Where does the flamingo live and what does it eat?

This article represents a flamingo bird, which in the Russian regions can be found almost exclusively in zoos. An amazingly beautiful bird, fascinating with its magnificent grace and unusual coloring of feathers, is sung in songs. Where does the flamingo live? What are the conditions of their detention in captivity, peculiarities and habits, what do they eat?

You can learn about the life of this bird of fairy beauty by reading this article.

general information

Only five species are numbered in the family of flamingo. The most common - the ordinary. This is a fairly large bird, whose weight reaches 4 kilograms. The smallest of this family is a small flamingo.

The favorite places for nesting red flamingos are islands, lagoons on the sea coast and salty swamps on the shores of lakes. Before we learn in more detail where the flamingo dwells, let's present a brief general description of the bird.

Description

On average, the body length of the bird is 1.4 meters, the weight varies from 2 to 4 kilograms. As a rule, males are heavier than females. The colors of feathers in birds are very diverse, but red-pink predominate. Neck and legs are long.

Despite such large sizes, these birds feed on plants and crustaceans living in the waters of shallow lakes.

Kinds

As noted above, there are only five species of the bird in question in the world.

The aforementioned common flamingo has several nesting places in the southern territories of Europe. Dwarf lives in Africa. Three species are common in America: yellow-legged (or Andean), Chilean and short-billed.

All these species together represent, in fact, a detachment of flamingos.

They lead a sedentary lifestyle, and only the sight of the pink flamingo that inhabits the northern parts of the earth is migratory.

Where does the flamingo live?

Photos with these handsome men are fascinating and fascinating. I can not believe that there are such miracles in nature. And where do they live in natural conditions?

They dwell in Europe, Asia and Africa. They are settled on water bodies, with conditions favorable for their residence. However, not all of these places are suitable for them. In this regard, the wintering and nesting areas of flamingos can be scattered even over distances of thousands of kilometers.

In the colonies there are usually several tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of individuals.

Whether there is and where flamingos live in Russia, you can find out further in the article.

Most birds are in shallow water. Usually from a place of flamingo they break heavily and reluctantly. This happens usually when they are at risk or there is a need to change the place of feeding.

They run for take-off for a very long time, and, taking off, they continue even to run through the air. Further birds fly with their legs extended. A flock of flying flamingos presents a surprisingly beautiful sight amid the azure blue sea and the blue sky.

Nesting

Wherever a flamingo dwells, where the bird settles, nests arise at some distance from each other. They represent the shape of small towers, built from the shells of shells and silt. The height of the nests is 50-70 centimeters.

In the masonry, usually 1-3 white eggs. Hatching chicks already covered in fluff, sighted and very active. They leave the nest in a few days and at about the age of one month they change the fluffy outfit for another. Nestlings of flamingos on the 65-80th day of life acquire the skills of independent flight, and they finally form a tselinny device.

Sexual maturity occurs at the age of 4 to 5 years. Birds are monogamous and usually nest in colonies very closely neighbors each other.

Within the entire current range there are only 22.5 thousand flamingos left. Great reduction in the numbers of birds was played by the reduction of areas suitable for nesting.

Food

Where flamingos live, there is a suitable for her food: rich in algae and organic substances, with countless crustaceans, mollusks and worms.

Some species consume blue-green and diatom algae. They are looking for food in shallow areas. Shallowly dropping their heads under the water, they rummage at the bottom of the reservoir with their beaks. And the head is located in a strange way: the crown almost touches the bottom, below is the upper jaw, and at the top - the lower one.

The parents feed the nestlings with a "belch," which contains, in addition to food, semi-digested glands of the pancreas and the lower part of the esophagus. It should be noted that this light pink liquid is similar in nutrition to that of mammals. It also has carotenoids.

The brackish and fresh water from the rain is used for drinking birds. To do this, they lick the drops of water on the plumage.

In natural conditions, there were cases that flamingos lived for 34 years.

Pink flamingo

In this bird the plumage is tender pink, with purple-red wings and with black mahovye. Parts of the head are unoperated (ring of the eyes and bridle) - red, and the beak - mostly pink.

Where does the pink flamingo live? In Europe, these birds nest in Las Marismas (Southern Spain) and in the reserve at the mouth of the river. Rhone (Southern France). She also lives in Africa (Lake Morocco, Southern Tunisia, Northern Mauritania, Kenya, Cape Verde, south of the continent).

Pink, like other species, prefers to settle on large lakes with salt water, in estuaries and sea lagoons.

You can meet a bird of this species on the lakes of South Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and India.

And where does the flamingo live? In Kazakhstan. In Russia it nests at the mouth of the river. Volga, Kalmykia, Dagestan, Stavropol and Krasnodar regions.

Flamingo Red

This species of bird lives on the islands of the Caribbean Sea, the coast of northeast of South America, as well as in the south of this continent (the Galapagos Islands).

Flamingo red has plumage from pink to purple or bright red.

Flamingo small

Of all the modern species, the smallest has the smallest dimensions. The length of his body is only 80 cm (others more than 100 cm). In this species, the supraclue has a keel that descends into the depth of the beak. Most of its food is algae.

A small flamingo does not lower its beak to the bottom while searching for food, but simply leads them on the surface of the water from side to side. Nests on salt lakes in Tanzania, Kenya, as well as off the coast of the Persian Gulf (Sambhor Lake in India).

Andean flamingo

Its habitat is salt lakes, located in the Andes at a height of 2500 meters (north and center of Chile, southern Peru, northwest Argentina and western Bolivia). They prefer lakes, and often water with a high content of gypsum, sodium hydroxide and hydrogen sulphide.

Adult flamingos are painted white-pink or scarlet. Beautiful pink-red colors are caused by the pigment entering the body of birds with crustaceans (food). The winged wings of this bird are black, the legs are yellow.

Flamingo James

Inhabit the birds in the Andes of Bolivia and in Northern Argentina. Feed - diatoms. There are colonies of this species, living in the harsh conditions of the mountains.

This species, which is also called short-bark, is very rare.

Chilean flamingo

This is a relatively short-legged flamingo, found in South America. On mountain lakes (Andes) can live together with a species of short-billed flamingos.

The color of the Chilean flamingo is light: scarlet or white and pink. Red shades are developed on the winged wings, so the flamingos received a Latin name, meaning "fiery-winged." Legs are greenish, but the knees and paws are red.

Conclusion

And where does the flamingo live in North America?

These birds belong to one of the oldest bird families. Their remains, closest to modern forms, are dated 30 million years ago, and fossils of more primitive species - over 50 million years.

They were found in places where today flamingos do not live: some parts of Europe, North America and Australia. This suggests that in the past these amazing birds had a larger habitat.