“Flamingos are pink because of pigments in the shrimp and algae they eat.”
American flamingos gather in large colonies around shallow Caribbean and northern South American lagoons. They sweep specialized bills through the water to filter algae and tiny animals, whose pigments contribute to the birds' pink plumage.
By An Nguyen · Published · Updated
Phoenicopterus ruber Phoenicopteriformes Phoenicopteridae
Measured against the 176 species profiled on this site. Each figure is converted to one unit system from the published range on the page, so the ranks are computed, not quoted.
| Measure | This species | Rank here | Exceeds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body mass | 3.6 kg | #117 of 176#15 of 28 Aves | 33% |
| Body length | 1.45 m | #73 of 176#9 of 28 Aves | 59% |
| Lifespan in the wild | 30 yr | #38 of 169#11 of 28 Aves | 74% |
Closest in body mass
Ranks use the upper end of each published adult range, so they compare typical large adults rather than records, and metrics with no published number are left out rather than estimated. The full table is downloadable from the species dataset, and any two species can be put side by side in the comparison tool.
Browse photographs of american flamingo across habitat, behavior, anatomy, and life stages.
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Core article
A closer look at habitat, diet, behavior, reproduction, and conservation.
The American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) is a pink, filter-feeding bird of Caribbean and northern South American lagoons, salt flats, and hypersaline lakes. Colonies can number in the tens of thousands, and the bird's down-curved bill filters algae and small invertebrates from water that few other vertebrates use for feeding.
A large bird, the American flamingo stands 47 to 57 inches and weighs 4 to 8 pounds. Its pink coloration comes from carotenoids in algae and small crustaceans, which are converted in the liver and deposited in feathers, skin, and egg yolk. Long legs allow the bird to forage in deeper water, while webbed feet spread its weight over soft mud. What appears to be a backward-bending knee is the ankle; the true knee is concealed by feathers. The down-curved bill is lined with comb-like plates called lamellae, and the muscular tongue pumps water through them to retain food. Flamingos belong to the family Phoenicopteridae, whose closest living relatives are grebes.
American flamingos are native to the Neotropics, with populations in the Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico's Yucatán, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador (including a distinct Galápagos population), and sporadically in southern Florida. They are obligate specialists of highly specific, hostile habitats — coastal lagoons, mudflats, mangrove swamps, and shallow hypersaline salt flats. The extreme salinity is the point: it supports the algae and brine shrimp they feed on while deterring predators and competitors. Fresher wetlands farther north instead suit large waterfowl like the mute swan, whose grazing diet is nothing like flamingo filter feeding.
Functioning as living filters, flamingos are carnivores in the technical sense, eating microscopic aquatic animals — brine shrimp, small crustaceans, mollusks, and insect larvae — along with blue-green algae. The feeding posture is upside down: the bird lowers its neck and inverts its head so the crown points at the muddy bottom, then sweeps side to side while the tongue pumps water continuously through the lamellae, harvesting thousands of tiny items a minute. To stir buried prey loose, flamingos often "mud-dance," stamping their webbed feet to churn organic matter into the water before straining it.
Flamingos are gregarious, forming colonies from dozens to tens of thousands. Group living improves predator detection and provides the setting for synchronized courtship displays such as head-flagging, wing-saluting, and marching in tight ranks. They also stand on one leg for long periods, including while asleep. Heat conservation is one supported explanation: tucking a leg into the body plumage reduces heat loss in cold water, while a locking joint helps the standing leg support the bird with little muscular effort.
Breeding depends on conditions — water level and rainfall — so flamingos don't necessarily nest every year. Once paired through the group displays, both sexes build a truncated cone of mud up to a foot high, raising the single chalky-white egg above flooding and the heat of the alkaline ground. Both parents share the roughly 28-to-32-day incubation. The chick hatches grey-downed with a straight bill, and for the first months the parents feed it "crop milk," a red, fat- and protein-rich secretion from the upper digestive tract stimulated by the hormone prolactin. As the bill gradually curves, the chick joins a large crèche watched by a few adults while the parents forage. Flamingos mature at 3 to 5 years and are long-lived — 20 to 30 years in the wild, up to 50 in captivity.
The American flamingo is Least Concern with a generally stable global trend, but individual colonies remain vulnerable to habitat damage. Coastal development, commercial salt extraction, and agricultural pollution can alter feeding and nesting wetlands. Low-flying aircraft and introduced predators such as dogs and pigs can also disturb dense colonies and cause adults to abandon eggs or chicks. Conservation therefore depends on protecting the lagoons and salt flats used for feeding and breeding.
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Order
Phoenicopteriformes
Family
Phoenicopteridae
Genus
Phoenicopterus
Species
P. ruber
Flamingos are pink because of pigments in the shrimp and algae they eat.
They feed with their heads upside down in the water.
Flamingo chicks hatch gray and turn pink as they grow.
Flamingos often stand on one leg to save body heat.
They nest in huge colonies on mud mounds.
American flamingos live in the Caribbean and Galápagos Islands.
Select a question to reveal the answer.
American flamingos live in shallow lagoons and coastal wetlands in the Caribbean, Galápagos Islands, and northern South America.
Flamingos filter tiny brine shrimp, algae, and small animals from the water with their specialized beaks.
Natural pigments called carotenoids in their food build up in their feathers, turning them pink.
Standing on one leg may help flamingos keep warm by tucking one leg close to their body.
American flamingos stand about 4 to 5 feet tall, with much of that height coming from their long legs and neck.
American flamingos are listed as Least Concern, but habitat loss and pollution can threaten nesting colonies.
A flamingo is a vertebrate. It is a bird, so it has a backbone, an internal skeleton, and a skull. Invertebrates such as insects, mollusks, and jellyfish lack that backbone.
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