Pink flamingos set to go green

FLAMINGOS in Tyne and Wear are to become residents in Europe’s first solar-powered flamingo house.

The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust secured funding for the house at their centre in Washington thanks to the M&S Energy Fund. The charity will spend the £12,000 grant to install solar photovoltaic panels and heat lamps to provide sustainable conditions for breeding and rearing ‘flaminglings’, as the fluffy chicks are known.

UV lighting will be installed to keep the flamingos and their chicks’ bones strong and healthy. The technology will also help create optimum breeding conditions for the centre’s 65-strong flock of pink Chilean flamingos, which have struggled to produce enough eggs.

A large part of this has stemmed from weather conditions not being warm enough for the birds to feel confident they should breed. Samantha Herbert