Flamingos!

Nearly everyone knows what flamingos look like ---pink birds with long legs. You can see them at just about every zoo. You can find them in storybooks. Images of flamingos, standing under palm trees, appear in paperweights and snow globes. Plastic flamingos make colorful lawn ornaments. But did you know that some flamingos live high up in the Andes Mountains of South America?

Ornithologists (scientists who sturdy birds) spent many years arguing whether flamingos are more like ducks, or more like storks, until they decided that flamingos belong in a group by themselves.

There are several physical characteristics that make flamingos stand out from other birds. Flamingos have a truly unique beak. It is angled so the birds feed while standing up and their heads lowered, scooping up and straining their meals from the water.

Very fine lamellae fringe the inside of the flamingo's large hooked beak. The lamellae filter the water, catching the algae and small invertebrates the bird finds in the water or soft mud. Because of this unique method of feeding, flamingos are able to live in salt lakes and some wetlands where other birds can not live for long. Newly hatched flamingos have straight beaks until about 3 months of age when the hooked bill is developed along with the lamellae lining.

The "knee" of a flamingo is called the ankle joint. The birds can bend their ankles so that the lower legs bend forward, opposite of how human knees operate that bend backward. The "foot" of the flamingo is actually its toes. All flamingos have webbing connecting their front toes. In addition to both living in the Andes, both the Puna and Andean Flamingos have 3 toes while the rest of the flamingos have 4.

Flamingos are found in large colonies. Some colonies are Africa are thought to have over a million flamingos. They build a mounded mud nest on gravel or a mud bed, then lay a single egg. The young flamingos are cared for and fed by their parents until about 3 months of age, the time their hooked beak and lamellae are developed.

Flamingos filter-feed on brine shrimp. Their oddly-shaped beaks are specially adapted to separate mud and silt from the food they consume, and are uniquely used upside-down. The filtering of food items is assisted by hairy structures called lamellae which line the mandibles, and the large rough-surfaced tongue. The flamingo's characteristic pink coloring is caused by the Beta carotene in their diet. The source of this varies by species, but shrimp and blue-green algae are common sources; zoo-fed flamingos may be given food with the additive canthaxanthin, which is often also given to farmed salmon.

Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) Found in: parts of Africa, S. Europe and S. and SW Asia (most widespread flamingo).

Lesser Flamingo (Phoenicopterus minor) Found in: Africa (e.g. Great Rift Valley) to NW India (most numerous flamingo).

Chilean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis) Found in: Temperate South America.

James's Flamingo (Phoenicopterus jamesi) Found in: High Andes in Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina.

Andean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus andinus) Found in: High Andes in Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina.

Caribbean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) Found in: Caribbean and Galapagos islands.

This Lens Is Proudly Featured On Shakadoo.com!

Flamingos! was chosen as a Top Ten lens for May 2008. The theme was Things With Wings - how cool is that?

Thanks for your support of my lens, and many thanks to heipet for the nomination!