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The greater flamingo is the tallest of the six different species of flamingos, standing at 3.9 to 4.7 feet (1.2 to 1.4 m) with a weight up to 7.7 pounds (3.5 kg), and the shortest flamingo species (the lesser) has a height of 2.6 feet (0.8 m) and weighs 5.5 pounds (2.5 kg).
The largest male flamingos have been recorded to be up to 187 cm (74 in) tall and to weigh 4.5 kg (9.9 lb). [6] 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.
Presence of flamingo groups near water bodies is an indication of sodic alkaline water which is not suitable for irrigation use. Although blue-green in colour, the algae contain the photosynthetic pigments that give the birds their pink colour. Their deep bill is specially adapted for filtering tiny food items.
The colour of the flamingo does not arise, however, as a result of the shrimp it eats but rather the blue-green algae in its diet. Notable exceptions are the flamingos in captivity, many of which turn a pale pink as they are not fed foods containing sufficient amounts of carotene.
Idalia likely responsible for first ever recorded sighting of a flamingo in Kentucky
The American flamingo is a large wading bird with reddish-pink plumage. Like all flamingos, it lays a single chalky-white egg on a mud mound, between May and August; incubation until hatching takes from 28 to 32 days; both parents brood their young. They may reach sexual maturity between 3 and 6 years of age, though usually they do not ...
The flamingos feed on algae, created from their droppings into the warm alkaline waters, and plankton. But flamingo are not the only avian attraction; also present are two large fish eating birds, pelicans and cormorants. Despite the tepid and alkaline waters, a diminutive fish, Alcolapia grahami has flourished after being introduced in the ...
Phoenicopteriformes / f iː n ɪ ˈ k ɒ p t ə r ɪ f ɔːr m iː z / is a group of water birds which comprises flamingos and their extinct relatives. Flamingos and the closely related grebes ( Podicipedidae ) are contained in the parent clade Mirandornithes .