Flamingo is a bird of the morning pink dawn. flamingo territory

"Even in his most beautiful dreams, man cannot imagine anything more beautiful than nature."

(Alphonse de Lamartine)

"Beauty has the power and gift to bring peace to the heart."

(Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra)

“There was something dramatic in the night: the moon either floated out from behind the torn clouds, then again disappeared behind them, the shadows from the clouds fell on the white slopes, and the slopes came to life - it seemed that giant flamingos were flying above the earth with powerful wings.”

(Erich Maria Remarque)

Flamingos, which were the sacred birds of the ancient Egyptians, are one of the most amazing and peculiar birds in the world.

A distinctive feature of flamingos is their very long strong legs and flexible neck, necessary for them to move and feed in shallow waters. On a small head is a huge beak curved down, filtering food from the water. Despite the fact that their body at first glance seems disproportionate, flamingos have become a symbol of grace and sophisticated beauty, largely due to their amazing color, which ranges from white and pink to bright red and crimson hues.

Although these birds most of all resemble cranes, herons and storks in their appearance, they are not related to any of the listed bird species, and their closest relatives are geese.

Flamingos come from a very ancient family of birds and their ancestors, according to the Smithsonian National Zoo, lived on our planet as early as 30 million years ago. They are native to North and South America, Africa, and Asia, but fossils show that they used to be found in much wider areas, including North America, Europe, and Australia.

There are six modern species of birds in the flamingo genus.

The largest are pink or common flamingos living in Africa (the lakes of Kenya, Tunisia, Morocco, Northern Mauritania and the Cape Verde Islands), in Europe (in the south of France, Spain and Sardinia) and Southwest Asia. Their height can reach 1.3 - 1.5 meters, and weight 3.5 - 4.0 kilograms.

The smallest small flamingos, reach only 0.8 - 0.9 meters and weigh no more than 1.5 - 2.0 kilograms. They are found in Africa and the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent.

caribbean flamingos, which fascinate with their bright pink, almost red feathers, can be found in the Caribbean, northern South America, the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula and the Galapagos Islands.

Andean flamingos and James flamingos settle in South America (Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina), and red and chilean flamingos in Central America and Florida.

Flamingos settle in large colonies along the shores of shallow water bodies or lagoons. Colonies of these beautiful birds sometimes number hundreds of thousands of individuals. Flamingos are mostly sedentary, and only northern populations of pink flamingos are migratory. There are cases when, during flights, pink flamingos even flew into the territory of Estonia.

In autumn, during the period of migration, flamingos take off into the air very heavily and reluctantly, gathering in huge flocks and heading to the warm regions of Africa and South Asia. To take off, flamingos scatter for a long time, and even after taking off from the ground, they continue to run through the air for some time. Then in flight they extend their long necks and legs in a straight line.

Flamingos prefer to settle on the banks of reservoirs with a high concentration of salt, in which there are many crustaceans, but there are no fish at all. These unique birds manage to adapt to extreme natural conditions in which only a few other species of animals and birds survive.

It is interesting that these birds also manage to endure low and high temperatures well and often settle on the shores of mountain lakes, for example, in the Andes.

Since flamingos live in an aggressively salty or alkaline environment, their legs are covered with strong skin. However, due to the presence of a large amount of bird droppings, a huge number of pathogenic microorganisms develop in the water surrounding them, and even minor scratches on their skin can lead to serious inflammation.

Flamingos spend most of their time in the water, where they sleep, rest or feed. Long strong legs help them to walk along the bottom in search of food at a relatively great depth, which gives flamingos an advantage over other birds.

Flamingos rest standing on one leg and maintaining perfect balance without any muscular effort, thanks to the unique adaptation of their paws. In addition, they alternately warm their long, bare legs in warm fluffy plumage to reduce heat loss in windy weather and when standing in cold water.

Flamingos lubricate their beautiful plumage with a special fat from the coccygeal gland, as a result of which it becomes waterproof and repels water when flamingos swim, skilfully moving in the water with their webbed paws.

Flamingos feed mainly on small red crustaceans, which contain a carotenoid that gives pink and red color to their plumage. Flamingo color intensity depends on the amount of carotenoid pigment eaten (which gives oranges their bright orange color), which turns into red pigments during digestion.

They also eat shellfish and blue-green algae, worms and insect larvae.

In order for flamingos kept in captivity not to lose the brightness of their plumage and not gradually become white, they are fed in zoos not only with seafood, but with carrots and red sweet peppers.

The beak of a flamingo, large and as if broken in the middle, is similar to a goose, but unlike all other birds, in a flamingo, the movable part of the beak is the upper, not the lower. While searching for food, the flamingo lowers its head under water and twists it in such a way that the upper mandible is at the bottom. In addition, studies have shown that flamingos have a special float that supports the bird's head (upside down) on the surface of the water while feeding.

