Animal flamingo. Flamingo - a bird of the morning pink dawn

(Phoenicopterus roseus). Detachment and family Flamingos. Habitats - Asia, Africa, Europe. Wingspan 2.4 m. Weight 5.6 kg

Pink flamingos are otherwise called ordinary, although these birds are completely unique. They are found not only in Africa, but also in Iran, Azerbaijan. They can be seen in southern Spain and France. When eating, flamingos filter out blue-green algae - up to 100 g per day. In fact, these are bacteria capable of photosynthesis. Artemia crustaceans that develop in the water of brackish lakes are also excellent food. Viscous shores for birds are not a problem. You can walk on stilts and through the swamp. Parents feed the hatched chick with a nutrient mixture. It contains proteins, vitamins and blood cells. How do they get out circulatory system parents into this "baby formula" is a mystery.

Flamingos live in huge colonies. They lead mainly a sedentary lifestyle, only the northern populations of pink flamingos are migratory. They settle mainly along the shores of sea lagoons, large lakes with brackish water and in shallow water, where they can find food - a variety of small crustaceans, worms, shellfish and algae. The pink or red color of flamingo plumage is given by lipochrome dyes, which enter the body of the bird along with food. Interestingly, in zoos, these birds lose their unique plumage coloration after a couple of years, since the food they are fed does not contain those substances that flamingos can find in wild nature. Flamingos get their food in this way, lowers their head under water and digs with their beak in the bottom silt. At the same time, the bird turns its head so that the back of the head touches the bottom, and the upper mandible is at the bottom.

Flamingo nests are high; they look like pedestals, built from improvised material - pebbles, shell rock, soaked stems. Silt is used as a binding material. Clutch contains 1 to 3 (usually 1) large white eggs.

Ecology

Main:

Flamingo is a large bird with beautiful pink or red feathers, also known for its long legs and slightly curved long beak.

The largest of the flamingos Pink flamingo - reaches 1.2-1.5 meters in height and weighs a maximum of 3.5 kilograms. The smallest flamingos lesser flamingo - only a little over 0.8 meters in length, its average weight is 2.5 kilograms.

Pink flamingos have the palest feather colors when caribbean flamingos famous for their bright pink, almost red feathers.

Flamingos come from ancient family birds, their ancestors, similar to modern views, lived on the planet already 30 million years ago, according to Smithsonian National Zoo.

Distinctive pink color flamingos depend on the food they eat. They feed on algae and shrimp, which contain pigments. carotenoids(it is these pigments that give the orange its Orange color), which turn into red pigments during digestion.

When eating, flamingos lower their heads under water, draw in water with their beaks, sifting through the nutritious foods that they eat, and the water comes out through the upper beak. Tiny, hair-like filters help weed out food and release water. One study showed that a special float that supports the bird's head allows it to feed by turning its head over and keeping it on the surface of the water.

The long legs of flamingos help them to walk along the bottom even at relatively great depths in search of food, which gives them some advantages over other birds.

Flamingos are social birds that live in groups of various sizes. They gather in flocks when they fly from place to place, and also prefer to stay in groups when they are on the ground. Flamingos also have loud and piercing cries.

These birds can fly, but they need a short run to get off the ground. During the flight, they stretch their long necks and legs in one straight line.

Flamingos create pairs during the mating season, but find other partners the next season. The female and male build a nest together. The female lays only one egg per season, which is guarded by both parents. After the chick has hatched, both parents are also responsible for it and feed it.

The nest is usually built from mud and has a height of about 0.3 meters. The height allows you to protect it from floods and a very heated surface of the earth. After hatching, the chick has gray feathers, a pink beak and legs. They do not acquire the characteristic pink feather coloration until 2 years of age.

Flamingo chicks after hatching remain in the nest for 5-12 days, they are fed with a fatty substance with nutrients, which is produced in the upper parts of the digestive tract of the parents. When the chick grows up, it begins to feed on its own along with the main group of birds in the so-called "crèche".

Flamingos have only a few natural enemies. In the wild, they live up to the age of 20-30 years, in captivity they live more than 30 years.

