The flamingos are back! (part 2)

16 April 2017

Hello flamingo fans. Remember in my last post I said that there would be another update this month about flamingo happenings now that everyone is out and about, and really in the pink...? Well here it is. First up, a hugely flamtastic "thank you" to aviculturist and flamingo keeper Phil for sending over all of these wonderful video clips and photos that I am sharing with you here. Given my last diary entry, more from an observers point-of-view, I thought you lovely readers would like to see a more "boots on the ground" insight, and how the flamingos have settled back into their normal routine after what has been a challenging winter period.

First up, I love this video that Phil has taken of the lesser flamingos being let out. They are so pink and in the best of spirits. You can see them crowd together as they march (part of their courtship display) out of the doors of their house. The display continues as the birds head into the middle of their pen.

So what's it like to get this privileged inside view of the flamingos when you work with them everyday? Phil captured this great clip of the greater flamingo flock displaying inside of their house. This is a huge group of birds, and the subject of the latest paper that I am putting together for my PhD, but you can see how the facilities provided for them at WWT still enable the birds to behave naturally. Speeded up, you can see how the flock moves around all together, at the same time, whilst doing a courtship dance.

I mentioned in my last post about how the lesser flamingos were building nests in the sanded area inside their house. Phil captured this brilliant photo, below, of the birds dancing around him when they were being cleaned out. The pinkness is stunning. And check the tightly-knit group in the middle of the flock. They are doing their "broken neck" display- a very intense part of the courtship dance for this species.

Let's compare to the wild... and what do you see? See this wonderful photo on the Arkive website http://www.arkive.org/lesser-flamingo/phoeniconaias-minor/image-G14732.html... The same colour, the same behaviour. When you visit Slimbridge you get to see a small slice of the Rift Valley in Gloucestershire :-)

The birds are very confiding, and very trusting of Phil. He can work around them and capture what they are up to at the same time. And therefore he gets to share some cool insider knowledge of how each flock operates. Such as the behaviour you can see below.

All of this dancing, flirting, nest-building activity has continued now the birds are back on show. Phil took the video, below, of the birds squabbling over nest mounds on their island as he waded out to feed them.

From the front of the bird's pen, it is quite a limited view. The birds like this. Privacy is good for them when they are thinking about nesting. So they choose areas to pack nests into (be that in the corner of their house, or next to some rushes). You might not get to see much, but at least you know the flamingos are happy in what they are doing.

Spring is definitely in the air for the other flocks too. The Chilean flamingos are very active and there is a lot of head-flagging to be seen. Again, Phil captured this video the day the birds were allowed back outside. You can see the flock spread across their pen, and the birds in the middle are merrily dancing away.

A whole bunch of tightly-packed birds milling around on the island in the middle of the enclosure. This, and the water in front of their house, are the Chileans' favourite areas to display in. You can get good views of their courtship by standing on the famous stepping stones (careful, don't fall in!) in South American Pen. Move quietly and don't run, and the birds can sometimes come very close.

Phil has also captured some brilliant behaviour on everyone's favourites- the Andean flamingos. Phil captured this video of the birds on their first day out of their house too. There is a lot of washing, bathing and preening. Everyone getting spruced up to look their best. Andeans are the most colourful of all flamingo species, with the widest range of pinks, purples, yellows and oranges. They look to take a lot of time to keep this rainbow of feathers in good order. And then as hormones start to swirl around and birds start vying with each other for attention, squabbles break out between the biggest, brightest boys in the group. Aggression between flamingos is common. Fights can look quite brutal but are over quickly, once order is restored and everyone knows their place.

And finally. You might remember at the end of my last post that I mentioned about a way of getting really close to the Slimbridge flamingos? And that Phil and the clever media folks in WWT HQ had been popping go-pro cameras in with the flamingo flocks to look nose-to-beak at life in the middle of a colony. This has worked a treat- here is footage from the camera in with the Andean flamingos. The Caribbean flamingo, currently on a short vacation with this flock, seems especially keen to steal the limelight. Watch for the cameo close-up from Mr James appearing bottom left too!