The bird steps from one foot to the other and drives water with possible food through its beak. Water is filtered through special filter plates-lamellas (similar to a whalebone) and squeezed out with a rough, fleshy tongue, and all edible living creatures remain in the beak and are swallowed. This whole process is very fast, and the flamingo's tongue works like a piston in an internal combustion cylinder.

At one time, not a very large amount of food remains in the beak, but in a day (and flamingos feed at any time of the day and under any weather conditions), a bird can eat an amount of food that reaches a quarter of its weight. According to the observations of ornithologists, the multi-million colonies of flamingos in India choose about 145 tons of food from the silt per day, which amounts to about 21,750 tons of small animals in five months.

In case of shortage of food in the places of their permanent residence, flamingos can fly for it up to 30-50 kilometers to other water bodies.

Periodically, flamingos fly to freshwater springs and bodies of water to get drunk and wash off the salt, but they are also able to drink brackish water (in permanent habitats) or collect rainwater from their plumage during heavy tropical rainstorms.

Being social birds, flamingos stay in groups of different sizes all the time. They always gather in flocks, flying from place to place, and prefer to stay in a group while on the ground.

The largest flocks of flamingos on the planet form in East Africa, forming colonies of more than a million individuals.

A flamingo colony is usually led by an elderly and experienced male, who emits deaf cries in case of danger, serving as a warning to all birds in the flock.

The beginning of the mating season in flamingos depends on the abundance of food, so it is not known in advance whether known nesting sites will be occupied by the flock.

During the mating season, males perform in front of females with a special ceremonial dance, synchronously repeating certain movements.

The video below shows these famous synchronized flamingo dances that the best dancers would envy.

Flamingos form pairs during the breeding season, but they pick up other partners the following year.

The female and the male together build a conical-shaped nest with a truncated top from silt, mud and shell rock, where they make a cup-shaped depression-tray. Unlike other bird nests, flamingo nests are bare and lack feathers or insulating vegetation. The height of the nest reaches 60-70 centimeters, which protects the masonry during the rise of water.

Sometimes, in the absence of the necessary building material, flamingos lay their eggs directly on the sand. These birds nest very closely, the distance between neighboring nests does not exceed 50-80 cm.

In the colony, many thousands of female flamingos simultaneously lay from one to three olive-green eggs each in one day. Future parents alternately incubate chicks for a month. After hatching, the mother and father feed and protect them together.

Flamingo chicks are born sighted and active, covered with gray down and with a straight pink beak. Their beak bends only after two weeks.

Parents diligently feed hungry babies with "bird's milk", a special red nutrient mixture consisting of semi-digested crustaceans and algae and the blood of the parent, which is secreted from special glands in the lower esophagus and pancreas.

On the 5th-12th day, the chicks already leave the nest and join the huge "kindergarten", numbering hundreds of chicks. However, parents unmistakably recognize their babies in the group and feed only them for 2 months, until they grow a beak and can filter water and get food on their own.

The chicks in the group are guarded by a caretaker-nanny, while the parents fly away to feed several tens of kilometers from the nesting sites. In the evening, with the onset of dusk, the watchman leads the babies to their nests, urging those who are lagging behind.

At the age of two and a half months, young flamingos reach the size of adult birds and become winged. Young birds acquire their bright color after two years.

Flamingos in nature have only a few natural enemies - foxes, wolves, jackals and large raptors - eagles and falcons, settling next to the colonies.

In nature, flamingos live on average 20-30 years, and in captivity they live up to 40 years.

Flamingos were revered in ancient Egypt as sacred birds. In ancient Rome, flamingo tongues were considered a prized delicacy. The Indians of South America destroyed flamingos for their fat, because they believed that it could cure tuberculosis.

Currently, the number of these most beautiful and graceful birds is declining due to the drying up of water bodies associated with climate warming and thoughtless active human activity that destroys their nesting sites. Many birds are dying out due to an increase in the concentration of harmful substances in natural reservoirs. In addition, poaching leads to a reduction in the number of flamingos.

Flamingos are listed in the Red Books of many countries, including the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

I would like to hope that humanity will be able to prevent the disappearance of these uniquely beautiful birds, as seven valuable species of flamingos have already disappeared from the face of the Earth.

Note. This article uses photographs from open sources on the Internet, all rights belong to their authors, if you think that the publication of any photo violates your rights, please contact me using the form in the section, the photo will be deleted immediately.

Flamingo - the scarlet sunset bird, a symbol of grace and beauty

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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 sought to have 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.

