Flamingo diary
Flamingos are one of the most popular animals exhibited in animal collections. If you’re keen to learn more about them and delve deeper in the ways in which WWT keeps its flamingos then follow Paul's diary up-to-date with all things flamingo. Paul Rose is a PhD student from the University of Exeter’s Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, currently based in the Conservation Programmes Directorate at WWT, who is investigating the social behaviour of captive flamingo flock
New insights for January
Happy New Year flamingo followers. Unfortunately I cannot really say much about flamingo behaviour at WWT for this first month of the year as the flocks are currently shut away in their houses, safe and warm, until environmental conditions improve and t
22 January 2017
Catching flamingos in Wales
As autumn is a quiet time in the flamingo calendar, it is a good part of the year to organise and run a flamingo catch. As nesting is over, and birds are not really in display mode, there is minimal disturbance to the flock. The latest WWT flamingo catch
12 October 2016
Summer lull but still lots to look out for.
It's a calm time of the year in the various flamingo flocks at WWT Slimbridge. The breeding season for the big greater and Caribbean flocks has wound down and whilst there still may be activity from the Chilean flamingos it seems that activity levels real
21 August 2016
South American adventures
Hello flamingo followers. It’s been a good couple of weeks to watch the breeding behaviour of the birds at WWT Slimbridge. All of the flocks have coloured up nicely, and with the Chilean flamingo catch now out of the way, the avics can concentrate on en
22 March 2016
Chilean flamingo catch 2016
There's been a run of flamingo catches at WWT Slimbridge over the past few years. The lessers were moved in 2012, the Andeans in 2013, the Caribbeans were caught and re-ringed in 2014, as were the massive flock of greaters in 2015. And this year it was
6 March 2016
Flirting flamingos in February
It's the month of Valentine's Day and the flamingos seem to know it! Or they might just be pleased that the rain (hello Storm Imogen?!) has gone away and they have been let out to play... There have been some very interesting courtship displays cropping u
10 February 2016
A flamingo bedtime.
If you're at WWT Slimbridge in the late afternoon, you might be lucky enough to see the greater flamingos head to bed for the evening. In this colder time of the year, the birds have to be put away for the night in case of ice forming on their pond. The v
26 January 2016
A new year retrospective?
Happy 2016 flamingo followers! It's probably not the best way to start a new year by looking backwards but I thought I would share some lovely pictures that got posted to me just this week. I received two postcards from the 1980s (we think) and they a
8 January 2016
Home improvements = happy flamingos #2
It's nearly the festive season flamingo followers! And I hope that you are all ready for the main event. The mild weather (I really want some snow! Does anyone else?!) means that the birds have not been put to bed as much as normal, nor are having to be s
19 December 2015
Two for the price of one! Ducks and flamingos come together...
Hello lovely Flamingo Diary followers! As a treat for you all, a joint effort from Slimbridge's very own Duckery expert Phoebe (who write the Duck Diary) and me, looking at a comparison of the ducks and flamingos found in WWT's bird collections. Read all
15 November 2015
Home improvements = happy flamingos #1
Hello all, the first of two posts about the work that the avics do at WWT to keep the flamingos fit, happy and healthy. In the pink you might say! This first instalment starts at the end of summer. I am sharing it now because of other changes th
24 October 2015
What's been researching at Slimbridge this year...?
In this post I thought I would do a "research round-up" about the pink bird studies from 2015. WWT Slimbridge has hosted several MSc students over the course of the academic year just gone, two of which were studying flamingos specifically. Also I was i
6 October 2015
Has Mr James found a friend...?!
Everyone's favourite Slimbridge flamingo seems to have mellowed in his old(er) age and may have found a new found sociable side. Mr James is well-known for his rather belligerent temper and he doesn't stand any nonsense from any young upstarts that might
7 September 2015
Pink birds Down Under and an August update
It's been a few weeks since my last flamingo diary post as I attended an international behavioural ecology conference in deepest, darkest Queensland, Australia. I was very lucky to have received a "merit award" from the University of Exeter last year and
25 August 2015
Flamingo feeding habits
I thought I would write a diary post moving away from breeding for a change and instead talk about a flamingo's behavioural ecology. Behavioural ecology is our understanding of why animals are evolved to do specific things, and how the specific things tha
29 July 2015