The lesser flamingo is the smallest, reaching 3-feet tall and typically 3 to 6 pounds. The greater flamingo is the largest flamingo species and can measure up to 5-feet tall when standing erect with its head raised.It can take up to three years to achieve mature pink, orange, or red plumage. Flamingo chicks are born gray or white with fluffier plumage to keep them warm.A wild flamingo's diet includes shrimp, plankton, algae, and crustaceans. Carotene is the same pigment that makes tomatoes red and carrots orange. Pink, orange, or red feathers are caused by carotene in their food.The word "flamingo" comes from the Spanish and Latin word "flamenco," meaning fire, referring to those birds that get fiery-colored feathers (not all do).The Spruce Home Improvement Review Board.Captive flamingos also require water so that they can eat by pumping water through their bills, as they do in the wild. Zoos like the San Diego Zoo and Animal Park use special flamingo pellets enriched with pigment. Captivity and feedingįlamingos in captivity require a special diet to ensure they preserve their striking colors. An absence of carotenoids in its food will result in new feather growth that is very pale the existing pigment is lost through molting. The amount of pigment laid down in the feathers depends on the quantity of pigment in the flamingo’s diet. The same effect is seen when shrimp change color during cooking. After being digested, the carotenoid pigments dissolve in fats and are deposited in the growing feathers, becoming orange or pink. The flamingos’ feathers, legs, and face are colored by their diet, which is rich in alpha and beta carotenoid pigments.Ĭarotenoids in crustaceans such as those in the flamingo diet are frequently linked to protein molecules, and may be blue or green. Why are they pink?įlamingo feathers obtain their wonderful rosy pink color from pigments in the organisms they eat. Caribbean, Chilean, and Greater flamingos eat larger organisms, such as insects, invertebrates, and small fish, using their feet to stir up shrimp and larvae from the waterbed. They have larger bills and stiff lamellae to filter fine particles from the water.
Lesser, James, and Andean flamingos eat algae, cyanobacteria, and hard-shelled, single-celled plants. They use their tongues to suck water in at the front of the bill and pump it out through the sides. Their unusually shaped bill, held upside down, contains lamellae, plates that act like tiny filters to trap shrimp and other water creatures. Their long legs allow them to wade into deep water to forage. The Caribbean flamingos ( Phoenicopterus ruber rubber) are the brightest, showing their colors of red, pink, or orange on their legs, bills, and faces.įlamingos are filter feeders, living off algae and tiny animals such as shrimp, mollusks, and insect larvae that live in the mud at the bottom of shallow pools. Flamingo feather coloration ranges from pale pink to crimson according to species. There are six different species of flamingo, found in locations ranging from the Caribbean and South America to Africa, India, and the Mediterranean.įlamingos at a Caribbean coastal lagoon. When flamingos migrate, they do so mainly at night. Populations that breed in high-altitude lakes, which may freeze over in the winter, move to warmer areas, returning to their native colony to breed. They live in tropical and sub-tropical latitudes, either far inland or in large lakes or lagoons, such as tidal flats or mangrove swamps close to the sea.įlamingos are generally non-migratory birds, but a colony may relocate under the pressures of climate or water level changes. Flamingos are social birds, and tens of thousands can live together in a single colony.įlamingos are one of the oldest species of birds, with fossil remains dating back 30 to 50 million years. With their bright feathers and strongly hooked bills, flamingos are among the most easily recognized water birds.
Flamingos are flamboyantly colored birds, displaying startling shades of pink, red, or orange.
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