Surf Birds is the ultimate resource on birds. We are the premier site on the internet for both the serious birder as well as the novice or casual birdwatcher. We are also a great place to start your search for information on flamingos
	We hope you like this picture of a Greater Flamingo taken by one of the surfbirds team during a recent visit to the Camargue in France. There are just 5 species of flamingo on our planet as follows: Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber Chilean flamingo Phoenicopterus chilensis Lesser Flamingo Phoeniconaias minor Andean Flamingo Phoeniconaias andinus Puna Flamingo Phoenicoparrus jamesi (source Wells, World Bird Species Checklist, published by Worldlist 1998) The Greater Flamingo is the largest species of flamingo standing some five feet tall and occurs throughout Africa, southern Europe and Asia; it is also found in the New World. The Lesser Flamingo is a predominantly African species although it also occurs in India and the Persian Gulf. More than half of the world's population of Lesser Flamingos inhabit the alkaline Rift Valley lakes of Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania with as many as a milllion birds on a single lake at times.
	Flamingos never fail to appeal to birdwatchers and non-birdwatchers alike - the combination of their pink plumage, elegant gait, unique feeding habits and their 'great gatherings' around the margins of 'briny' lakes make them a winner with the general public at large. The picture of the bird to the left shows a Greater Flamingo momentarily lifting its head to take a break from feeding.
	Both the  Greater and Lesser Flamingo can be found in Africa, and like their cousins in the americas, they sieve the lake shallows for the invertebrates upon which they feed. The waters must be of the right temperature and alkali content for the diatom and blue-green algae to breed. It also has to be at exactly the right depth to enable the flamingos to feed. For many years a lake can provide the algae the flamingos need, with generation upon generation of birds growing up to depend on it. Then suddenly, one aspect of the complex equation changes and the flamingos, faced with starvation, lift their wings to the air and disperse, perhaps thousands of miles to other feeding stations in Africa. With the end of the last ice age, the warming of the climate enabled species such as the Greater Flamingo to adventure further afield. Today this species makes regular journeys from Africa across the Mediterranean to nest in the lagoons of the Camargue in southern France. Situated at the mouth of the Rhone, the Camargue National Park ia a huge area of marsh and shallow lagoons, bounded by dunes and stone pines. Global warming may make these colonies a permanent feature along Europe's southern shores in future.
	The surfbirds site is full of great 'flamingo' material - if you enter our home page and use our very own surfbirds search engine you'll be able to find the many references to flamingos.
	Whilst flamingos might conjure up images of neon signs, hotels and Las Vegas nightlife, in evolutionary terms, their 'catwalk' legs and neck and their crooked beak are all attributes that have arisen for a reason. David Attenborough in 'The Life of Birds' explains why... "Finding water might not seem to be a problem for ...birds that live in the Rift Valley of eastern Africa since lakes lie along its length. But these lakes are not like others. The streams that....flow into the lakes dissolve salts from the volcanic ash...As the lake water heats in the baking sun, so it evaporates and the salt content rises, with the result that most of these lakes are now much more briny than the sea. But one of them is so heavily saturated that around its margins the salt is solid. This is Lake Magadi. Flamingos feed on all of the salt lakes of the Rift at various times....Algae and brine shrimp...proliferate in vast quantities. And they in turn, are food for Flamingos. Two species are here, the Greater Flamingo, which stands nearly five feet high, and the Lesser, which is half the size. Both have webbed feet which spread their weight and enable them to walk over mud without sinking too deeply into it. The Greater Flamingo collects shrimps and worms by plunging its head and often most of its neck deep in the water and walking forward, ploughing through the mud. But it is the Lesser Flamingo that has become the most extremely specialised for life in this forbidding environment. It lives predeominantly on the blue-green algae. These microscopic plants float in the upper surface of the water and the Lesser Flamingo collects them with one of the most complex beaks possessed by any bird. When feeding, it lowers its neck and holds this beak, upside down and pointing backwards, just beneath the surface of the water where the algae it seeks congregate. The lower mandible is bulbous and has a honeycomb of air-filled spaces which cause it to float, so minimising the muscular effort needed to hold the beak in the right place in the water. The bend in the middle of the beak .....is of particular importance. Were the beak to be straight, then when it opens, the gap between the mandibles would steadily increase from the corner of the gape to its tip. With a bend in the middle, the flamingo is able to separate its mandibles just slightly so that the distance between them is almost the same along nearly all of its length. There is therefore no danger of a feeding bird taking in larger objects than it wants. Internally, the edges of the mandibles are lined by hinged horny plates. The bird's tongue acts as a pump, moving extremely rapidly backwards and forwards. As the tongue retracts, the hair covered plates are swept down flat and water is drawn in. As the tongue pushes forrward again, the plates lift, water is expelled and the algae and shrimp are strained off by the hairs.....Pumping in mouthfuls twenty times a second, a Lesser Flamingo can fliter twenty litres of water a day and extract from it sixty grams of food."
	You can find out more about the life of the Lake Magadi flamingos and what happens as the heat intensifies, the water level drops and land predators such as jackals, hyenas or even lions reach them, by buying 'The Life of Birds' by David Attenborough through the surfbirds bookstore in association with Amazon. Click here to enter the surfbirds bookstore
	Watching feeding flamingos provides endless fascination. A few birders will be lucky enough to reside in countries where flamingos are a common part of the natural landscape. But for most, watching flamingos has to wait for those birding trips abroad. If you'd like to read more about different birding trips where flamingos have been seen, then browse through our extensive library of trip reports . To start you off on your 'pink flamingo' quest, here's a few recommendations: A Week in Provence: Martin Birch "We then drove on to the Etang du Fangassier where the Flamingo breeding colony is based. At this time of year large numbers of waders are also moving through." (click here for Martin's full trip report and more photos of flamingos). South Africa: Georges and Mireille Olioso travelled around South Africa observing much of the stunning birdlife including flamingos: "the saltpans are at the end of the road. We watch hundreds of Greater Flamingos (with numerous young), 30 Lesser Flamingos......." To read the rest of their report and see a penguin pic, click here Spain: Geir Karlsen finds some great mediterranean birds and of course lots of flamingos in the land of the Ebro... Spain (click here)... "Greater Flamingos were recorded in great numbers with max. of 1000+ individuals on the 11th in Ebro".
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