This article presents which in the Russian regions can be found almost exclusively in zoos. Surprisingly bewitching with its magnificent grace and unusual coloring of feathers, it is sung in songs. Where does flamingo live? What are the conditions of their captivity, features and habits, what do they eat?
The red flamingo has plumage ranging from pink to purple or bright red.
Flamingo small
Of all modern species, the small one has the smallest dimensions. Its body length is only 80 cm (others are more than 100 cm). In this species, the beak has a keel that descends into the depth of the beak. Its main food is algae.
The small flamingo, when searching for food, does not lower its beak to the bottom, but simply leads it along the surface of the water from side to side. Breeds on salt lakes in Tanzania, Kenya, and off the coast of the Persian Gulf (Lake Sambhor in India).
Andean flamingo
Its habitat is salt lakes located in the Andes at an altitude of 2500 meters (north and center of Chile, southern Peru, northwest Argentina and western Bolivia). They prefer lakes, and often waters with a high content of gypsum, caustic soda and hydrogen sulfide.
Adult flamingos are painted white-pink or Beautiful pink-red colors are due to the pigment that enters the body of birds with crustaceans (food). The flight wings of this bird are black, the legs are yellow.
Flamingo James
Birds live in the Andes of Bolivia and in Northern Argentina. Food - diatoms. There are colonies of this species, living in the harsh conditions of the mountains.
This species, which is also called short-beaked, is very rare.
Chilean flamingo
This is a relatively short-legged flamingo found in South America. On mountain lakes (Andes) it can live together with a species of short-billed flamingos.
The color of the Chilean flamingo is light: scarlet or white-pink. Red hues are developed on the coverts, which is why flamingos got the Latin name meaning "fire-winged". The legs are greenish, but the knees and paws are red.
Conclusion
Where do flamingos live in North America?
These birds belong to one of the oldest bird families. Their remains, closest to modern forms, date back 30 million years ago, and fossils of more primitive species - more than 50 million years.
They were found in places where flamingos do not live today: some parts of Europe, North America and Australia. This suggests that in the past these amazing birds had a more extensive habitat.
About graceful flamingos, you can safely say "fall from one extreme to another." So, these unusual and beautiful creatures live either in hot volcanic lakes or in icy water.
We present interesting facts about flamingos.
Do you know why the colors of flamingos are so bright and saturated, ranging from pale lilac to hot pink?
It turns out that such a "spray" on the bird is formed due to carotene, which enters the body when they absorb algae, crustaceans and other inhabitants of the aquatic world.
Not only do flamingos eat sand and mud from the water, they also do not breathe while eating.
Flamingos can float well, but not very deep. However, it is almost impossible to catch them doing this - they prefer to walk, swaying smoothly from side to side, rather than bathe their feathers in the water.
Flamingo is a flocking bird. They never live alone, preferring large packs of their fellows. And, by the way, it's much easier and safer. After all, they are not alone in the natural world, and someone will definitely want to eat their meat.
Here are some more interesting facts about flamingos. For example, in the family way of life of flamingos, equality reigns. Here, both dad and mom are involved in the process of bearing, and then raising babies. No matter how strange it may sound, however, male flamingos incubate the eggs laid by the female along with their girlfriend.
Another unique thing is the milk secretion of the two sexes of flamingos. Quite a strange and unusual phenomenon.
Both the male and the female secrete milky substances, which cause sufficient and constant feeding of the chicks.
Some parts of flamingos are an exquisite culinary delicacy. Apart from the meat of this bird, tongue and eggs are expensive dishes in all countries of the world.
Everyone knows that flamingos stay on the surface on one leg. But why this happens is still a mystery behind seven locks. So far, all scientists agree in one opinion - the birds feel much more comfortable and stable this way.
Lat. Phoenicopterus roseus, one of the subspecies of the common flamingo. The plumage of adults is light pink. The pink flamingo is the most common type of flamingo. This bird is included in the category of rare species and is listed in the Red Books of Russia and Kazakhstan.
Structure
A distinctive feature of this species of flamingo is its plumage: it can be from white to dark pink. The wings are usually purplish red, the flight feathers are black. Up to three years, flamingos have a gray tint. The beak is pink and black at the base. The edges of the mandible and mandible are framed with horny plates and denticles. They form a filter apparatus. The size of an adult bird reaches 130 cm. The average weight is 2100-4100 g. The flamingo is the owner of the longest neck and the longest legs relative to the body among all representatives of the bird order. There are 4 toes on the legs, of which the three front ones are united by a swimming membrane. In flamingos, the upper part of the beak is movable, but the lower part is not, which distinguishes it from most birds. The life expectancy of flamingos is amazing: about 30 years.
habitation
The distribution is extremely uneven: from southern Europe and Asia to Africa. Every year it breeds on lakes in Kazakhstan. In Russia, flamingos do not nest, but migrate through the mouth of the Volga River, Dagestan, Kalmykia, Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories. Flamingos live in large bays of sea coasts, in large and small salt lakes.
