concern in the next 10 years - IUCN (LC), and is also included in the Convention on International Trade in Species of Wild Fauna and Flora - CITES II.
In Russia it is a non-breeding, migratory and regularly vagrant species. As a rare species, the pink flamingo is listed in the Red Books of Russia and Kazakhstan.
The reason for the decline in numbers is the reduction of suitable nesting sites and a factor of concern.

Appearance

Flamingos cannot be confused with any other bird due to the peculiarities of the body structure and the amazing color of the plumage. These are rather large birds (height 120–145 cm, weight 2100–4100 g, wingspan 149–165 cm), and females are smaller than males and slightly shorter-legged. The head of a flamingo is small, the beak is massive and in the middle part it is steeply (knee-shaped) bent down. The jaw apparatus is highly specialized in filtering water in search of small food. Horny plates are located in the beak, on which various phyto- and zooplankton (small animals and plants that live in the water column) settle during feeding.
The legs of a flamingo are very long, with 4 toes each, with the three front ones connected by a swimming membrane. The back toe is small and located above the foot. The thin neck in a calm state is curved in the form of the letter S. The plumage of these birds is loose and soft. Flamingos swim well, but at the same time their feathers get wet, and the birds prefer not to go to deep-sea places.
Flamingos often settle on saline lakes and strain food from salt water. They also drink brackish or alkaline water. However, the "salinization" of the body does not threaten them - these birds have well-developed salt-excreting glands.
The plumage color is pale pink, the ends of the wings are black. The pink color of the plumage is due to the presence of pigments in the tissues - fat-like coloring substances of the carotenoid group. Birds get these substances from food, from different crustaceans. In captivity, after 1–2 years, the pink-red hue of plumage usually disappears due to monotonous feeding. But if you specifically add red carotenoids contained in carrots and beets to flamingo food, the color of the birds always remains saturated. Young birds are gray-brown, they “put on” an adult outfit only in the third year of life.

Spreading

The pink flamingo is a resident of the Old World. The distribution of the species is extremely uneven. Lives in Southern Europe, Asia and Africa. Breeds annually on Kurgaldzhino and Tengiz lakes in Central Kazakhstan, temporary nesting sites periodically appear in the north-eastern Caspian region and on small lakes of Kazakhstan.
Changes in the breeding range are associated with changes in the moisture content of arid territories. In the late 1950s the Kazakh population of pink flamingos numbered 30,000–50,000 pairs, now from 2,500 to 11,500 pairs. One nesting colony was found in the Kyzylagach Reserve.
In Europe, the most significant and stable nesting of flamingos is located in the Camargue Nature Reserve, at the mouth of the Rhone River (Southern France). Up to 25 thousand birds gather here in spring. In 1963, a colony of 3,600 nests was found at Las Marismas in Southern Spain, where no flamingo nesting has been observed since 1941. In Africa, birds nest on the lakes of Morocco, Southern Tunisia, Northern Mauritania, Kenya, the Cape Verde Islands and in the south of the continent. The flamingo also lives on the lakes of Southern Afghanistan (at an altitude of up to 3000 m) and Northwestern India.
Flamingos inhabit large bays of sea coasts, large and small salty steppe lakes.

Lifestyle and social behavior

Flamingos are active during the day and sleep at night.
Flamingos are strictly colonial birds: they nest and feed in large groups. The distance between nests and feeding or resting birds can be only a few centimeters. On nesting sites, birds protect only the nest itself.
Between the birds living in such a “communal” apartment, interactions are periodically observed that look like “quarrels”: flamingos begin to cackle loudly, standing opposite each other and fluffing their feathers. "Quarrels" stop as suddenly as they began, the birds remain in their places and continue to go about their business.
When a flock is feeding or resting, individual birds stay alert, allowing the entire flock to avoid danger in time. Flamingos suffer to a greater extent not from predators, but from the vicissitudes of the climate (droughts, floods) and the unpredictable hydro regime of reservoirs.
In the northern part of the distribution, flamingos are migratory. The main part of the Kazakh population winters in the Krasnovodsk and Kyzylagach reserves, some of the birds fly to Iran for the winter.