(Phoenicopterus roseus). Detachment and family Flamingos. Habitats - Asia, Africa, Europe. Wingspan 2.4 m. Weight 5.6 kg

Pink flamingos are otherwise called ordinary, although these birds are completely unique. They are found not only in Africa, but also in Iran, Azerbaijan. They can be seen in southern Spain and France. When eating, flamingos filter out blue-green algae - up to 100 g per day. In fact, these are bacteria capable of photosynthesis. Artemia crustaceans that develop in the water of brackish lakes are also excellent food. Viscous shores are not a problem for birds. You can walk on stilts and through the swamp. Parents feed the hatched chick with a nutrient mixture. It contains proteins, vitamins and blood cells. How they get from the parents' circulatory system into this "baby formula" is a mystery.

Flamingos live in huge colonies. They lead mainly a sedentary lifestyle, only the northern populations of pink flamingos are migratory. They settle mainly along the shores of sea lagoons, large lakes with brackish water and in shallow water, where they can find food - a variety of small crustaceans, worms, mollusks and algae. The pink or red color of flamingo plumage is given by lipochrome dyes, which enter the body of the bird along with food. Interestingly, in zoos, these birds lose their unique plumage coloration after a couple of years, since the food they are fed does not contain those substances that flamingos can find in the wild. Flamingos get their food in this way, lowering their heads under water and digging with their beaks in the bottom silt. At the same time, the bird turns its head so that the back of the head touches the bottom, and the upper mandible is at the bottom.

Flamingo nests are high; they look like pedestals, built from improvised material - pebbles, shell rock, soaked stems. Silt is used as a binding material. Clutch contains 1 to 3 (usually 1) large white eggs.

Flamingo (lat. Phoenicopterclassae) is the only family of birds in the order of flamingo-like birds with long, thin legs and a flexible neck, a large beak curved downwards, the horny plates of the tongue and jaws of which help it filter food obtained from water and silt. The hind toe is either poorly developed or absent at all; the front toes form a swimming membrane.

The plumage of birds is soft and loose, absent on the head in the region of the eyes, bridle and chin. The tail is short. Includes six species: Andean flamingo, red flamingo, lesser flamingo, common flamingo, Chilean flamingo and James flamingo.

The body length of an adult bird ranges from 105 (Chilean flamingo) - 110 (red flamingo) to 130 centimeters (pink flamingo), weight - 3.5 - 4.5 kilograms. Distributed in southwestern Europe, Africa, southwestern Asia, central and southern North America. Flocking birds nest in colonies (sometimes tens of thousands of individuals) on shallow sea coasts and salt lakes.

All flamingos are pink. Perhaps only in songs .... In fact, the color of flamingo plumage varies from white to red and even crimson. Somewhere in the middle, of course, is the pink hue inherent in the largest flamingo species - the pink flamingo. Flamingo wingtips are black. Males and females are colored the same. The degree of brightness of the plumage depends on the carotenoid - a substance that enters the bird's body with food. Birds living in captivity, as well as young individuals, receiving an insufficient amount of carotenoids, have white feathers. To preserve their color, flamingos in captivity are fed not only seafood, but also carrots.

Flamingos live in the south. Southeast (South Afghanistan) and Central Asia (Northwest India), Africa (lakes of Kenya, South Tunisia, Morocco, North Mauritania, Cape Verde Islands), South (Andean flamingos) and Central America (red and Chilean flamingos). Colonies of pink flamingos are found in Sardinia and the south of France (Camargue reserve, at the mouth of the Rhone River) and Spain (Las Marismas).

Flamingos live in colonies. And quite large: in one colony, sometimes you can count up to a million birds. Flamingos settle on the shores of small reservoirs, shallow waters, lagoons, while they do not disdain those that no other living creature will live next to: for example, near very salty or alkaline lakes. It is also interesting that flamingos live not only on the plains, but also high in the mountains - for example, in the Andes.

Before taking off, flamingos run through the water. This is true, usually the length of the run is 5-6 meters and falls on shallow water. In the sky, the flamingo flies in the shape of a cross, stretching its neck and legs.

Flamingos stand on one leg, because at this time they warm the other. The flamingo's legs are long, there are no feathers on them, respectively, and the heat from such a surface, especially in windy weather, leaves very quickly. It is to preserve heat that the flamingo stands on one leg, especially since such a position, due to the physiological specifics of the flamingo's paw, does not present any difficulties for the bird.

Flamingos eat fish. In fact, they feed on other aquatic foods: algae, seeds of aquatic plants, insect larvae and small crustaceans (planktonic crustaceans), which supply the flamingo's body with carotenoid. In case of a shortage of food in their places of residence, flamingos can fly for it within 30-50 kilometers to other lakes. The process of eating a flamingo looks quite interesting: the bird plunges its head upside down with its beak into the water, steps from one foot to the other, and thus drives the water with possible food past its beak, which filters the edible from the inedible. Flamingos feed at any time of the day and regardless of weather conditions.

