The Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) is the most
widespread species of the flamingo family.
It is found in parts of Africa, southwest Asia (including Turkey),
southern Asia (coastal regions of India) and southern Europe
(including Spain, Cyprus, Portugal, and the Camargue region of France).
Some populations are short distance migrants.
A single bird was seen on North Keeling Island (Cocos (Keeling)
Islands) in 1988.
This is a large species, averaging 120-140cm tall, and is closely
related to the Caribbean Flamingo and Chilean Flamingo,
with which it is sometimes considered conspecific.
Like all flamingos, this species lays a single chalky-white egg
on a mud mound.
Most of the plumage is pinkish-white, but the wing coverts are
red and the primary and secondary flight feathers are black.
The bill is pink with a restricted black tip, and the legs are
entirely pink. The call is a goose-like honking.
The Lesser Flamingo (Phoenicopterus minor) is a species in the
flamingo family of birds which occurs in Africa (principally
in the Great Rift Valley), across to Pakistan and northwest India.
It is the smallest and most numerous flamingo,
probably numbering up to two million individual birds.
In Africa, where they are most numerous, the Lesser Flamingos breeds
principally on the highly caustic Lake Natron in Northern Tanzania.
Like all flamingos, they lay a single chalky white egg on mounds
they build of mud. Most of the plumage is pinkish white.
Chicks join creches soon after hatching, sometimes
numbering over a hundred thousand individuals.
The creches are marshalled by a few adult birds who lead them
by foot to fresh water, a journey that can reach over 20 miles.
The clearest difference between this species and Greater Flamingo,
the only other Old World species, is the much more extensive
black on the bill. Size is less helpful unless the species are
together, since the sexes of each species also differ in height.
This species feeds primarily on Spirulina, a cyanobacteria
which grows only in very alkaline lakes.
Although blue-green in colour, the bacteria contains the
phtotosynthetic pigments that gives the birds their pink colour.
Their deep bill is specialised for filtering tiny food items.
Lesser Flamingos are predated on by a variety of species
including Marabou Storks, baboons, African Fish Eagles and jackals.
The population in the two key east African lakes, Nakuru and
Bogoria, have been adversely affected in recent years by
suspected heavy metal poisoning.
The Lesser Flamingo is one of the species to which the Agreement
on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds
(AEWA) applies.
The Caribbean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) is a large
species of flamingo closely related to the Greater Flamingo and
Chilean Flamingo, with which it is sometimes considered conspecific.
The Caribbean Flamingo breeds in the Galapagos Islands,
coastal Colombia and Venezuela and nearby islands, the Yucatán
Peninsula of Mexico, and in the northern Caribbean in the Bahamas,
Hispaniola, Cuba and Turks and Caicos.
Most sightings in southern Florida are usually considered to be
escapees, although at least one bird banded as a chick in the
Yucatán Peninsula has been sighted in Everglades National Park,
and others may be genuine wanderers from Cuba.
The habitat is similar to that of its relatives, including saline
lagoons, mudflats and shallow brackish coastal or inland lakes.
Like all flamingos, it lays a single chalky white egg on a
mud mound.
The Caribbean Flamingo is 120–140 cm in length; males weigh
2.8 kg and females 2.2 kg. Most of the plumage is pink,
giving rise to its earlier name of Rosy Flamingo and
differentiating adults from the much paler European species.
The wing coverts are red, and the primary and secondary flight
feathers are black.
It is the only flamingo which naturally occurs in North America.
The bill is pink with a restricted black tip, and the legs are
entirely pink. The call is a goose-like honking.
The Caribbean Flamingo is one of the species to which the
Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory
Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.