What Does a Flamingo Need to Survive?

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What does it take for a flamingo to survive?

In 2023, Hurricane Idalia sent tons of flamingos all across the eastern half of the United States, from Massachusetts to Texas. It stranded these birds in places they had never seen before, often further north and in atypical climates than they had known. It’s likely this brought an untimely demise to some of the travelers thrown off track, but plenty of the flamingos Idalia swept away survived the experience.

So, how did they do it? There is a reason why Ohio doesn’t have flamingo colonies within its borders, but it did have sightings of live flamingos post-Idalia. But these birds are tough. They don’t need much, but what they do need is absolutely essential.

What Does a Flamingo Need to Survive?

Food

An obvious yet true fact: flamingos need food to survive.

Different species have different preferences in what they eat. Some are more amenable to algae and plankton, while others go more for shrimp, crustaceans, larvae - morsels of that nature. But don’t expect a wild flamingo, especially one blown off course, to be especially picky. You gotta do what you gotta do.

While flamingos will eat what they must, even if their favorite food isn’t around, you may have noticed that all of those options either require or are most prevalent around water. This is the real key for flamingo survival: no water equals no food, which equals no bueno. Flamingos must have access to a body of water with shallow, marshy regions for them to wade and dip their beaks in to filter for food. If not, things will go poorly.

Rain

Without a restoration of water into the lakes and lagoons flamingos need, those lakes and lagoons will dry up, at least slowly. That means less food. It also means less mud, which means even less food and an uphill battle building a nest for an egg, assuming two stranded flamingos are trying to grow their flamboyance.

Basically, these birds need rain.

Places around the world where climate change has dried out regions have seen an exodus of flamingos, like in Algeria earlier this year. If a flamingo finds itself lost and stuck somewhere without rain, it would be in some serious trouble.

Protection

Part of why some species of flamingos can be tough to spot in the wild is because they hang out in places that most life doesn’t. Super high altitudes like the Andean flamingos, incredibly hot and acidic bodies of water like the lesser flamingos in East Africa - many of these pink birds don’t want to be found.

A piece of it is competition avoidance. If flamingos go somewhere most other animals who eat similar foods to them don’t, then they get to enjoy the abundance without all the drama. Another is predator avoidance. There are several animals on earth that would happily sink their teeth into a flamingo, but that doesn’t happen too often, because they’re not easy to catch while a few thousand feet above sea level or in the middle of a boiling lake. There are easier meals to source than that.

But the biggest threat to modern flamingos is humans. Human development, farming, and activity is generally not ideal for the fabulous fowl. It can destroy their habitats and pollute the bodies of water they need. So, for a long lost flamingo to stay alive, it would need to have some distance from humans and to keep away from predators who wouldn’t mind a pink treat themselves.

Socialization

Perhaps underrated, but this is something that humans know well as social creatures ourselves. Lone flamingos can avoid death, like lone people can, but they thrive with social connections. They have complex interactions with one another, like humans do, and it’s a key part of their species’ longevity.

Flamingos want to team up with one another. They do not want to be alone. It is not entirely impossible for solo flamingos to make it out on their own. No. 492, an escaped flamingo from a Kansas zoo, was spotted by itself occasionally throughout the central United States for years. Clearly, it found ways to self-sustain. 

However, even No. 492 joined forces with a fellow flamingo at times - a Caribbean flamingo likely blown off course by a storm. That’s not even the same species as No. 492, which is a lesser flamingo from Africa, but it didn’t matter - close enough. The flamingos were just thrilled to have another one to watch their back, help look for food, and provide companionship.