Information on Pink Flamingos
The pink flamingo is widely recognized by just about everyone, whether bird fanciers or not. These colorful, long-legged birds conjure images of vacations, sandy beaches, sunny skies and tropical palms. Their familiar figures adorn T-shirts, plastic jewelry, front lawns and Florida lottery tickets. Often seen in flocks, these birds with distinctive pink feathers feed in the shallows, their long, graceful necks ending in a black-tipped beak that skims the water upside-down as it searches for food. The plastic pink-flamingo lawn ornament was invented by Don Featherstone in 1957 when the country was wild about the color pink. The pink-plastic, Don-Featherstone-signed bird created a pop-culture splash for decades all across America's manicured green lawns. Still, plastic flamingos don't come close to honoring the real thing, the Phoenicopterus, or pink flamingo.
Why Pink?
Pink flamingos eat large quantities of algae, diatoms and brine shrimp that are rich sources of alpha and beta carotene. It's the beta carotene that keeps the flamingo's feathers pink. Depending on the species, the color of flamingo feathers can vary from pale pink (Chilean flamingo) to a deep crimson (Caribbean flamingo). The pink color extends from their feathers to their long legs. Andean flamingos are the only flamingo species to have yellow legs and feet. Newly hatched baby flamingos are white or gray, and parent flamingos may tend to lose some of their vivid pink or red color while taking care of their young.
Flamingo Colonies
It's hard to be a loner if you're a flamingo since flamingos live together in colonies season after season and year after year. Many colonies contain upwards of 10,000 birds. Before mating, whole colonies of birds--thousands of them--can be seen exhibiting synchronized mating rituals: "saluting" their wings, stretching the neck as high as possible and turning their sky-pointed beaks in the irresistible (if you're a flamingo of the opposite sex) "Head Flag", or marching, pink shoulder to pink shoulder first one way then another, in a collective mating posture. Add to the spectacle a cacophony of honking, growling, grunting, and the lively colony of flamingos is complete.
Habitats
While flamingos must have a fresh-water source for drinking, they prefer to congregate in salty tidal flats, mangrove swamps, inland lakes with a high saline content or sandy island shorelines. The fewer the fish present where they feed, the better, so they don't have to compete with fish for food. Their habitats span the globe from Siberia, to the Andes, to India, to Africa, but always in tropical or subtropical regions. Because these regions rarely endure freezing temperatures, flamingos usually do not migrate. They will migrate however, if there are drastic changes in climate or a drought has occurred.
A Day in a Flamingo's Life
Flamingos that are not breeding will usually feed at night and spend the day resting, sleeping or preening. A great deal of time is spent preening feathers. Flamingos use their beaks to spread oil from a special gland near the base of their tail feathers while they preen. In addition to serving to clean the feathers, preening also keeps feathers waterproof. When not eating or preening, flamingos will sleep, facing the wind, head tucked under their wings, usually standing on one leg, with the other leg tucked up under their feathers. They do this to conserve warmth, whether they're in a warm or cool climate.
Nests and Young
The cone-shaped nests of most flamingos are made of feathers, mud and stones. One lone, large white egg sits in a nest that's 8 to 12 inches high. Flamingo parents get a head start on rearing their young by taking a month to six weeks to built the large nest. The large oval egg requires an incubation time of about a month, give or take a few days. The flamingo parents take turns incubating the egg, using their beaks to occasional turn the egg. If the egg falls out of the nest, the parents will not retrieve it. The hatching chick uses its "egg tooth" to break its way out of the shell. Both male and female flamingos secrete a "crop milk" which they feed to the young chick. Between meals, flamingo chicks stay together in an area of the colony called a "creche." Parents call to their chicks when it's feeding time, and each chick recognizes the sound of its parents' call and eagerly responds to it.
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