Habitats:

Flamingos are native to North and South America, Africa and Asia. Fossils show that they were previously distributed over much large territories including North America, Europe and Australia.

pink flamingos live in Africa, southern Europe and southwest Asia. small flamingos found in Africa and the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent. Chilean flamingos found in the southwest South America. caribbean flamingos can be found in the Caribbean, in the north of South America, on the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula and Galapagos Islands. In Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina live Andean flamingo And Flamingo James.

These birds prefer to live near salty shallow lakes, in coastal lagoons, on shallows and near estuaries.

Guard status:

Least concern: Pink flamingo, Caribbean flamingo

Near Threatened: Chilean Flamingo, Lesser Flamingo, James Flamingo

Vulnerable: Andean flamingo

The Andean flamingo population is in decline due to loss of habitat and environmental quality.

IN East Africa Flamingos group into giant flocks of over a million individuals, forming the largest flocks of birds on the planet.

Of all the flamingo species, only the Andean flamingo has yellow legs.

The ancient Romans highly valued flamingo tongue as a delicacy. Flamingos also feed on eggs. different parts Sveta.

It is still not exactly clear why flamingos stand on one leg. According to one version, they pull one leg out of the cold water, which helps them save heat. During rest, they often bend one leg, which seems very comfortable for them.

The most incredible birds live on our planet. They, and all the colors of the rainbow, and plain. Fluffy or no feathers at all. Huge eagles or miniature canaries. Chickens, ducks, owls, owls, turkeys, peacocks and parrots.

And what do we know about rare birds listed in the Red Book? Absolutely nothing. One of the representatives of this book is Pink Flamingos. These are such ancient birds, one would assume that they saw dinosaurs. After all, the very first, ancient fossilized flamingo skeleton , over forty-five million years!

Description and features of flamingos

flamingo bird , a resident of the African and southern parts of the Asian continent, some territorial parts of southern Europe. And even in St. Petersburg and Dagestan, they were noticed.

Pink flamingos- one of major representatives kind. The rest of them are: Common and Red flamingos. Andean and Chilean flamingos. Small and Flamingo James.

The smallest of flamingo species, this is Small. It does not grow even a meter high, and already an adult bird weighs only two kilograms. Pink adults individuals flamingos weigh four or five kilograms.

A flamingo growth, one and a half meters. In fact, they have the longest necks and legs when compared to the crane and heron families. Well, as always happens in nature, males, of course, are larger and more beautiful than females.

flamingo color a variety of shades, from dirty white, gray, to rich coral, purple. And their color depends on what they eat. After all, some algae eaten color their feathers in a subtly pink hue.

And the more flamingos eat those same algae, the brighter the color will be. And the tips of the wings are black. But this can only be seen when the bird is in flight. After all, there is no more beautiful sight than a flock of flying Pink Flamingos.

The head of a flamingo is small, but it has a huge beak. The edges of which are equipped with very small teeth partitions. The upper part of the beak is curved, similar to a knee, pointed towards the bottom.

And only it is a movable part, unlike the bottom. The base of the beak and up to its half is light, the end is dark, almost black. The neck is longer and thinner than the swan's, so the bird quickly gets tired of keeping it straight, and often throws it on its back to relax the muscles. On the chin and in the eye area, flamingos have no feathers at all. The plumage of the whole bird is loose. And their tails are very short.

The wingspan of an adult flamingo is one and a half meters. It is interesting that, having become lazy, the bird completely loses feathers on its wings, and all at once. And for a whole month, until she fledges again, she becomes vulnerable, defenseless against predators. Since it completely loses the ability to fly.

The legs of pink flamingos are thin and long. In the event of an escape, in order to take off, they need to run another five meters along a shallow bank. Then taking off, flapping wings very often.

And already being in the air, keep the neck, evenly extended, in the forward direction. Legs also do not bend throughout the journey. Like a flock of pink crosses flying across the sky.

