FLAMINGO
Flamingos
live in many parts of the world and spend their entire life near
lakes, marshes, and seas. There are four species with the Andean
Flamingo the rarest. These tall waders with long stiltlike legs
and webbed feet seem more like storybook creatures than real live
birds. Powerful curved bills that are very sensitive, Flamingos
eat algae and small crustaceans that contain the compound which
keeps the feathers a pale pink to bright red. Flamingos live in
colonies which have thousands of members. They mate once a year
and the female lays a single egg in a nest of mud. Young Flamingos
leave the nest and form small groups, then return to feed on a fluid
produced in the digestive system of the parents. The adults dribble
this fluid from their mouth into the youngster’s bill. Soon after
the young are herded into a group called a creche and start to find
their own food. Many birds are capable of synchronized movements
in flight, but flamingos can do the same thing on the ground. Wild
Flamingos once lived in southern Florida, but people killed them
for their beautiful feathers faster than the birds could multiply.
There numbers generally have dramatically declined as a result of
abstraction of water from lakes to supply towns and cities, and
by pollution from mines.
The 'Paradisia Collection' wildlife design will portray
the beauty of the graceful and elegant flamingo of the Galapagos Isles.
Paradisia Collection
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