The new lessers are go!

27 May 2015

You may remember that back in the autumn of 2014 I wrote about five new lesser flamingos that had joined the WWT Slimbridge flock from a zoo that had recently closed down. These birds have settled in well over the past few months and, although quiet and often keeping themselves to themselves, they are starting to settle in to the bigger, more established group that they are now part of.

Two of the new arrivals from 2014 hang out together in the Lesser Flamingo Pen.

It has become very apparent over the past week or so just how settled these new birds are, because for this year they are the flamingos who have spear-headed the efforts in nest building. And currently this is really interesting to watch because the flamingos have been building on the edge of the bigger of the two islands in their pen, so their behaviour is very visible. Stand by the benches along the fence line and you will see where the birds have been building nests in the planted area on the front of the nest island.

Lesser flamingos nest build much more delicately than the bigger species, like greaters and Caribbeans, and they tend to perform this behaviour as a joint or group effort. Each bird spurring the others on to gather up as much mud as possible.

Three of the new lesser flamingos start to modify an old nest to their own standards.

I have uploaded a couple of photos so that you can see this behaviour, and just how the birds build their nests, as well as a couple of video clips that demonstrate the technique that the flamingos use to gather nesting material. It's quite messy work!

The darker part of the mound is new, wet mud that the birds have added to change its shape. Let's hope that this continues!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asr6R5De3pA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipINq2TM_NY

Flamingos drag wet mud towards their nest mound and use their beak to shape it into small pellets that stick together. Gradually the mound will grow in height. Keep your fingers crossed that this continues throughout the flock.

And the sunshine has also brought out some other hints of romance too. In the following set of photos you will see a tall male lesser flamingo (leg ring LDS) chasing a smaller female (LFA) around and around and around. This behaviour take place after the group courtship display and shows that birds have selected each other to be partners for that season. We don't often see this behaviour in the lesser flamingos, so it is a good sign. Maybe summer 2015 will be a good one for them...?!

From right to left (follow the pink arrow!); a male lesser flamingo (taller) follows a female (shorter) closely around the pool. He will do this regularly to encourage her to mate. Again, finger crossed! — From right to left (follow the pink arrow!); a male lesser flamingo (taller) follows a female (shorter) closely around the pool. He will do this regularly to encourage her to mate. Again, fingers crossed!

If you would like to look out for these "new" lesser flamingos on your next visit then they are easy to tell apart from the others in the flock because they have coloured leg rings. Two birds have green rings- ARC (girl) and ATP (boy). Two have blue rings- ASH (boy) APG (girls) and the other, AUW (boy), has a red leg ring.