Flamingo

The flamingos ( Phoenicopterus sp. ) is large water birds (from 80 to 145 cm) with long legs and long neck. They have a nozzle with the single aspect, of which the lower mandible is developed than the higher.

Distribution

These are gregarious birds that one meets at the same time in the Nouveau and the Old world.

They are more numerous in this last, but the America has four of them S, against two for the Old-World.

One finds them in central South America and , in Africa, southernmost Europe and with the the Middle East.

Mediums of life

The flamingos live in groups in the wetlands. They attend the not very major stretches of water, normally salted, brackish or alkaline, as well on the coasts as inside the grounds, of the sea level until nearly 5000 m of altitude.

Biology

Food

The flamingos nourish themselves by filtering of Crustacé S and of Algue S. Their nozzle with the curious form is particularly well adapted to separate mud and the mud from the food which they consume, and is used with back. The filtering of the nutritive elements is facilitated by a structure out of comb, plates which border the mandibles, and by a language on the rough surface. The color of the flamingos comes from the pigmentation of the pink shellfish of which they are nourished.

Reproduction and breeding of the young people

The greatest species nest and are nourished in mediums of water saltworks or brackish. The nests are made of agglomerated mud and have the shape of a monticule at the concave top, in which a single white egg is laid.

The chick hatches with a white plumage, but the feathers of the adult have a color active of pale pink with bright red, due to the Caroténoïde S contained in food. All the flamingos have 12 Rémige S black with each wing.

The flamingos produce a “milk” similar to that of the Pigeon S (see Columbidae). It contains more grease and less proteins than at the latter, and is produced by glands which furnish all the upper part of the digestive tract, and not only the jabot. The young flamingos are nourished of this milk for approximately two months, until them nozzle is sufficiently developed to be able to filter food. Milk contains also red and white blood globules.

Phoenicopterus ruber

List species

  • Phoenicopterus roseus Pallas, 1811.
    Autrefois regarded as a subspecies of Phoenicopterus ruber .
  • Pink flamingo - Phoenicopterus ruber Linnaeus, 1758 - Greater Flamingo .
  • Flamingo of Chile - Phoenicopterus chilensis Molina, 1782 - Chilean Flamingo .
  • dwarf Flamingo - Phoenicopterus minor Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, E 1798 - To injure Flamingo .
  • Flamingo of the Andes - Phoenicopterus andinus Philippi, 1854 - Andean Flamingo .
  • Flamingo of James - Phoenicopterus jamesi P.L. Sclater, 1886 - Puna Flamingo gold James' Flamingo .

Statute

These six species are registered with appendix II of the Cites.

See too

Random links:Motet | Analyzes of an crude oil | Alexandre Husson | Mario Corso | Henri de Jordan | Ville_blanche,_la_Floride