Also, visible on flamingo photo, they always stand on one leg. And it's not just that. They have to stay in the water for a long time, which is not always warm. Therefore, in order not to overcool their body, the flamingo now and then changes one or the other leg.

The front toes are elongated, have membranes like those of waterfowl. And the back toe, like a small process, is on the leg, higher than the front ones. Or some don't have it at all.

The nature and lifestyle of flamingos

flamingo birds live in large flocks, consisting of several hundred thousand birds. They live on the quiet banks of rivers and ponds. These birds are not all migratory.

Because some of them live in the southern territories, then they don’t need to fly for the winter. Well, the inhabitants of the northern regions, of course, with the advent of cold weather, are looking for warmer places to live.

Reservoirs for living, birds choose not deep-sea, and only with salt water. Fish, flamingo, practically not interested . They need a large number of crustaceans and algae that color birds. And since they choose such lakes for themselves, the lakeside shoreline is also painted pink.

The skin on the paws is so versatile that the salt in the water does not damage it in any way. And to get drunk, birds fly in fresh water, or lick rainwater from their feathers after rainfall.

Reproduction and lifespan of flamingos

Puberty occurs in birds by the age of four. And just then, their feathers begin to acquire pink hues. Birds can mate different time of the year. But they prefer warm summer days. Then there is more food, and the climate for offspring flamingos better.

It all starts with the flirting of the male with the female. He circles around the lady of the heart, raising and lowering his head, flapping his short wings, and, as it were, pinching her with his beak. When the half reciprocates, she completely begins to follow the man, repeating his movements.

It looks like a very beautiful dance. If a couple is chosen, then once and for the rest of their lives. After all, birds are very devoted to each other. They move away from the pack a little to mate.

After, the male starts building a house for the future offspring. He builds it only on the water, so that no predator can get to the helpless children. The composition of the future home is clay compounds, twigs, feathers.

And the building must necessarily rise above the water. The nest looks like a square hill, in the middle with a hollow for eggs. The female lays one, rarely two eggs, uniformly white.

And together with their companion, they begin to incubate. When one of them sits in the nest, the second one eats at this time, restores strength. On the nest, flamingos sit with their knees bent. And only leaning on the beak, they can rise.

A month later, snow-white, fluffy like snowflakes babies appear. What's interesting is how flamingos live big families and their nests are next to each other. Every parent recognizes their child by the squeak.

After all, while still in the shell, the chicks were already making sounds. It is not customary for flamingos to feed other people's children, like cuckoos. Therefore, if suddenly something happens to the parents, the little chick will die of hunger.

The first week, the offspring are fed with excretory secretion, pink in color, in composition very similar to the milk of animals, and people too. And just like that, after seven or eight days, the chicks jump out of their shelter to splash on the water, and profit from something. And they will be able to learn to fly and fully, eat on their own, only after three months of their lives.

In the wild, pink flamingos live for thirty or even forty years. In zoos and reserves, much longer. In one of the protected areas, there is a flamingo old-timer, he is already in his eighth decade.

Flamingo food

Flamingo birds live in large, friendly flocks. But when the time comes flamingo food, they begin to zealously divide the territory, not letting anyone in, to their chosen place of catch.

They begin to look for food, raking the muddy bottom with their membranes on their fingers. Then they lower their head down, and twist it so that the beak turns out to be a sharp end to the top.

And having opened it, they swallow everything in a row, along with water. Then closing the beak, and its edges, as we already know, are serrated. Releases completely all the water from the cylindrical beak. Well, what's left, swallows. Whether it is a crustacean, or a fry, or a tadpole, or a component of the bottom itself.

Do not forget that pink flamingos are listed in the Red Book of Russia. Though flamingo population and not on the verge of extinction, yet you need to be very careful about the reproduction of their species.

Many birds die from predatory animals, foxes and badgers. From birds of prey that destroy nests are gulls and vultures. During the flight, accidentally sitting down to rest, on electric wires.

A lot of rivers and lakes have dried up, on which these birds lived. And although they are ancient earthly inhabitants, they still treat people with prejudice. And they settle in places very remote from humans.

