Flamingo Facts: Food Turns Feathers Pink

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Flamingos are large bird that are identifiable by their tenacious cervix , sticklike legs and pink or reddish feathers . Flamingos embody the saying " you are what you eat . " The pinkish and reddish colors of a flamingo ’s feathers come from eating pigments found in algae and invertebrate .

There are six coinage of flamingo , fit in to the Integrated Taxonomic Information System ( ITIS ): outstanding flamingo , lesser flamingo , Chilean flamingo , Andean flamingo , James ' ( or puna ) flamingo and American ( or Caribbean ) flamingo .

A pair of bright pink flamingos.

The greater flamingo is the tallest species . It stand up 3.9 to 4.7 metrical foot ( 1.2 to 1.45 meters ) and librate up to 7.7 lbs . ( 3.5 kilograms ) , according toSea World . The short metal money is the lesser flamingo , which stand 2.6 feet ( 80 centimetre ) and weighs 5.5 lb . ( 2.5 kg ) . The wingspread of flamingo order from 37 in ( 95 cm ) to 59 inch ( 150 centimeter ) .

Habitat

American flamingoslive in the West Indies , Yucatán , in the northern part of South America and along the Galapagos Islands . Chilean , Andean and James ' flamingos live in South America , and the greater and lesser flamingos live in Africa . Greater flamingo can also be discover in the Middle East and India .

Flamingos are water birds , so they live in and around lagoons or lakes . These bodies of pee tend to be saline or alkaline . Flamingos are generally nonmigratory , but change in mood or water storey in their upbringing area will cause them to relocate , agree to Sea World .

Diet

Flamingos eat larva , modest insects , blue - green and red algae , mollusks , crustaceans and modest fish , according toSea World . Their inclination to consume both vegetation and meat makes them omnivore .

Flamingos are pinkbecause the alga they run through are loaded with genus Beta carotene , an organic chemical substance that contains a reddish - Orange River pigment . ( genus Beta carotene is also present in many works , but especially in tomato , prickly-seeded spinach , pumpkins , sweetened potato and , of class , carrots . ) The shellfish and crustacean flamingos bite on contain exchangeable paint - packing carotenoids .

Carotenoid levels in their food depart in different parts of the cosmos , which is why American flamingo are normally bright red and orange , while less flamingos of the drouth - hassle Lake Nakuru in cardinal Kenya lean to be a paler pink .

Two adorableflamingochicks were born this month at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. The baby birds were the 100th and 101stflamingo chicksto hatch at the zoo’s Bird House.Since flamingo chicks have a higher survival rate if they are hand-reared, zookeepers are keeping the babies out of the spotlight for now. When they are older, the birds will join the zoo’s flock of flamingoes outside, according to Smithsonian officials. [Related Gallery:World’s Cutest Baby Wild Animals]

If a flamingo were to arrest eating nutrient containing carotenoids , its young feathers would begin growing in with a much paler shade , and its cerise feather would finally molt away . Molted feathers recede their pinkish hue .

What a flamingo run through depends on what case of beak it has . Lesser , James ' and Andean flamingo have what is called a deep - keeled pecker . They eat mostly alga . Greater , Chilean and American flamingos have shallow - keeled bills , which allow them to eat insects , invertebrates and belittled fish .

To eat , flamingos will stimulate up the bottom of the lake with their feet and duck their beaks down into the mud and body of water to catch their repast .

Habits

radical of flamingos are call colonies or flocks . The settlement make together to protect each other from predators and to take care of the unseasoned .

It is conceive that flamingos are monogamous , agree to Sea World . Once they copulate , they tend to ride out with that mate . A group of flamingo will all mate at the same time so that all of the bird will hatch at the same time . Pairs will make nests out of mounds of mud , and the female person will lay one egg at a prison term , according to theSmithsonian National Zoo .

Each egg is a little openhanded than a large chicken ballock , at 3 to 3.5 inches ( 78 to 90 millimeter ) long and 4 to 4.9 ounce ( 115 to 140 g ) . The eggs will take 27 to 31 days to hatch , and the emerging chick will only be 2.5 to 3.2 ounces ( 73 to 90 g ) . Young reach maturity at 3 to 5 years old .

sister flamingos are gray or clean . They will deform pink within the first dyad age of aliveness . Flamingos live 20 to 30 age in the gaga or up to 50 years in a zoo .

Two adorableflamingochicks were carry this calendar month at the Smithsonian ’s National Zoo in Washington , D.C. The babe birds were the 100th and 101stflamingo chicksto hatch at the zoological garden ’s Bird House . Since flamingo biddy have a higher survival rate if they are hand - reared , zookeepers are sustain the babies out of the public eye for now . When they are older , the birdie will conjoin the menagerie ’s mass of flamingoes outside , grant to Smithsonian officials . [ Related Gallery : World ’s Cutest Baby Wild Animals ] Credit : Madelyn Duhon / Smithsonian ’s National Zoo

Classification/Taxonomy

Thetaxonomy of flamingos , according to ITIS , is :

Kingdom : AnimaliaPhylum : ChordataClass : AvesOrder : PhoenicopteriformesFamily : PhoenicopteridaeGenera : Phoeniconaias , Phoenicoparrus , PhoenicopterusSpecies :

Conservation Status

According to International Union for Conservation of Nature ’s Red List of Threatened Species , no flamingo metal money is currently considered endangered . Thelesser , ChileanandJames’flamingos are considered near jeopardise because their numbers are modest or decreasing , according to the IUCN .

Other facts

Fossil grounds indicates that the chemical group from which flamingos germinate is very old and existed about 30 million years ago , before many other avian ordering had evolved , according to Sea World .

It is n’t really known why flamingos tend to stomach on one foot , but it has been hypothesized that keeping one of their foot out of the cold waterhelps them to conserve body heat . It also seems to be a easy resting position for them .

Though it is believed that flamingos are tropical hiss , they can also live and thrive incold environmentsas long as they have access to plenty of water supply and food .

In East Africa , more than 1 million flamingos have been know to gather together , forming the largest flock known , according to thePhiladelphia Zoo .

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