Phoenicopterus ruber

Location in the Zoo: African Savanna

There are six species of Flamingos, and the Caribbean flamingo (alternatively called the American flamingo) is the only species found in North America. The heaviest and tallest species they can weigh between 4 to 9 pounds and stand up to 4.5 feet tall. In their native habitat, their diet consists of small crustaceans, invertebrates, and algae. At the Zoo, a pelleted diet is offered consisting of crustaceans, algae, and carotenoids, the pigments which produce their vibrant color. Their diet does affect their plumage. They are filter feeders, like baleen whales.  They hold their bills upside down, suck in water and mud and filter the food out, pushing out what is not eaten on the sides of their bills.

Flamingos build large mound nests that can be 12 to 20 inches high. Their nesting season usually starts in March, but if there is little rain, the nesting can be delayed since the birds need water and mud to build the mound nests. The females lay one egg, and both sexes incubate. After a 28- to 30-day incubation period, a tennis ball sized white, fluffy chick hatches. It takes the chick 24 to 48 hours to hatch using an egg tooth located at the tip of their bill. Both parents feed, by regurgitation, what is called “blood milk” due to the intense red color. It consists of cells that slough off the adult’s crop. The chick can walk in two to three days and will return to its nest.  They can also swim very young. Chicks will form creches (large groups of chicks) while the parents leave to feed and bathe.

Chicks wean from their parents around six months old and it takes two years for the chick to get the vibrant colored plumage. They are sexually mature in three to five years.