Because it is people who are the most terrible enemies. Instead of saving, we are destroying such beautiful creatures. Eating their meat, eggs. Using their unusual feathers for jewelry.

And you never know the fattening rich who, by all means, want to get such an outlandish bird into their household, knowing nothing at all about it. As a result, flamingos die stupidly.

Description and features of flamingos

Beauty, grace, special charm and uniqueness... These are the words that most clearly describe the unique and amazing bird living on our planet - flamingos. Thin long legs and a graceful flexible neck make this bird a real model of a beauty contest. Look at flamingo photo and you will see for yourself.

flamingo bird the only representative of his squad, which is divided into certain types. flamingo species:

Flamingo James,

common flamingo,

red flamingo,

Andean Flamingo,

small flamingo,

Chilean flamingo.

These types of birds make up the entire flamingo population. Appearance birds largely depends on the genus to which it belongs. The smallest of the flamingos is the lesser flamingo. His height is about 90 centimeters, and adult flamingo weight reaches almost 2 kilograms.

The largest of the flamingos is considered pink flamingo, it is about twice as heavy as a small flamingo, its weight reaches about 4 kilograms, and flamingo growth is about 1.3 meters. The males are usually slightly larger than the females.

Characteristic features flamingos are their long legs, especially the tarsus. The fingers, which are directed forward, are interconnected by a swimming membrane, which is quite well developed. The rear finger is small and its insertion is slightly higher than the rest of the fingers.

It has been observed that birds very often stand on one leg, the reason for this behavior, according to scientists, is in thermoregulation. Birds stand for hours in cold water, in order to reduce heat loss at least a little, they raise one paw up so that there is no contact with water and heat exchange.

Flamingos have a massive large beak, which is bent in the middle almost at a right angle, and the top of the beak looks down. Flamingos have special horny plates that form a kind of filter so that birds can excrete food from the water.

The structure of the body and muscles are very similar to the structure of the stork. graceful Long neck has 19 vertebrae, the last of which is part of the dorsal bone. Pneumaticity of the skeleton as a whole is quite well developed.

flamingo color may vary from white to red. A special pigment, astaxanthin, is responsible for the coloring of plumage in flamingos, which is somewhat similar to the red pigment of crustaceans. The color of young flamingo birds is usually brown, but after molting it becomes the same as in adults. Flamingo feathers are quite loose. An interesting fact is that during molting, primary flight feathers, of which flamingos have 12 pieces, fall out simultaneously and the bird loses its ability to fly for up to 20 days.

The type of flight in flamingos is quite active, the birds often flap their relatively short wings. When flying, flamingos stretch their long neck forward, they also keep their long legs extended during the entire flight. Until the moment of separation from the ground, flamingos make a long run at the start, and then rise into the air.

The nature and lifestyle of flamingos

The habitat of flamingos is quite wide. These delightful birds live in the east and west of Africa, in India, as well as in areas of Asia Minor. Europe is also the habitat of flamingos. The south of Spain, Sardinia and France are the usual residence of these birds. South and Central America, Florida are also attractive for bird life.

Flamingos settle on the shores of lagoons and small reservoirs. They choose coasts with great length, as they live in colonies. In one flock there can be up to hundreds of thousands of individuals. Flamingos tolerate both low and high temperatures, so they can even settle on the shore of a mountain lake. Reservoirs are always chosen by birds with salt water, in which there are no fish, but many crustaceans live. To wash off the salt and quench their thirst, they fly to reservoirs or fresh water sources.

Currently, the number of flamingos is drastically reduced. Active economic activity often leads to the fact that in some areas flamingos simply cannot settle. Sometimes, due to human activity, water bodies become shallow or completely dry up, and birds remain without a place to live.

Concentration harmful substances in water in many areas has increased significantly, and this leads to the fact that flamingos are forced to look for new places to live. And, of course, poaching, it is this type of activity that brings considerable losses. Flamingos are listed in the Red Books of many countries, they are under the protection of the law.