Character, lifestyle and nutrition
Flamingos feed mainly on small crustaceans and their eggs. They can also feed on mollusks, arthropod larvae, and worms. They hunt in shallow water, where prey is clearly visible. Entering the water, flamingos lower their heads to the bottom and dig in the sand with their beaks in search of food. Flamingos are monogamous animals, one pair is formed for several years. To get enough, a flamingo must eat about a quarter of its own weight per day. Due to the carotenoid pigments present in food, the plumage of flamingos remains pink. If these pigments are not enough, the color of the bird turns pale.
reproduction
The nesting period of these birds is colonial. They build nests out of mud. The nest is in the form of a conical column, about 50 cm in diameter and up to 60 cm in height. The female lays one egg in each recess in the cone. During the incubation period, which lasts about a month, flamingos renew their nest, raking up new portions of silt. Therefore, over time, a hole in the ground forms around the nest. In one nest you can find from 1 to 3 eggs. They are incubated by both parents for about a month. In the future, both the male and the female take care of the chicks. The main color of the shell is light green, but since the whole egg is covered with silt, it appears white. The size of the eggs is about 89×54 mm. After hatching, the chicks stay in the nest for about 4 days. Then they descend and live near the nest. At first, the chick is covered with white down. But after a month it becomes grayish. The chicks can see from the very beginning and have a straight beak.
Pictures with flamingos usually contain images of birds with pale pink plumage, but they can be almost white, intense red, crimson. It's just that the pink flamingo is most often found in nature and is the most beautiful. It is a rare case when there is only one group in the order of birds - flamingos.
Pink flamingos: photos and pictures
For a long time they tried to classify them, referring to the storks, but in the end it was decided to single out a separate group.
The antiquity of the species proves that they live on different continents, that is, they appeared at the time of the integrity of the earth's surface.
The oldest flamingo fossils are about 50 million years old.
Specifically, pink flamingos live in Africa and parts of India. It can also be found in Kazakhstan, although the number of birds is constantly decreasing, and the flamingo is listed in the Red Book there. The situation is the same on the territory of Dagestan and in the Volga region - very few flocks of pink flamingos have survived.
Appearance
The pink or common flamingo is the largest among relatives, some males are up to 130 cm tall and weigh more than 4 kg, females are smaller.
A very slender and fragile body, a long graceful neck, thin legs with membranes instead of front fingers, a powerful beak of an original shape - these are the main external characteristics of the bird.
The color of the common flamingo is reflected in its second name: the plumage is soft pink throughout the body, but there are blotches of red and black at the ends of the wings and tail. Special mention should be made of the beak: it is curved and noticeably thickened in the middle, there are special plates for filtering water.
Features of the behavior of pink flamingos
These birds are considered conditionally migratory: in the same country, flamingos from the north can fly away in winter, while their southern relatives live in one place all year. They settle in lagoons, on the shallows of rivers, along the shores of lakes. The structure of the skin on their feet helps them avoid burns, even if the amount of salt or alkali in the pond is unacceptable for other birds.
Choosing a reservoir flamingos almost never go to land: in a shallow place they get food, sleep, build nests. Despite the fact that flamingos are much older than humans, they do not favor people and settle in deserted places.
Long legs not only allow them to constantly stay in the water - flamingos literally take off when threatened and quickly run through shallow water for several meters before taking off.
When flying, the legs do not bend under themselves, but stretch out, like the neck, and a flying flamingo from a distance is very similar to a cross.
Flamingos can often be seen standing with one leg tucked under them. They have no feathers on their legs, few blood vessels, and even in warm water, the legs of a pink flamingo quickly freeze. So he presses his legs in turn, warming them with body heat.
Pink flamingo: photo of a bird standing on one leg 
What do pink flamingos eat?
Living on the water, they primarily eat fish, but this is not their only food. We can say that they eat absolutely everything that can be found edible in shallow water.
Lowering its head into the water, the flamingo, as it were, shifts from foot to foot, thereby increasing the flow of water through its beak, and filters food with special plates on its jaws.
