search

basic information
video
reports

Greater Flamingo

Phoenicopterus roseus (Pallas, 1811)

Обыкновенный фламинго
juvenile

2015-10-26
Tomsk region, the Alexander area, the village of Kievskiy
© Sergey Gashkov

Description

Very long-legged and long-necked large bird with big (not long) knee-like curved bill. In adults all plumage is pink, wing coverts red, primaries black. Male and female similar, male is a bit larger. Young birds off-white, upperpart brownish, underwing can be pink. Weight 2-4 kg, length 125-145 cm, wing 31.0-35.4, wingspan 140-160.

Distribution

Irregularly breeds in Central Kazakhstan (Zhamanakkol, Chelkar-Teniz, Aschitastysor, Tengiz lakes), and also on Caspian Sea. In Siberia, only vagrant. Birds (mailny young) can appear in autumn into Siberia northeast to Yakutia, sometimes in several regions of Siberia in the same time.

Biology

ётная птица.Rare breeding migrant. Nests on the very salty and shallow lakes where there is the Brine Shrimp (Artemia salina) which is the basic food for the Flamingos. In spring appears in the end of March – late April in small groups or in flocks of 100-600 birds. Migration ends in mid-end May with arriving of immature birds. Breeds in colonies from 50 to 30 000 pairs. Cone-shaped nests 7-60 cm in height are constructed from the mud which is surrounded the colony and which is consist of salty silt, sand and seaweed, but sometimes eggs are laid directly on sand even without nest hollow. Clutch of 2-3, rarer 1 egg, is produced in early May to end of June. Juveniles begin to fly in August – early September. Autumn migration passes in September – October. Odd birds linger until the freezing of reservoirs. Birds breeding in Kazakhstan (Tengiz lake) and in Iran (Urmia lake) are formed the one population; the juveniles ringed in Iran in next years were regularly observed on moulting on Tengiz lake.

References

Gavrilov E. I., Gavrilov A. E. "The Birds of Kazakhstan". Almaty, 2005.
Э.И.Гаврилов. "Фауна и распространение птиц Казахстана". Алматы, 1999.
В.К.Рябицев. "Птицы Сибири". Москва-Екатеринбург, Изд-во "Кабинетный ученый", 2014.

supplement

go to family:

in other projects

Birds of Azerbaijan

Indian Birds Club

Birds of Kazakhstan

Birds of Kyrgyzstan

Birds of Northern Eurasia

Birds of Russia

Birds of Europaean part of Russia

Birding in Tanzania

Birds of Ukraine

Birds of Uzbekistan

Birds of Xinjiang

unidentified birds


2024-03-13

Сергей Л. Волков: Положу пока в неопределенные.

2024-02-06

Сергей Л. Волков: А мне интересно, когда же найдут помеси этих видов.

2024-01-26

Родион Вахрушев: Тут сложно сказать

more unidentified birds...