Feeding and feeding behavior

The basis of the nutrition of the pink flamingo is the small reddish crustacean Artemia and its eggs. In addition, flamingos also feed on other crustaceans, as well as molluscs, insect larvae, and worms. They search for food in shallow areas. Flamingos can feed on the same reservoir where they nest, but if there is little food, they can daily make long flights to more forage reservoirs (for 30–40 and even 50–60 km).
Entering the water, the birds trample with their feet, slightly stirring up the silt, and then filter this suspension with their beaks. When feeding in shallow water, birds lower their heads so that the upper beak is below the surface of the water, and the mandible is above it. By moving their heads in different directions, and acting like a piston with their tongue, flamingos filter water and silt. At great depths, the entire head, and sometimes the neck to the shoulders, is immersed in the water.
Flamingos drink brackish and fresh water during rain, licking drops of water running down their plumage.

Vocalization

reproduction

Flamingos nest in large colonies of up to 20,000 pairs (in India - up to 2,000,000 pairs). Breeding in separate pairs is unknown. Preference for nesting is given to highly saline and alkaline lakes, often with a high content of caustic soda, gypsum and hydrogen sulfide. Lakes off the coast are covered with salt or gypsum crust, under which there is liquid mud. From this mud and shell rock, flamingos build nests that rise above the water like high bumps. Their shape resembles a truncated cone, and the height is more than half a meter.
Flamingos are monogamous, they can form pairs both for one season and for several years. Courtship is accompanied by loud cries, ritual postures with spread wings and ruffled feathers, as well as group ceremonial runs with high raising of the legs and sudden stops. The mating ritual is strictly species-specific, so even if the colony is formed by several species of flamingos, mixed pairs are not formed and hybrids are unknown.
Clutch contains 1-2 large white eggs. Both partners take part in incubation and feeding of chicks. Incubation lasts 27–33 days, and in hot areas it rather turns into protection of the masonry from overheating. Chicks hatch covered with down, sighted and with a straight beak. By the time the chicks hatch, the goiter of the parents approximately triples in size. From the goiter, a creamy mass begins to stand out, the so-called goiter milk, which is a mixture of semi-digested crustaceans, larvae of aquatic insects and secretions from the walls of the goiter itself. It is light pink in color due to the presence of carotenoids in it, with the addition of approximately one hundredth of the blood of lactating birds, resembling mammalian colostrum in composition. Parents regurgitate this "bird's milk" and feed it to the chicks from beak to beak.
The chicks leave the nest a few days after hatching and at about a month old they change the first downy outfit to the second one. At the age of 2 weeks, the beak of a small flamingo, which was straight at hatching, begins to curve. Downy chicks that have already left the nest and left for a while without their parents, who flew away to feed, huddle in groups and are under the supervision of several "dutors on duty" who have remained in place. Returning from feeding, adult birds feed the chicks by regurgitating food from the crop.
The feathers of the chicks begin to grow in the second month, and the young acquire the ability to fly on the 65-75th day of life; at the same age, their filtering apparatus is finally formed. The coloration of young birds remains gray for a long time, only in the third year of life does it acquire a bright color characteristic of flamingos. They become adults at the age of 3-4 years, they start breeding at the 5th year of life.

Lifespan

In the wild, apparently, they live up to 30 years, and in captivity even longer (up to 40 and even 50 years).

The history of life in the zoo

In the collections of zoos in the world, flamingos are very widely represented - the bird is cute, exposition, and it is easy to keep. In the history of the Moscow Zoo, they were almost always. Most of the flamingos on display are red. There are few pink ones - these are elderly birds that arrived at the zoo even before the reconstruction of the 90s. In our zoo, pink flamingos are kept together with red flamingos. Birds of different species do not conflict, but do not form mixed pairs either.
The diet of flamingos includes the maximum of what we can offer them. These are grated carrots, minced fish, dry gammarus, special high-protein compound feed with essential vitamins and microelements. All this food is poured with water, and from this liquid mixture the birds strain out what they need. We give liquid feed once a day, and dry feed is constantly available. It is not possible in a zoo to provide the same amount of carotenoids in the feed as they consume in nature, so we add dietary carotene to their feed.
The difficulty in keeping flamingos is the selection of feed - so that both vitamins and protein content are balanced in it.
In summer, flamingos are kept in an open enclosure on the Big Pond, in winter - in a warm room adjacent to this enclosure, where they are perfectly visible behind the glass. We transfer the birds to a warm room at temperatures close to zero - when the night frosts begin.

