American Flamingo
The American flamingo is a large wading bird with reddish-pink plumage from North America. They are one of the largest species of Flamingo but they are smaller on average than greater flamingos, they are the largest flamingos in the Americas. The group name of Flamingos are called colonies or flocks. They measure from 120 to 145 cm tall. The males weigh an average of 2.8 kg, while females average 2.2 kg. Most of its plumage is pink, giving rise to its earlier name of rosy flamingo and differentiating adults from the much paler greater flamingo. The wing coverts are red, and the primary and secondary flight feathers are black. The bill is pink and white with an extensive black tip. The legs are entirely pink. There call is a goose-like honking.
Habitat
They live in north American, or the Caribbean and at the top of south America. They have been known to come from the West Indies, The start of Yucatan in Mexico and also the Galapagos Islands. Flamingos are distributed throughout the Caribbean Islands and along the northern coast of South America. They usually live in the shallows of salt or brackish water or alkaline lakes. They live in and around lagoons or lakes. These bodies of water tend to be saline or alkaline. They are also kept in a lot of oos around the world
Diet
Flamingos eat larva, small insects, blue-green and red algae, mollusks, crustaceans and small fish. Their tendency to eat both vegetation and meat makes them omnivores. Flamingos are pink because the algae they consume are loaded with beta carotene, an organic chemical that contains a reddish-orange pigment. (Beta carotene is also present in many plants, but especially in tomatoes, spinach, pumpkins, sweet potato and, of course, carrots.) The mollusks and crustaceans flamingos snack on contain similar pigment-packing carotenoids. Carotenoid levels in their food vary in different parts of the world, which is why American flamingos are usually bright red and orange.
If a flamingo were to stop eating food containing carotenoids, its new feathers would begin growing in with a much paler shade, and its reddish feathers would eventually molt away. Molted feathers lose their pinkish hue.
What a flamingo eats depends on what type of beak it has. To eat, flamingos will stir up the bottom of the lake with their feet and duck their beaks down into the mud and water to catch their meal.
Breeding
It is believed that flamingos are monogamous. Once they mate, they tend to stay with that mate. The breeding season takes place in May in Mexico and between March and June in the Bahamas, but this period may vary. A group of flamingos will all mate at the same time so that all of the chicks will hatch at the same time. Pairs will make nests out of mounds of mud, and the female will lay one egg at a time. Each egg is a little bigger than a large chicken egg, at 3-3.5 inches long and weighs 115-140 grams. The egg will take 27-31 days to hatch, and the emerging chick will only be 73-90 grams. Young Flamingos reach maturity at 3-5 years old. The juvenile has grey-brown plumage with pinkish wash in underparts. Wings and tail are mainly brown with black flight feathers. The bill is pale blue-grey with black tip. The eyes are dark greyish. Legs and feet are grey with blackish joint. The subadult plumage may vary during the first three years. Baby flamingos are gray or white. They will turn pink within the first couple years of life. Flamingos live 20 to 30 years in the wild or up to 50 years in a zoo.
Population
The American Flamingo has an extremely large population averaging 260,000-330,000 of mature individuals. The population of the American Flamingo appears to be increasing. When the species was assessed on the 9th August 2018 for the IUCN Red List they came to the conclusion that they were Least Concern as there is a lot of mature individuals and there are a lot of mature individuals in zoos and are part of breeding programmes.
Threats
They are threatened with human disturbance and habitat loss along the Caribbean’s coastal wetlands. But currently, this species is not threatened.
Conservation
Zoos around the world have found success in conserving flamingos. Flamingos can thrive and multiply in captivity. Breeding in captivity ensures the survival of the breed because it takes away the threat of drought, famine and predators.