View allAll Photos Tagged Greater_flamingo
Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) seen in the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park in Homosassa, Florida.
This is an image I shot way back in 2010. Yesterday it was published in the April 2012 edition of Australian Photography in the Image Doctor section, where it won me a new Nikon Coolpix S9300 compact camera. I had submitted the image nearly a year and a half ago, and had forgotton about it, so it was a lovely surprise to see it published. “Greater” the elderly Flamingo is a resident of Adelaide Zoo, and has given me wonderful photo ops over the years, thank you Greater!
The Greater Flamingo is the most widespread species of the flamingo family. It is found in parts of Africa, southern Asia, and southern Europe.
The Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) is the most widespread species of the flamingo family. It is found in parts of Africa, southern Asia (coastal regions of Pakistan and India) and southern Europe (including Spain, Sardinia, Albania, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, and the Camargue region of France). Some populations are short distance migrants, and records north of the breeding range are relatively frequent; however, given the species' popularity in captivity whether these are truly wild individuals is a matter of some debate. A single bird was seen on North Keeling Island (Cocos (Keeling) Islands) in 1988. Greater flamingo is the state bird of Gujarat, India.
This is the largest species of flamingo, averaging 110–150 cm (43–60 in) tall and weighing 2–4 kg (4.4-8.8 lbs). The largest male flamingoes have been recorded at up to 187 cm (74 in) tall and 4.5 kg (10 lbs). It is closely related to the American Flamingo and Chilean Flamingo, with which it is has sometimes been considered conspecific, but that treatment is now widely seen (e.g. by the American and British Ornithologists' Union) as incorrect and based on a lack of evidence.
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.
Kilimanjaro Safari
Walt Disney World-Animal Kingdom-Orlando Fl.
(Gewone) flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus)
Blijdorp, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Conservation status: Least concern
We were very lucky to get an up close view of these flamingos. They feed from on brine in brackish waters. Recent housing developments near the beach have reduced the flow of brackish water in this particular area.
Isabela Island
Galapagos, Ecuador
(Galapagos2009_dsc_5750_edited-1)
Greater Flamingo - Phoenicopterus ruber [more of this species]
Date: October 11, 2010
Location: Kalloni Saltworks [more at this location]
Country: Greece
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Picture taken at:
Estuário do Sado - Setúbal - Portugal
More Phoenicopterus ruber roseus by me
Mais Flamingos dos Flickr's Lusófonos
More Phoenicopterus ruber roseus from every Flickrer
Three Greater Flamingos walking in a shallow lake in southern France, Ḗtang de Pierre Blanche, Villeneuve de Maguelone, France, September 7th, 2016,
Their bent bills allow them to feed on small organisms—plankton, tiny fish, fly larvae, and the like. In muddy flats or shallow water, they use their long legs and webbed feet to stir up the bottom. They then bury their bills, or even their entire heads, and suck up both mud and water to access the tasty morsels within. A flamingo's beak has a filterlike structure to remove food from the water before the liquid is expelled.
Flamingos get their beautiful pink colour from the small animals that they eat.
Flamingos often stand on one leg. One reason is that it keeps the folded leg warm
Greater Flamingo - Phoenicopterus roseus - Розовый фламинго
Greece, Kos island, Alikis lake, 10/13/2012
Flamingo pair adopt jilted chick
The chick was replaced in an old egg to aid the bonding process
A pair of male flamingos have become foster parents after adopting an abandoned chick in Gloucestershire.
Carlos and Fernando had tried to start their own family by stealing eggs from other flamingos at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) in Slimbridge.
But their sitting and hatching skills impressed staff so much, that when a nest was abandoned last week, they were chosen to "adopt" the chick.
The new flamingo family is said to be doing well.
Bonding process
The egg had been whisked off to an incubator where it was warmed up and monitored.
Hours later the healthy chick hatched, but staff were concerned the duo would not bond with the newborn because the process normally begins when the chicks are "calling" them from inside the egg.
So the chick was carefully placed in an old eggshell, which was taped up and returned to the unsuspecting couple's empty nest.
WWT spokeswoman Jane Waghorn said: "Fernando and Carlos are a same sex couple who have been known to steal other flamingos' eggs by chasing them off their nest because they wanted to rear them themselves.
"They were rather good at sitting on eggs and hatching them, so last week when a nest was abandoned, it seemed like a good idea to make them surrogate parents."
Milk production
The pair, who have been together for about six years, can feed their chick without any female help - by producing milk in their throat.
Ms Waghorn added that flamingo same sex couples were not particularly rare.
"If there aren't enough females or they don't hit it off with them, they will pair off with other males," she said.
The pair are Greater Flamingos, the most widely dispersed of the six flamingo species, being found in Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America.