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Filter feeding provides a rich and varied source of nutrition for flamingoes in fairly barren landscapes. We don’t know exactly when the flamingo’s ancestors started to filter feed, but it was ...
Flamingos or flamingoes [a] (/ f l ə ˈ m ɪ ŋ ɡ oʊ z /) are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbean), and two species native to Afro-Eurasia .
Upon hatching, the chicks have gray plumage; they do not gain the typical pink adult coloration for 2–3 years. Both male and female flamingos can produce a nutritious fluid from glands in their crop to feed their young. Due to their diet, this crop milk is crimson in color. [6]
Of the species, James's flamingo has the finest filter-feeding apparatus. [13] The flamingo feeds on diatoms and other microscopic algae. [4] The shape of the bill is deeply keeled. To feed, the flamingos' long legs allow them to walk into the water and swoop their necks down into an S-shape to allow the beak to enter the water.
The film documents the lives of the lesser flamingos on the isolated shores of Lake Natron in Tanzania, revealing the breeding and parenting habits of the species.After mating on an immense salt island, the flamingos breed their chicks, who learn to survive and grow up in an extreme and dangerous environment.
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It is the largest flamingo in the Andes and is one of the two heaviest living flamingos alongside the taller greater flamingo. [5] Reportedly body mass of the Andean flamingo has ranged from 1.5 to 4.9 kg (3.3 to 10.8 lb), height from 1 to 1.4 m (3 ft 3 in to 4 ft 7 in) and wingspan from 1.4 to 1.6 m (4 ft 7 in to 5 ft 3 in).
The greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) is the most widespread and largest species of the flamingo family. Common in the Old World, they are found in Northern (coastal) and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian Subcontinent (south of the Himalayas), the Middle East, the Levant, the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean countries of Southern Europe.