SKY SCANNER
Flamingos are iconic and colourful, but their single-legged stance remains a mystery
Why bird watchers are tickled pink by the sight and character of the flamingo.
As a wildlife lover I tend to wander towards zoos and bird parks whenever time permits. Whether it’s on a travel or where I am currently based, zoos have always been a favourite hangout of mine. One of the birds which I personally find extremely graceful and glamourous is the flamingo. I think almost everyone would have seen a flamingo at point of time during their lives. Flamingos tend to be gregarious, social and noisy and can make for perfect portraits, models with slender legs that they are! Some of the most striking features of the flamingo are its slender “s” shaped neck, its pink plumage, its black tipped bill with a downward bend, its long feathers and its body shape. Almost everything about this bird is beauty personified.
Flamingos can be found on warm watery regions like lakes and flat bed marshes. They feed on the shrimps, snails and the blue green algae found at the bottom of the water bodies. These blue green algae which is rich in beta carotene gives the flamingo its pink colour. Well-fed and cared for flamingoes display a bright red plumage which is attractive to potential mates, while the malnourished and not well fed flamingoes display light pink to white plumage. Flamingos filter-feed on brine shrimp and bluegreen algae. Their bills are specially adapted to separate mud and silt from the food they eat, and are uniquely used upside-down.
The flock can be as big as a thousand members to smaller ones with around fifty. The large numbers help in shielding from predators, maximising food intake and using nesting sites efficiently. Strength in numbers is the motto here!
When it comes to breeding, the flocks split up into smaller colonies and groups and spread out.
Both males and females in these groups perform synchronised rituals. The members of a group stand together and display to each other by stretching their necks upwards, then uttering calls while head-flagging, and then flapping their wings. The displays do not seem to be directed towards an individual but instead occur randomly. These displays stimulate “synchronous nesting” and help pair up those birds who do not already have mates. The females choose the nesting spot. Mating usually happens during the nest-building phase. Most flamingos form strong bonds and sometimes mate for life. There have been some observations about some flamingos changing partners. While there have also been some same sex partners. Since nesting places are scarce, there may be some couples which do try to snatch some other couple’s nesting site. In such situations, fights do break out, with the victors retaining the nesting site and losers giving up the same.
A f t e r the hatch, the only parental expense is feeding. Both the male and the female feed their chicks with a kind of crop milk, produced in glands lining the whole of the upper digestive tract. For the first six days after the chicks hatch, the adults and chicks stay in the nesting sites. At around seven to 12 days old, the chicks begin to move out of their nests and explore their surroundings. When they are two weeks old, the chicks congregate in groups, called “microcreches”, and their parents leave them alone. After a while, the microcreches merge into large creches containing thousands of chicks. Chicks that do not stay in their creches are vulnerable to predators.
Young flamingos hatch with greyish-red plumage, but adults range from light pink to bright red due to aqueous bacteria and beta carotene obtained from their food supply.
Flamingos are usually seen standing on only one leg. A few theories for that could be that standing on one foot saves energy or heat. However no conclusive reasoning has yet been reached.
Flamingos make for able flyers as well. In captivity they often require wing clipping to prevent escape. Flamingos are reported to live up to 40 years in the wild and 60 years in captivity. If one has a flamingo for a pet from childhood, it’s quite likely to live with you for about 80% of your lifespan.