Reproduction and lifespan of flamingos

Flamingos are pair birds. They choose one partner for life. For flamingo offspring build unusual nests. The nest is built exclusively by the male. The nest is a cut-top column approximately 60 centimeters high and about 50 centimeters in diameter.

The basis material for building nestlings is silt, mud and small shells. The nest is specially built so high, since the water level should not exceed it so that the offspring do not suffer.

The female lays one to three eggs, they are quite large and colored in White color. The eggs are incubated for a month, this is the responsibility of both parents. Birds sit on eggs with their legs tucked in, and in order to rise, they first rest on their beak, and only then straighten up.

After the birth of the chicks, they are fed with special bird's milk, which is a mixture of esophageal juice and semi-digested food. This food is very nutritious, so it is quite enough for the full development of offspring.

Already a few days after birth, the chicks are strong enough, they can leave the nest and roam nearby. The ability to fly is manifested after 65 days of life. By this time, they can already fully eat on their own.

At this time, the chicks are adult, but differ in plumage color. Sexual maturity occurs after the third year of life, at the same age the bird acquires the full plumage of an adult bird. The life expectancy of a flamingo is about 40 years, but it often happens that a bird does not live such a long life, but dies earlier for various reasons.

Flamingo food

Flamingos live on the banks of water bodies, so they are forced to get their food right there. Basically, flamingos feed themselves in shallow water. Thanks to special structure With their beaks, birds filter the water and get their own food. Above the beak, these special birds have something similar to a float, which is why they can keep their heads up for a long time. top layer water.

The flamingo draws water into its mouth, closes it, after which filtration occurs, as a result, all the plankton that has come across is food for the bird. Flamingos eat a large number of crustaceans, molluscs and algae. In addition, flamingos also eat various larvae and worms.

It is also surprising that flamingo food They carry out around the clock, that is, they get their own food both during daylight hours and at night. Especially during the feeding of chicks, flamingos need complete and high-quality nutrition so as not to weaken and lose all their strength.

(lat. Phoenicopterus) is a genus of long-legged birds, which is the only representative of the Flamingo order and the Flamingo family. Flamingos cannot be confused with any other bird due to the peculiarities of the structure of the body and the amazing color of the plumage. It's pretty large birds(height 120-145 cm, weight 2100-4100 g, wingspan 149-165 cm), and females are smaller than males and have shorter legs. The head of a flamingo is small, the beak is massive and in the middle part it is steeply (knee-shaped) bent down. Unlike most birds, the movable part of the flamingo's beak is the bottom, not the top. Along the edges of the mandible and mandible there are small horny plates and denticles that form a filtering apparatus. The legs of a flamingo are very long, with 4 toes each, with the three front ones connected by a swimming membrane. The plumage of these birds is loose and soft. The color of the plumage of different subspecies of flamingos is from pale pink to intense red, the ends of the wings are black. The pink and red color of the plumage is due to the presence of pigments in the tissues - fat-like coloring substances of the carotenoid group. Birds get these substances from food, from different crustaceans. In captivity, after 1-2 years, the pink-red shade of the plumage usually disappears due to the monotonous diet. But if you specifically add red carotenoids contained in carrots and beets to flamingo food, the color of the birds always remains saturated. Young birds are gray-brown, they “put on” an adult outfit only in the third year of life.

The issue of classification of flamingos has been the subject of controversy among specialists for many years. flamingos have General characteristics with different groups of birds, and it remains unclear which group they are most closely related to. Anatomically, they are similar to storks, and behavioral characteristics are more similar to water birds such as geese.

Until recently, flamingos were classified as Storks, but scientists have come to the conclusion that flamingos should be placed in a separate order - Flamingos (lat. Phoenicopteriformes).

The number of species is still debated, but most taxonomists subdivide the Flamingo family into six species:

Note

• common flamingo- lives in Africa, southern Europe and southwestern Asia.
• red flamingo- inhabits a territory Caribbean, the northern part of South America, the Yucatan Peninsula and the Galapagos Islands.
• Chilean flamingo- found in the southwestern regions of South America.
• lesser flamingo- is found on the territory of the African continent, in the northwestern part of India and the eastern regions of Pakistan.
• Andean flamingo And Flamingo James- live in Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina.

