PRINT A4 - ZOO Flamingo

The flamingo, Phoenicopterus roseus, lives in the wild in large flocks of up to 20,000 pairs at salt lakes and lagoons. The bird uses its 'harsh' voice to keep the group together and to locate its chicks within large flocks. The animal is recognizable by its pink plumage, which it obtains by eating microscopic crustaceans, algae, small fish and small invertebrates. It has a long, thin neck and a beak that is bent and works like a kind of filter. This means that when the flamingo dips its head to catch food, water and mud are filtered out through the beak. In addition, the bird 'steps' while feeding, which helps it bring food up from the bottom.

In the wild flamingos can live up to 40 years and typically measure between 120 and 145 cm in height.
The flamingo is gravid for 27–31 days, during which it incubates its single egg. The nest is built from mud and the chick is fed crop milk, a secretion from the mucous membranes of the esophagus.

There are several reasons why the flamingo sometimes stands on one leg. By standing on just one leg the bird keeps warmer and also gets rest. The way the flamingo maintains balance is by locking the ankle joint so the leg becomes stable and the weight is distributed, preventing it from tipping to the side.

Since zoos are not allowed to feed flamingos small crustaceans and algae, the pigment is provided in another way. This is done by giving the flamingos canthaxanthin — a pigment closely related to the pigment beta-carotene, which is also found in carrots. At first the flamingos were given lots of paprika, but that didn’t color them enough.

All art prints in the zoo series are also available in A3