This amazing bird fascinates with its beauty. She sleeps on one leg, eats crayfish, her plumage has a color from pale pink to bright carrot. Flamingos are one of the most amazing birds on the planet.

There are 6 species of flamingos on Earth. The pink flamingo is the largest and most common species. Each individual has a height of about 1.5 meters and weighs up to 4 kilograms. The smallest species of flamingo is the Small Flamingo, less than a meter in height and its weight does not exceed 2.5 kilograms.

Flamingos are very ancient bird species. Interestingly, their remains were found in places that are now not typical for flamingo habitats - some parts of Europe, Australia and North America. Recently, scientists have singled out flamingos from the Stork order into a separate group, and called it Flamingos.

Flamingos have a massive, downward-curved beak, which has a movable lower part, which distinguishes it from other birds. Males tend to be larger than females and have much longer legs. The average age of a flamingo is about 30 years old. In reserves and zoos, these birds live longer than in the wild.

It is curious that the pink flamingo acquires an unusual color due to food. Flamingos feed on crustaceans and algae, and the substance they contain, a carotenoid, colors their feathers ruddy. The appetite of these birds is excellent, flamingos usually eat up to a quarter of their own weight per day. There were cases when, in order to brighten the natural shade of birds, they were fed carrots in zoos.

Flamingo populations can often be found near lakes that have a very salty and alkaline composition. In such reservoirs, the favorite food of flamingos - crustaceans lives. Flamingos are resistant to large temperature changes, they can be found even on high mountain lakes.

Many are interested in why flamingos get the habit of sleeping on one leg? They use this technique to save energy and keep warm. The legs of the flamingo are not covered with feathers, so the plates freeze in the wind, trying in turn to warm one or the other. In fact, their body is designed in such a way that the flamingo easily stands on one leg, keeps it straight, without using muscular strength.

Flamingo families usually have one chick each. They are born gray and stay that way until they are 2 years old. The male and female secrete special glands that feed the chicks in the first months of life.

Elegance, beauty, unique charm and grace - these are the words that can most accurately describe the unusual and bright birds that inhabit our planet. Flamingo is a real handsome man among the representatives of his class. It is rare to see such a well-built creature - a flexible thin neck and long graceful legs adorn this bird extraordinarily and make it a truly unique creature created by nature.

Description

The only representative of the flamingo order. The detachment is divided into six types:

• Pink (ordinary).
• Small.
• Red (Caribbean).
• Chilean.
• Flamingo James.
• Andean.

The entire population that exists today consists of only these six types. The birds are similar in build and shape, but depending on their belonging to one of the species, they may have some distinctive features. For example, the lesser flamingo is the smallest of all living birds of the flamingo order. The growth of an adult reaches only ninety centimeters, and the weight stops at around two kilograms.

The largest representative of this order is pink or ordinary, the weight of such a bird can be four kilograms, which is twice as much as the weight of a small flamingo. The height of this species can reach one hundred and forty centimeters. Males are almost always larger than females of the same age.

A distinctive feature of these birds is their leg length, and in particular the distance between the lower leg and fingers. Her toes look a little up and between them there are well-developed membranes for swimming. The back toe is the smallest of all and is located above the rest.

Ornithologists note that flamingos, being in cold water, often press one leg up. This behavior is explained by the fact that standing on only one leg, the birds reduce the amount of heat lost so as not to freeze.

Birds of this class have very interesting and well-thought-out beak. It departs from the muzzle at a right angle, and then bends down. It contains a kind of filter, consisting of special horn plates. With it, the flamingo strains the water to swallow only food.