Flamingos build their nests out of mud. This is what male flamingos do. The nests are in the form of a conical column with a truncated top and a cup-shaped depression on top. Unlike the nests of other birds, flamingo nests are bare - they do not have grass or any other insulating vegetation. Nest size - from 10 to 60 cm, diameter at the base - 40-50 cm. The nest usually contains from 1 to 3 olive-green eggs. Flamingo nests are located next to each other, usually at a distance of 50 to 80 cm. Future parents sit on the nest with their legs tucked in, and get out of it, resting their beak on the ground and only then straightening their legs.

Flamingos feed the chicks with a special liquid. A kind of bird's "milk", consisting of special secretions from the glands of the lower part of the esophagus and pancreas, semi-digested crustaceans and algae. The nutritional value of this liquid is quite comparable to the nutritional value of mammalian milk. Small flamingos feed on bird "milk" for the first two months of their lives and intensively grow their beak for self-feeding.

Common poaching has led to the worldwide decline of flamingos. And the ruin of the nests of pink-feathered beauties. One of the types of flamingos - the James flamingo, inhabiting the Bolivian and north Argentine Andes, was generally considered extinct at the beginning of the last century, it was found only in 1957. At the moment, flamingos are listed in the Red Books of many countries, including the Red Book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

According to the latest research by scientists, pink flamingos are one of the most ancient birds on Earth. Nowadays, the population of these birds has significantly decreased and become unstable, which has led to the registration of birds in the International Red Book.

Geography of residence

The largest populations of pink flamingos live in Africa and India. Also, these birds can be found in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Russia, Spain, Southern France, Iran. For their residence, pink flamingos choose small bays of sea coasts, or small salt lakes.

Pink flamingos looking for food.

Pink flamingos in flight.

Appearance

Pink flamingos cannot be confused with other birds due to their unique body structure and unique plumage. The height of birds can reach 145 cm, with an average weight of only 2.2 - 4.2 kg, males are slightly larger than females.

Pink flamingo: photo of a bird in flight.

Crooked beak of a pink flamingo.

Pink flamingo: photo of the beak from the lower angle.

Leggy female pink flamingo.

Pink flamingo: close-up photo of the head and beak.

Pink flamingo: beautiful photo.

Pink flamingos coo.

The photo shows another distinctive feature of pink flamingos - a small head with a massive beak, steeply curved down. This structure of the beak is due to the nutrition of the bird - the need to filter the water in search of small food. The neck of birds is very thin and arched in the shape of the letter S.

The plumage of pink flamingos has a loose structure, which is why it gets wet quickly, so birds usually live only in shallow water. The color of their feathers is truly unique - pale pink with black wingtips. This color of flamingo feathers is due to the presence in the tissues of coloring pigments of carotenoids, which birds receive by eating crustaceans. If the bird gets into captivity, then after two weeks this color disappears. Birds "get" their pink plumage in the third year of life, young birds have gray-brown feathers.

Diet and behavior

The basis of the diet of pink flamingos are small crustaceans and their eggs. Birds can also feed on insect larvae, worms, mollusks and algae. Usually flamingos look for food on the same reservoir where they nest, however, if there is not enough food, they make daily long-distance flights to other reservoirs.

Pink flamingos themselves can become the prey of other raptors - falcons, kites and eagles, which settle near flamingo colonies. Also, these birds can suffer from foxes, wolves and jackals.

Pink flamingos and seagulls in shallow water.

Pink flamingos before the flight.

Pink flamingos are flying over the water.

The pink flamingo is dancing on the water.

A group of male pink flamingos.

Pink flamingo takes off, rear view.

The pink flamingo accelerates before takeoff.

A flock of pink flamingos on the lake.

Pink flamingos in dirty water looking for food.

The head of a pink flamingo.

reproduction

Pink flamingos become sexually mature at 4-5 years of age. They always nest in large colonies, sometimes up to 200,000 pairs. If you take a photo of the mating dances of pink flamingos, it immediately catches your eye that all movements are performed by the flock absolutely synchronously.

Both the future father and mother take part in the construction of the nest. Shell rock and mud are used as building material for nests; the structure is obtained in the form of a truncated cone, up to 50 cm high.

Pairs of pink flamingos are formed both for one season and for several years. In the laying of flamingos, usually one or two white eggs, both partners incubate the offspring, and after 27 - 33 days, chicks are born. By the time the chicks should hatch from the eggs, both parents have a threefold increase in goiter, from which “goiter milk” begins to stand out - a mixture of semi-digested food and secretions from the goiter itself, it is with this mass that the chicks are fed from beak to beak. Nutritionally, this food is similar to the milk of mammals. Chicks are born covered with former down, the growth of feathers begins from the second month, and the chicks become winged on the 65-75th day.

Pink flamingos choose a couple.