Larvae, plankton, small crustaceans, fry and larger fish, algae - everything is good for food. In a day in this way, a flamingo can drain and eat food weighing one third of its own!
Do not disdain flamingos and seeds, insects, if there are any in the water. These birds drink by immersing the outer part of their beak in water: from the side it seems that they are admiring their reflection. When it rains, they catch drops with their beaks that fall on the body and glide over the feathers.
Nesting, breeding chicks
The nest of pink flamingos is original in that it is completely made of silt. Raking silt into the middle of the chosen place, the male forms a mound, rams it from above and makes a recess for the eggs. Flamingos live in high density flocks, and they build nests close to each other, sometimes the distance between them is only half a meter.
Chicks are born with a straight beak and white fluff. Parents feed the offspring first with semi-digested food, the so-called "bird's" milk, which is close in composition to the milk of mammals.
The chicks remain white for about three more years, and the appearance of a pink hue in the plumage indicates their sexual maturity.
Young flamingos begin to fly at the age of three months, by which time their beak acquires a bend.
Pink flamingos have such plumage color due to carotenoids, contained in algae and plankton. That is why the chicks are first white, and then turn pink - the substance accumulates in the body and forms this color.
Watch the video where pink flamingos are not afraid of people!
Until recently, flamingos were classified as a stork, but scientists have come to the conclusion that flamingos should be placed in a separate order - flamingos.
2. The birds got their name from the Latin word flamenco - “fire”, which indicates their bright color.
3. Nowadays, 6 species of flamingos live on Earth: small, ordinary or pink, Caribbean or red, Chilean, James flamingo and Andean flamingo.
4. Flamingos prefer to live near salty shallow lakes, in coastal lagoons, on shallows and near estuaries.
5. Flamingos belong to one of the oldest bird families. Fossils of flamingos closest to modern forms date back to 30 million years ago, while fossils of more primitive species have been found that are over 50 million years old. The fossils were found in places where flamingos are no longer seen today - parts of Europe, North America and Australia. This indicates that they had a much wider range in the past.
Pink flamingo
6. The pink flamingo is the most common type of flamingo. Common, or pink flamingos live in Africa, southern Europe and southwestern Asia. They are the largest of the flamingos. Pink flamingo reaches 1.2-1.5 meters in height and weighs up to 4 kilograms.
7. It is also the only species of flamingo that lives on the territory of the former Soviet Union in Kazakhstan (Lake Tengiz, Lake Chelkartengiz and Lake Ashchitastysor).
8. In Europe, flamingos nest in the Camargue Nature Reserve, at the mouth of the Rhone River (Southern France), as well as in Las Marismas in Southern Spain. In Africa, the bird nests on the lakes of Morocco, Southern Tunisia, Northern Mauritania, Kenya, the Cape Verde Islands, and the south of the continent. It also lives on the lakes of Southern Afghanistan (at an altitude of up to 3000 m) and North-Western India (Kach), nested in Sri Lanka not so long ago.
9. In Russia, flamingos do not nest, but are regularly observed on migrations - at the mouth of the Volga River, in Dagestan, Kalmykia, Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories. It also flies to the south of Siberia in the Altai Territory, Tyumen, Omsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk regions, Buryatia, Irkutsk region, Yakutia, Primorye, Urals. Flamingos flying through Russia winter in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iran.
10. It is estimated that an ordinary flamingo eats up to a quarter of its own weight in food per day. A colony of half a million pink flamingos in India consumes approximately 145 tons of food per day.
lesser flamingo
11. The lesser flamingo lives in Africa and the northern parts of India and is the smallest of the flamingos. The small flamingo is only a little over 0.8 meters long and weighs an average of 2.5 kilograms.
12. Pink flamingos have the palest feather colors, while Caribbean flamingos are famous for their bright pink, almost red feathers.
13. Pink or red coloring of flamingo plumage is given by lipochrome dyes, which birds receive with food.
14. Flamingos are social birds that live in groups of various sizes. They gather in flocks when they fly from place to place, and also prefer to stay in groups when they are on the ground.
15. When eating, flamingos lower their heads under water, draw in water with their beaks, sifting through the nutritious foods they eat, and the water comes out through the beak. Tiny, hair-like filters help weed out food and release water. One study showed that a special float that supports the bird's head allows it to feed by turning its head upside down and keeping it on the surface of the water.
Caribbean (red) flamingo
16. Caribbean flamingos can be found in the Caribbean, northern South America, the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula and the Galapagos Islands.