With their skeletal system and muscles, flamingos are similar to birds such as storks. The long and graceful neck of a flamingo consists of nineteen vertebrae, the last of which is part of the dorsal bone. There are air cavities in the bones, which provides them with strength and lightness with a fairly small thickness.

color

varies from white to red. The color of the feathers of these birds depends on the concentration of a special natural pigment called astaxanthin. This pigment gives the plumage a pink or red hue of varying brightness and saturation. The feather cover of flamingos is distinguished by its friability.

Young flamingos have brown feathers, but after the first molt, young individuals receive plumage, as in adult birds. Interestingly, when they molt, they lose their twelve primary feathers and lose the ability to fly for about ten to twenty days.

Flamingos are active fliers. Their wings are relatively short for such a long body, so the bird has to flap them fairly frequently to stay in the air. Before the flight, they make a long run, and only after gaining the necessary speed, they can take off the ground and fly. During the flight, these birds straighten their graceful neck. They stretch their legs too.

Habitat and lifestyle

Flamingos have a lot of places where they prefer to settle. They can be found in Europe and in parts of Asia Minor, in eastern and western Africa. India is also included in the habitat of these delightful birds. South and Central America, Florida are common places inhabited by flamingos. France, the South of Spain and Sardinia also attract these birds with their natural wealth.

For life, pink flamingos choose the shores of lagoons and various reservoirs, of great length, as they live in flocks. One colony can contain up to one hundred thousand birds. Flamingos tolerate both high and low temperatures well, so they can be found even near mountain lakes. In the reservoirs that these birds choose for life:

• Salty water.
• Fish don't live.
• Lives in a large number of crustaceans.

If the birds need to wash the salt crust off their feathers or if they are thirsty, they temporarily fly to reservoirs or springs with clean fresh water.

Today, the flamingo population is rapidly declining and may soon be on the verge of extinction. The fact is that vigorous agricultural activity in the habitats of these birds destroys places suitable for flamingos. Soon this may lead to the fact that these wonderful creatures will simply have nowhere to settle.

Often, human actions lead to the fact that the reservoirs that are the habitat of the colony become shallow or dry up. In such cases, the birds have to leave their usual place and go in search of a new home, which may lead nowhere. Also, pollution of the environment and natural waters leads to the migration of flamingos. Poachers often pour chemical poisons directly into water bodies to make it easier to catch emaciated fish. At present, flamingos are already listed in the Red Books of many countries of the world and are under the protection of representatives of the law.

These birds have a fairly large number of natural enemies.. These include:

• Jackals.
• Foxes.
• Gray and red wolves.
• Eagles and kites.

reproduction

Flamingos are birds that live in pairs. The female and male choose their own mate and stay together for life. Nests for offspring are built only by males, flamingo girls do not take any part in this. The finished nest looks like a column with a cut off top, about sixty centimeters high and about fifty centimeters in diameter.

To build a nest, males use:

• Shells caught from the pond.
• Dirt.

Nests are located along the banks of reservoirs and their rather high height is due to the fact that birds are concerned about water entering them. If water is poured into the shelter, the chicks can choke and drown.

Females lay one to three white eggs, rather large. Both parents take turns incubating the chicks, giving the partner the opportunity to rest and eat. When hatching eggs, birds draw their legs under them. In order to get up, they rest their beak on the ground and only after that they begin to rise.

Parents feed the hatched chicks with their special bird's milk. This so-called milk consists of digestive juice and semi-digested food. This food contains many nutrients and contributes to the full development of the chicks.

To get stronger, the chicks need only three to five days. At this life span, they are already able to independently get out of the nest in order to explore the surrounding area. Flamingo babies do not stray too far from their nest and parents, they usually just roam nearby. By the sixty-fifth day after birth, the chicks already know how to feed on their own and they begin to show the ability to fly. By this time, the chicks have already reached the size of adult birds and differ from them only in their plumage. Full plumage, as in adults, appears in flamingos in the third year of life. Then comes the sexual maturity of these birds.