The largest of the species is the Common Flamingo, its growth reaches from 1.2 to 1.5 meters, weight - up to 3.5 kg. Most small view- A small flamingo, having 80 cm in height and a weight of about 2.5 kg.

Flamingos belong to one of the most ancient bird families. Fossil flamingos closest to modern forms, have been dated to 30 million years ago, while fossils of more primitive species have been found that are over 50 million years old.

The fossils were found in places where flamingos are no longer seen today - some areas of Europe, North America and Australia. This indicates that they had a much wider range in the past.

The six species of flamingos are divided into two groups based on the size and shape of their beaks. The mandibles of the Common, Red and Chilean flamingos have widely spaced plates, allowing them to feed on small crustaceans, mollusks, insects, plant seeds and small fish.

Birds from the second group - Andean, Lesser and James flamingos are more limited in their diet due to the narrow distance between the plates of the beak. These species of flamingos are able to eat only small-sized food (in particular, algae and plankton), filtering it.

Thanks to a special diet rich in carotenes, the plumage of flamingos acquires a pink color. All flamingos, except for northern populations, are sedentary. Flamingos wait for the rainy season to hatch their chicks. Heavy rains not only provide them with food and building material for the nest, but also protected from predators. The basis of the nutrition of the pink flamingo is the small reddish crustacean Artemia and its eggs. In addition, flamingos also feed on other crustaceans, as well as mollusks, insect larvae, and worms. Some species eat blue-green and diatoms. They search for food in shallow areas. Going far into the water long legs, flamingos lower their heads under the water and dig with their beaks at the bottom of the reservoir. At the same time, the crown of the bird almost touches the bottom, the upper jaw is at the bottom, and the lower jaw is at the top. Flamingos drink salty and fresh water during the rain, licking the drops of water running down the plumage.

In high conical nests made of shell rock, silt and mud, flamingos incubate one (rarely two or three) large eggs. After two and a half months, the chicks grow up and begin to fly independently, and after three years they can acquire their own offspring. Flamingos nest in large colonies of up to 20,000 pairs (in India - up to 2,000,000 pairs). The nest is a truncated cone made of silt and gypsum. The clutch contains 1-2 eggs, which are incubated by the male and the female for 27-32 days, both parents also take care of the offspring. The chicks hatch with downy, sighted and straight beak. For two months, the parents feed them "belching", which, in addition to semi-digested food, contains secretions from the glands of the lower esophagus and pancreas. This liquid is nutritionally comparable to the milk of mammals, it is light pink in color due to the presence of carotenoids in it. The chicks leave the nest a few days after hatching and at about a month old they change the first downy outfit to the second one. The chicks left for a while without parents, who have already left the nest, huddle into large (up to 200 chicks) groups and are under the supervision of several “duty educators” who have remained in place. Young people acquire the ability to fly on the 65th-75th day of life; at the same age, their filtering apparatus is finally formed.

Flamingos are monogamous and pair up for at least a few years. On nesting sites, birds protect only the nest itself. In the wild, apparently, they live up to 30 years, and in captivity even longer (up to 40 years).

Flamingos are sometimes called " fiery bird because some have really bright plumage. Flamingos are sometimes referred to as the "morning bird" because other species have pale pink plumage. These birds have a very long neck and legs, and, as Professor N. A. Gladkov wrote, “if we talk about relative sizes, flamingos can rightfully be considered the longest-legged bird in the world.” There are many interesting legends about flamingos. For example, one of them tells that one day water snakes decided to take away their chicks from flamingos. But the birds did not give their chicks to the snakes. Then the snakes began to torture the birds - they began to bite their legs, gradually rising higher and higher. But the birds endured and stood motionless in the water until the chicks grew up. And the chicks, as if knowing what was happening, “tried” to grow faster. It is curious that in this legend, which, of course, has nothing to do with the color of the flamingo's legs, one real detail is noticed: flamingo chicks are born helpless, but soon, after two or three days, they become quite independent.