What does a flamingo sound like

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Flamingos are highly social birds who form strong pair bonds. They live in extensive flocks, as they need to be part of a large group for breeding to occur. They communicate with each other with a range of vocalizations and visual displays. In flocks of hundreds or thousands of flamingos, it is important that individual specimens can find their families.

Couples Greeting

Birds paired off for breeding have locator calls that allow them find each other. Pairs find a suitable spot to build a nest and defend their nesting territory. Both parents build the nest; once the female has laid the egg -- normally one egg but sometimes two -- both defend the nest and the egg from other pairs who want the nesting territory. They take turns incubating the egg and foraging. They recognize each other with a nasal double honk contact call, which the partner will return even if they can't see each other. Different individuals have honks with different amplitude modulations.

Greeting Chicks

While the chick is still inside the egg, a few days before hatching, he will make cheeping vocalizations. Both parents learn to recognize the sound of their chick and will make low grunting vocalizations so the chick imprints on them. When the chick is 6 days to 12 days old he will leave the nest and join a crèche, a group of chicks. The parents will make their contact calls to the chick as he leaves the nest. Both parents will visit the crèche to feed their own chick but no others. The parent will call to the chick who will recognize it from up to 100 yards away. Chicks respond only to their own parents' contact calls.

Different Types of Vocalizations

Flamingos are noisy birds; flocks in flight often make honking sounds similar to those of geese. Their repertoire of sounds includes nasal honking, grunting, low gabbling and growling, as well as location calls and alarm calls to warn the flock of danger. They have highly developed hearing to recognize the individual calls of their partners and parents.

Ritualized Displays

Not all flamingo communication is verbal. They perform group displays of synchronized displays that are spectacular to observe. These collective displays help to stimulate hormone production, and birds may start to pair off for breeding following these performances. Movements include wing salutes, marching, stretching the neck high and turning it from side to side.

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What does a Greater Flamingo look like?

The adult greater flamingo is predominantly pale pink and white with an elongated neck, narrow wings and long pale pink legs. Primary and secondary flight feathers are black and the lesser and median wing coverts are a bright red in colour, contrasting with the remainder of the wing area which is pale pink. The bill is chunky, pink in colour and curving downwards to a black tip; the eyes are bright yellow. Males and females are identical in plumage colouring and patternation but the female is up to one fifth smaller overall. In flight the neck is extended forwards in a straight line and the legs assume an almost mirror image trailing backwards. Juveniles mostly lack the pinkish colour of the adult being mainly greyish brown overall with dark grey brown legs and bill and brownish wings and tail. Traces of pink may be seen on the underparts of young birds.

Instantly recognisable greater flamingo in flight

Did you know?

The greater flamingo’s diet has a direct influence on the colour of its plumage. Organic pigments called carotenoids are produced by plants and algae which are consumed by the bird. Carotenoids are either red, orange or yellow in colour with red being most commonly found in the food preferred by the flamingo, resulting in its iconic mainly pink colouration.

A greater flamingo preening itself

Greater flamingos running across the water

What does a Greater Flamingo sound like?

A medium toned, repetitive honking sound similar to a goose forms the basic call, particularly between pairs, changing to a more raucous almost barking cacophony within small groups and flocks.

Greater Flamingo call

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What does a Greater Flamingo eat?

The greater flamingo has a varied diet consisting of, but not limited to, plants, seeds, shoots, algae, insects, molluscs, worms and crustaceans. Whilst standing up with neck bent they feed from the bottom of shallow water using their bills which they sweep from side to side upside down. Less commonly they can also feed whilst swimming.

Pair of greater flamingos feeding

Distribution

Greater flamingos are widespread throughout Africa, India, Sri Lanka and the Middle East but are also relatively common in southern Europe, where they can be found in France, Spain, Italy, Greece and the Balearic Islands. Colonies of flamingos have also been reported in the Canary Islands, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan.

Signs and Spotting tips

Preferring the salty shallow water of saline lakes, lagoons, salt pans and estuaries or even mudflats and sandbanks, the greater flamingo is never far from wetland areas. It will also choose water with extremely high alkalinity.

Breeding

Nests are built from mud pillars with a saucer shaped top within shallow water or on small islands within the lake the flock is currently occupying thus affording some protection from predators. Breeding within Europe is normally between March and May whereas in north Africa it occurs as early as February. Huge colonies of up to 20,000 pairs of flamingos build nests with the breeding period frequently determined by the rainy seasons in tropical and sub-tropical regions. One white egg, occasionally two, is laid and incubated by both parents for a period of between twenty seven and thirty one days. Fledging normally takes place from nine to thirteen weeks.

Greater flamingo nest with two eggs

A juvenile greater flamingo

How long do Greater Flamingos live for?

Life expectancy of greater flamingos is at least thirty five years.

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