In their natural habitat, flamingos can live for about forty years, but very often it turns out that the bird does not live so long, but dies earlier, for various reasons. The premature death of flamingos can lead to:

diet

Since flamingos settle along the shores of various reservoirs, they are forced to get their food there as well. For this they look for shallow water and dip their heads into the water. With the help of a special filter made of horny plates, they filter the liquid and look for food in it. Above the flamingo's beak is a process resembling a float. With the help of it, these extraordinary creatures are able to keep their heads in the upper layer of water. There, the flamingo sucks a small amount of water into its mouth and passes it through its natural "filter". As a result, the liquid is spit out, and the plankton that lives in the reservoir remains and goes to feed the bird. Also, flamingos do not deny themselves the pleasure of eating:

• Various crustaceans.
• Algae.
• crustaceans.
• Insect larvae.
• Worms.

Incredibly, pink flamingos search for food constantly, regardless of the time of day. That is, these birds, both in the daytime and at night, are busy looking for food. Especially a lot of time is spent on this during the period of feeding the chicks, as they need a complete and varied diet in order to grow and strengthen quickly.

Flamingos are one of the most amazing and controversial birds. On the one hand, their body is disproportionate: a short torso, a very long neck, incredibly thin legs, a small head and a curved beak are somehow disproportionate to each other. On the other hand, such disproportion is surprisingly harmonious and flamingos have become synonymous with grace and sophisticated beauty.

Red or Caribbean flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber).

At first glance, flamingos in their appearance resemble legged birds - storks, herons, cranes - but they are not related to any of the listed species. The closest relatives of flamingos are ... banal geese. Previously, flamingos were even classified as an Anseriformes, but then they were separated into a separate Flamingos order, which has only 6 species. All representatives of the detachment are medium-sized birds, weighing several kilograms. A distinctive feature of flamingos are their long legs and neck, which are necessary for moving through the shallow waters of reservoirs. The paws of flamingos are clawed like those of a goose. The large beak of a flamingo, as if broken in the middle, is also similar to a goose, its edges are dotted with small teeth. These cloves form a filtering apparatus with which flamingos get food.

The fringed edge of the flamingo's beak works like a whalebone.

All types of flamingos have a similar coloration from pale pink to deep scarlet. Flamingos are typical inhabitants of the tropics, but some species can tolerate the cold. So, South American species of flamingos inhabit the highlands of the Andes, where frosts are not uncommon. Pink, or common flamingos live in the subtropical and even in the south of the temperate zone; in the northern part of the range, these birds are migratory. There are cases when flamingos accidentally flew even to the territory of Estonia during flights. All species of flamingos live along the banks of shallow water bodies, and flamingos prefer water bodies with a high salt content. Such habits are due to the nature of nutrition. Flamingos feed on small crustaceans and microscopic algae, rich in coloring substances - carotenoids. These organisms are not found in fresh water, therefore, in search of food, flamingos are forced to populate extreme places. In some African lakes inhabited by flamingos, the water is so alkaline that it can literally corrode living flesh. Flamingos survive in such reservoirs thanks to the dense skin that covers the legs of birds, but with the slightest damage to it, inflammation occurs, which can end badly for the bird. By the way, flamingos owe these crustaceans their magnificent plumage color: pigments accumulate in feathers and give them a pink or red tint. When kept in a zoo, flamingos eventually lose their pigment and turn white. To keep their attractive appearance, coloring components, such as red pepper, are added to the bird feed. Such "artificial" birds can be recognized by the red-orange hue of feathers.

All flamingos are flocking birds living in large flocks of several thousand individuals. In search of food, flamingos gather in a dense flock and walk together in shallow water, churning the water with their paws. At the same time, they lower their beak into the water and filter edible living creatures through it.

Lesser flamingos (Phoeniconaias minor) feed on African Lake Nakuru.

Flamingos sleep right in shallow water, standing in the water. Flamingos fly well, but takeoff (like many goose birds) is associated with some difficulties.

First, flamingos accelerate by running, then with a flap of their wings they rise into the air, continuing to sort through their paws for some time by inertia. Flamingos fly with outstretched neck and legs.

Chilean flamingos (Phoenicopterus chilensis) in flight.