17. The long legs of flamingos help them to walk along the bottom even at relatively great depths in search of food, which gives them some advantages over other birds.
18. The ancient Romans highly valued flamingo tongue as a delicacy. Also, flamingos eat meat and eggs in different parts of the world.
19. Flamingos can also be found on high mountain lakes. In addition, they are able to tolerate very large temperature fluctuations.
20. In the family way of life of flamingos, equality reigns. Here, both the male and the female are involved in the process of bearing, and then raising the chicks. Male flamingos incubate the eggs laid by the female along with their girlfriend.
Chilean flamingo
21. Chilean flamingos are found in the southwest of South America.
22. Flamingos have a massive, downward-curving beak, which has a movable lower part, which distinguishes it from other birds.
23. Males tend to be larger than females and have much longer legs.
24. The average age of flamingos is about 30 years old. In reserves and zoos, these birds live longer than in the wild.
25. Flamingos have loud and shrill cries.
Flamingo James
26. Flamingos James live only in South America: in Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina.
27. These birds can fly, but in order to get off the ground, they need a short run. During the flight, they stretch their long necks and legs in one straight line.
28. In danger, flamingos take off, and it is difficult for a predator to choose a certain prey from them, especially since the primary feathers on the wings are always black, and when flying they make it difficult to focus on the prey.
29. Flamingos can float well, though not very deep. However, it is almost impossible to catch them doing this - they prefer to walk, swaying smoothly from side to side, rather than bathe their feathers in the water.
30. One can safely say about graceful flamingos that they go from one extreme to another. So, these unusual and beautiful birds live either in hot volcanic lakes or in icy water.
Andean flamingo
31. The Andean flamingo lives in Argentina, Chile, Peru and Bolivia.
32. Of all the flamingo species, only the Andean flamingo has yellow legs.
33. The Andean flamingo population is in decline due to loss of habitat and environmental quality.
34. Not only do flamingos eat sand and mud from the water, they also do not breathe during the meal.
35. Flamingos lay one egg at a time. Both females and males incubate it in turn. The chick that appears after 30 days is called a chick. At first, it has a gray or white color, which does not change until two years.
flamingo chick
36. In appearance, the flamingo chick is not much different from the cubs of other birds. Even his beak is the most ordinary, not curved.
37. Flamingo chicks are capricious in food. Meat, fish or insects are not suitable for them - all that other birds feed their offspring with. Yes, and they cannot extract plankton, because their beaks are straight from birth. A proud bend is planned only at the age of two weeks, but before that, and after - for two whole months - the parents feed the babies. Like pigeons, they produce a liquid secret - "bird's milk", only red. It is secreted by special glands lining the esophagus. It has a lot of fat, protein, mixed with blood and some plankton.
38. Milk is given not only by females, but also by males, but the most interesting thing is that its production is controlled by the same hormone as in all mammals, including humans.
39. There is only one chick in each flamingo family, but the birds take care of all the children living in the colony. In this they are similar to penguins: flamingos also have "kindergartens", where chicks, under the supervision of on-duty educators, spend all the time while their parents get food. In such a group there can be up to 200 chicks, but any parent quickly finds his child by voice.
40. A flock of flamingos can fly at speeds of up to 35 miles (about 56 km) per hour.
41. Flamingos create pairs during the mating season, but find other partners the next season.
42. A female and a male build a nest together. The nest is usually built from mud and has a height of about 0.3 meters. The height allows you to protect it from floods and a very heated surface of the earth.
43. The female lays only one egg per season, which is guarded by both parents. After the chick has hatched, both parents are also responsible for it and feed it.
44. Hatched chicks have gray feathers, a pink beak and legs. They do not acquire the characteristic pink feather coloration until 2 years of age.
45. 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 have shorter legs. The head of a flamingo is small, the beak is massive and in the middle part it is steeply (knee-shaped) bent down.
46. In East Africa, flamingos group in giant flocks - more than a million individuals, forming the largest flocks of birds on the planet.
47. Flamingos can cope even with extreme natural conditions, in which only a few other animal species survive. For example, they are found near very salty or alkaline lakes. This is due to the presence of a large population of crustaceans (such as brine shrimp) in highly saline water bodies, where fish do not live due to high salinity. Crustaceans are the main food of flamingos.
48. Flamingos have a habit of sleeping on one leg. They use this technique to save energy and keep warm.
49. The legs of flamingos are not covered with feathers, so they 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.
50. Flamingos are omnivores: they eat both plants and meat. The mollusks and algae they harvest from water contain carotenes, a coloring matter that makes their feathers pink or orange.
