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Flamingo
Habitat: Flamingos live near lakes, swamps and seas in many parts of the world where the weather is tropical (warm - hot and wet).
There are four species. The greater flamingo lives in Africa, the Middle East, India, Europe, southern South America, and the West Indies. The lesser flamingo lives in Kenya and Tanzania in Africa. The other two species, the Andean flamingo and the James' flamingo are rare and live near highland lakes of the Andes Mountains in parts of South America. Some flamingos living in parts of Europe, migrate (fly to warmer places) when the weather gets cooler.
Appearance: Flamingos have long legs, a curved bill and a long curved neck. The greater flamingos are from 110 to 130 centimeters tall. They can weigh up to 3.5 kilograms. The wingspan ranges from 95 to 100 centimetres. Males are slightly taller and heavier than females.
Flamingos have long legs and webbed feet with three front toes and one hind toe.
The colour of both male and female flamingo's feathers varies from bright red to pale pink. They have some black wing feathers.
Feeding: Flamingos eat shellfish, insect larvae,
small fish and algae. To eat, flamingos stand in shallow water
with their bills upside down and backwards in the water. The bird
stamps its webbed feet to stir up food from the bottom. It sweeps
its head from side to side to collect food from the mud. Inside
the bill, hairlike "combs" along the edges of the bill
filter the mud and water and the food is removed. Flamingos drink
fresh water.
Behaviour: Flamingos live in groups called colonies,
some of which have tens of thousands of members. The birds spend
most of the day feeding, preening (spreading waterproofing oil,
which comes from their bodies, over their feathers), resting,
swimming and bathing.
Breeding:
Once they are six years old,
flamingos mate once, maybe twice, each year. A nest is a 30 centimetre
high mound of mud, small stones, straw and feathers. Both the
male and female flamingo work to build the nest. Females lay a
single egg, about the size of a chicken's egg, in a shallow hole
at the top of the nest. 
The
parents take turns sitting on the egg to keep it warm. The egg
hatches after 26 - 31 days. Newly-hatched chicks have gray or
white feathers and a straight red bill. Both parents feed the
bird milky food which they dribble into the chick's bill.
Young flamingos leave the nest after about 5 days but return to
the nest to be fed. After about two weeks, the young are herded
into a group called a creche and start to find their own food.
Enemies: Flamingo's eggs and chicks are preyed upon by birds such as eagles and vultures and animals such as lions, leopards, cheetahs, foxes, dogs and jackals. Humans have destroyed the flamingo's habitat by mining, building roads and draining the water from the habitat. In some places flamingo eggs are removed from nests and sold. Wild flamingos once lived in the southern parts of Florida in the United States but people killed them for their feathers and the birds died out.
Flamingos live from 15 to 20 years
in their natural surroundings.
If you use any of this information in your own work, acknowledge this source in your bibliography like this:
Sydenham, S. & Thomas, R. Flamingo [Online] www.kidcyber.com.au (2007)
updated © [2008] kidcyber