AMERICAN FLAMINGO
Phoenicopterus ruber
Range: The American Flamingo is found throughout the
Caribbean (Cuba, the Bahamas, the Yucatan, Turks and Caicos, the Galapagos Islands, the northern part of coastal
South America and along the Florida coast.) It was formerly
considered a subspecies of the Greater Flamingo (now P.
roseus). Those seen in Florida include wild birds (once common north to Tampa and the Indian River Lagoon) and
Native or introduced? When the Europeans arrived in south
some that have escaped from zoos.
Florida there was a small breeding population at the very
Habitat: All flamingoes are found in tropi- south end of Florida which would have made that the northcal and sub-tropical areas. They inhabit large ernmost extent of their range. John James Audubon saw a
shallow salt flats and saltwater lagoons where flock of flamingoes in the Keys in 1832, painting it for Birds of
their main food items, krill and brine shrimp, America in 1838. In 1884, a prominent ornithologist described
seeing a flock of more than 2,000 birds in the western Everare found.
glades and in 1901, an expert birder reported seeing a number
Description: Wingspan 5 ft., long legs, long of flamingoes at Sugarloaf Key in the Keys sitting on what
necks and webbed feet. Most of its plumage is pink with red appeared to be nests. Since that time their range has shrunk
feathers beneath the wings and black primary and secondary due to pressure on their habitat and there are no longer breedfeathers. Their call is goose-like. Adult males weigh about 6 ing birds here. Although experts disagree, nobody will say
that breeding flamingoes are impossible here in Florida.
pounds and females about 5 pounds.
Fun Facts:
• Flamingoes make a fatty “milk” produced in glands lining the whole of the upper digestive tract, including the
crop. Young flamingoes feed on this milk for about two
months until their bills are developed enough to filter feed.
The milk also contains red and white blood cells. They share
this trait with pigeons and Emperor Penguins.
• They excrete excess salt through salt glands through
their nostrils.
• Their pink color is determined by their diet. Shrimp,
insects, algae, and other things they eat contain beta carotene, a form of vitamin A, that with overeating can cause a
natural condition called carotenodermia or an oranging of
the skin in people too. In order to have flamingoes that remain pink in captivity, various colouring agents are fed to
them; normally the same agents that are fed to farmed
salmon so they have pink meat.
• Flamingoes are excellent swimmers, paddling with their
webbed feet and sometimes continuing to eat. They look
somewhat like swimming pink swans.
• The plural is written both as flamingoes and flamingos.
• DNA comparisons suggest that their nearest relatives
are grebes (Podicipediformes).
Life expectancy: It has one of the longest life expectancies
at 40 years; the oldest known Greater Flamingo (P. roseas) is
living in Australia and is 75 years old.
Diet: Algae, diatoms, tiny fish, brine, fly larva and blue-green
bacteria.
Refrences:
http://fl.audubon.org/birds_FAQ.html
http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/flamingos/fadapt.htm
Gill, F. B. 2007 Ornithology. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York. 758 pp.
“Real Florida: Pink Power” By Jeff Klinkenberg, Times Staff Writer © St. Petersburg Times, published October 29, 2002