The Greater Flamingo is a shy bird, distinguished by its unique bill, long neck, long legs, and brilliant pink color. The brightest pink coloring can be found on the undersurface of the wing, on the axillars, and underwing coverts. It is an excellent swimmer.
The Greater Flamingo has a thick, sharply bent bill...it feeds with bill or head immersed. It feeds in water of any wading depth...immerses bill in water and sucks up organically rich bottom ooze from which it filters out edible contnet with its bill and tongue. In flight, it shows much glack in wings; its extremely long neck is extended droopily in front, and long legs trail behind.
Size: 48"
Male: Tall, long-legged, long-necked pink bird with a short, "down-curved" bill. Wings have black tips and trailing edges.
Nest: 1 white egg on a low mound of mud on a mudflat. Nests in dense colonies.
Eggs: 1 white egg
Incubation: 28-32 days; female and male incubate.
Fledging: 3-4 days; female and male feed young, with nutritious red liquid secreted by glands in parents' digestive tract. Chicks then are herded into a group called a creche. Young have short straight bills for the first 40 days. First flight at 75-77 days.
Food: Feeds primarily on planktonlike acrosscopic organisms, including algal material, bacteria diatoms, plankton, tiny fish, and brind fly larvae.
Voice: Goose-like honking and cackling notes. A flock sounds gooselike or like a group of frogs calling.
