Why are the flamingos pink ? Because they eat a lot of blue-green algae. A meaningful answer, is not it ? True, flamingos also eat a lot of shrimp, but the pink color of the plumage is attached to the algae. Despite its blue-green name, these algae can be red, purple, brown, yellow and even orange.
Flamingos got their name for the bright color. As well as the “fiery” flamenco dance, the name of this bird comes from the Latin word flamma, which means “fire.” And the red and white flag of Peru has its colors thanks and in honor of the flamingos.
Flamingos are of four types. All of them are not less than ten million years old and once upon a time there were also in Europe, and in Australia, and in America. Today, the flamingos well feel only in certain parts of Africa, India, South America and southern Europe.
Flamingos are monogamous creatures. They carry one egg a year, putting it in a nest made of earth or silt. The egg is hatch by both parents and both feed the first few months of the life of the chick with a pink mixture – nutritious bird “flamingo milk”. Flamingos – one of two kinds of birds, giving “bird’s milk”, the second – pigeons. In captivity, flamingos, even if they are not themselves parents, spontaneously give off milk if they hear the squeaking of chicks nearby.
After the chicks leave the parent’s nest, they turn into spacious bird nurseries. And in spite of the fact that up to 30,000 young flamingos can be in such nurseries at the same time, the parents unmistakably recognize their chicks by their voice. Their chicks are fed only by their own parents.