The nature of these birds is peaceful, they rarely fight with each other. During the mating season, flamingos arrange a collective "wedding" dance. They huddle together in a large group and mince through the shallow water with small steps, accompanying the procession with a deep chuckle.

The mating dance of the rarest of all species, the James flamingo (Phoenicoparrus jamesi).

Flamingos also nest together at a distance of 0.5 -1 m from each other, choosing hard-to-reach places for this - islands, marshy shores and shallows. Flamingo nests look very unusual - these are cone-shaped turrets up to 70 cm high, molded from silt and mud.

Flamingos in the nest.

At the top of such a cabinet is a tray with eggs. Such bird nests are built to protect the masonry from the caustic water of salt lakes. Flamingos are not very prolific and they have only 1-3 eggs in one clutch. Both parents take turns incubating them for a month. Flamingo chicks look even more amazing. In the first days of life, they look like adopted children because they do not look like their parents at all. The chicks are covered with white fluff, their legs are short, and their beak is completely straight! How can one not remember about the relationship with geese! Chicks are born quite developed, but the first days sit in the nest. Parents feed them with a kind of "bird's milk" - a special burp from the goiter of a pale pink color.

Flamingo feeding a chick.

After two weeks, the beaks of the chicks begin to bend and they gradually switch to self-feeding, but for a long time they are under the supervision of adults. At the same time, the chicks gather in a herd, and several adult birds guard them, after a while the “watchmen on duty” change. For a long time, young animals have to walk like “ugly ducklings” with dirty gray plumage, because flamingos reach sexual maturity only by 3-5 years.

Young flamingo.

The life of a flamingo is full of dangers. Due to the peculiarities of their physiology, these birds often get injured, wounded flamingos in nature are almost doomed. Flamingos are hunted by almost all local predators - from hyenas and baboons to kites and foxes. Only a man, by some miracle, bypassed this bird with his gastronomic gaze. But people have always been attracted by the appearance of these birds, because of their beauty, all zoos tried to start them, but flamingos never became ordinary inhabitants of poultry houses. These near-water birds need to be kept in special conditions, and breeding is possible only when kept in large groups.

A short story about the flamingo bird, which in the regions of Russia can only be found in zoos. The bewitching beauty and extraordinary grace are sung even in the song "Pink Flamingo", which everyone heard. Let's talk in more detail about these birds, what are they?

Flamingos have long legs - stilts with swimming membranes on their fingers and an extremely long neck. Despite their size, they feed on small crustaceans and plants that are found in the water of shallow lakes.

Flamingos are all about a beautiful bird:

They lower their long neck to the surface of the water. The beak has many thin filter plates in which food gets stuck when the bird squeezes water through the beak with a fleshy tongue.

The availability of food determines when and where flamingos nest. Therefore, no one knows in advance whether known nesting sites will be occupied at a certain time. When the cubs are 5 days old, they leave the hilly nest of mud and join the "kindergarten". These groups can contain hundreds of chicks and are meant to protect them from enemies. Adult birds feed their young, and above all their own, which they recognize by their voice and behavior.

In addition to the common flamingo, which has several breeding sites in southern Europe, the pygmy flamingo lives in Africa. The other three species are common in America: the Chilean flamingo, the yellow-footed or Andean flamingo, and the short-billed flamingo. All 5 species of flamingos together form their own squad of flamingos.

What size is a flamingo bird?

Length 1.40 m, weight 2-4 kg. Males are heavier than females.

Signs: Reddish plumage, wings black-red above, below with a black-and-white pattern. Red downturned beak.

What does a flamingo eat?

Filters small living creatures from water.

Reproduction:

Nests in colonies, builds hilly nests from mud, with a depression on top. One pale blue egg, incubated for 4 weeks, broods at any time of the year depending on water conditions and food availability.

Where does the flamingo bird live?

Shallow lakes and lagoons on the sea. Nesting sites in Europe are only in the south of France and Spain, as well as in Africa, South Asia and Central America.

Watch the video of the flamingo bird:

Flamingo is all about a beautiful bird Flamingo is all about a beautiful bird