Overview
American Flamingo: Tall, unique wading bird, entirely pink except for black-tipped bill that is bent at a curious angle. Feeds on algal material, bacteria diatoms, plankton, small fish and brine fly larvae. Direct flight with rapid wing beats. Flies in straight line formation. Formerly known as Greater Flamingo.
Range and Habitat
American Flamingo: Distribution centered around the Caribbean with stragglers showing up in Florida, Texas, northern South America, Yucatan, and the Galapagos Islands. North American sightings may be wild individuals or escaped captives.
Flamingos (Phoenicopteridae)
ORDER
There is one family in the order PHOENICOPTERIFORMES (pronounced fee-nih-KOP-ter-ih-FOR-meez); the flamingos.
FAMILY TAXONOMY
The flamingo family, or Phoenicopteridae (pronounced fee-nih-kop-TER-ih-dee), is composed of six species in three genera that are distributed in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas.
NORTH AMERICA
This family in North America is represented by just one species and one genus; the American Flamingo.
KNOWN FOR
The American Flamingo is most well known for its deep pink plumage, long, lanky appearance and manner of feeding that somewhat resembles a Flamenco dancer quickly stomping their feet. The American Flamingo also has the distinction of having been immortalized in American pop culture by being depicted as a lawn ornament.
PHYSICAL
Flamingos have a distinctive, unmistakable shape; a short-tailed, rounded body with an incredibly long, slender neck and equally long and slender, knock-kneed legs. Topping the serpentine neck is a head with an odd, boomerang-shaped bill. Reflecting the aquatic nature of this family are the webbed feet.
COLORATION
American Flamingos showcase different shades of pink; salmon pink bodies, pale pink to whitish wings with black flight feathers, and pale legs with pink knees and feet. The bill is pale pink to salmon with a thick, black tip. Juvenile birds are pale gray, the youngest also lacking the distinctive boomerang shape of the bill. The pink color in flamingos is determined by the amount of beta-carotene in their diet.
GEOGRAPHIC HABITAT
The American Flamingo has for the most part a Caribbean distribution with large colonies in the Bahamas, on Hispaniola, Cuba, and the northern part of the Yucatan Peninsula. Single vagrant birds occasionally show up in the United States although a small flock has wintered in southern Florida in recent years. These places provide the specific type of habitat that flamingos need; large, shallow expanses of highly saline water where their main food sources of krill and brine shrimp thrive.
MIGRATION
Although American Flamingos are not long distance migrants, outside of the breeding season, they will move around in search of choice feeding areas; a behavior that may explain the presence of wild, vagrant flamingos in the United States.
HABITS
Flamingos are highly social birds rarely found alone. Groups of flamingos perform impressive synchronized courtship rituals, nest in colonies, and feed in the same areas. Feeding takes place while wading with the neck stretched down to place the bill upside down into the water. The bill sieves small crustaceans from the water and mud, helped by the bird often agitating the mud substrate with its feet to dislodge prey items.
CONSERVATION
Although rare vagrants to the United States, American Flamingos are fairly common birds in and around their breeding areas. Not presently threatened, as with any bird species that nests in large colonies precautions must nevertheless be taken to keep these nesting sites free of disturbance or other factors (such as pollution) that could cause large-scale population declines. While still numerous, Lesser Flamingos in Africa have declined and are threatened by drainage of their unique saltwater lake habitats.
INTERESTING FACTS
The Flamingos lay one egg in a mud nest then feed the nestling “crop milk,” a white substance high in fat and protein excreted from the upper digestive tract of both sexes. This is done until the young bird is able to feed on its own like the adults.