American Flamingo

Basic Description

Flamingos are truly unmistakable birds of endless superlatives: dazzling pink plumage, stiltlike legs, an impossibly long neck, and a bill that seems to have been bent in half. American Flamingos are highly social wading birds that breed in huge colonies in the Caribbean and then disperse to lagoons and estuaries where they use their unique bill to filter saltwater for small aquatic invertebrates. Pairs build a volcano-shaped mud cone that holds a single egg. A few days after hatching, chicks join communal nurseries, watched over by several adults.