American Flamingo

• GeneralThe most intensely coloured flamingo: the classic orange-red of the postcards.
• fisiologíaIt is the most intensely coloured of all the flamingos, thanks to a diet especially rich in carotenoids from the crustaceans and algae of Caribbean coastal lagoons.
• The intensity of its colour depends directly on its diet: the more carotenoid-rich crustaceans it eats, the closer it comes to vermilion.
• It is extremely sensitive to disturbance while breeding: even a light aircraft passing overhead can cause a stampede that ruins the whole year's clutch.
• Flamingos feed their chicks on a secretion similar to pigeon's milk, but with more fat and less protein, produced by glands in the upper digestive tract.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat & environment

Brackish lagoons, salt pans and shallow bays

Sexual maturity

2-6 years, though females usually breed for the first time at around 6

Gestation / incubation

27-31 days, with both parents incubating

Litter / clutch size

A single egg, very rarely two, on a mud mound about 30 cm high with a shallow hollow at the top, built by both members of the pair

Lifespan in captivity

Considerably longer than in the wild

Sources consulted: IUCN Red List; Wikipedia (Phoenicopterus ruber); Birds Colombia; Sprunt 1975; Ogilvie y Ogilvie 1986; del Hoyo et al. 1992; flamingos-world.com

Best time: All year round in shallow lagoons and highly saline coastal waters of the Caribbean