Greater Flamingos: The Most Widespread Flamingo

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Greater flamingos are the most widespread of the six flamingo species, calling three of earth’s continents and several of its subcontinents home. They are also the largest of the six species physically, their long, slender bodies and overall grace, greater flamingos are critical to flamingos’ elegant reputation.

Let’s check out some important facts about greater flamingos:

GREATER FLAMINGOS QUICK FACTS

Population: between 500,000 and 1 million

Geography: East Africa, Southern Africa, West African coasts, Indian Subcontinent, Mediterranean, Central Asia, Middle East

Habitat: salt and alkaline lakes, coastal lagoons, mudflats

Life expectancy: 40 to 60 years

Weight: 4 to 9 pounds

Height: 3.5 to 5 feet

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT GREATER FLAMINGOS

Appearance

Greater flamingos are often multicolored. Light pink, even a whitish pink, feather adorn most of their body. Their feathers that cover their wings are a deeper red, and their flight feathers that only show at go time are painted black. Their bills are red or pink with black tips, and their necks are notably long and curved, even for a flamingo. Webbed feet aid in their traversing of muddy, shallow waters.

Diet

Blue-green algae, technically known as Spirulina, is a mainstay in the greater flamingo diet. This species of flamingo does branch out, though. Greater flamingos are omnivornes, but the meat they eat is very small. Other than algae, great flamingos also consume tiny shrimp, invertebrates, plankton, fly larvae, mollusks, and various microscopic organisms.

Breeding

Greater flamingos mostly form monogamous relationships in which the male and female are both responsible for incubating the singular egg - though two eggs are possible - and nourishing the chick. Before all that though, massive courtship rituals take place, with all the pomp and circumstance you would expect.

Breeding times vary by location due to the local climate. Rainfall is highly necessary for greater flamingo reproduction, because the mud it creates is the material used for egg nests. Greater flamingos mate in large, dense colonies of up to 20,000-plus couples, so an area fit for such an event is also required.

Unique Traits

Greater flamingos possess particularly outstanding filtration systems in their beaks. Their black-tipped bills are the ultimate tool for trapping only the best algae.

This has led to another unique aspect of greater flamingo life: pollution enjoyment. Unconventionally, heavily-polluted waters around Mumbai have seen booms in their greater flamingo populations, especially during migration season, in recent years as algae the bird likes to eat find the conditions suitable for mass growth.

Greater flamingos are so widespread that they even have a well-established breeding ground in Germany near the country’s border with the Netherlands. Zwillbrocker Venn is where many species of birds mate, but it’s notorious for its greater flamingo population that return to reproduce annually. It is the bird’s northernmost breeding ground.

Hottest Spots

Greater flamingos are the most widespread species of the fabulous fowl, so it’s more difficult to nail down one or two of the hottest spots for them than other species. But one of the best spots is Gujarat, a coastal state in western India. It has multiple parks and bird sanctuaries that greater flamingos love, including an area appropriately and affectionately named Flamingo City.