Adaptations
Long legs allow feeding in deeper shallows, webbed feet stir sediment, and the bent bill contains filtering structures. Salt glands help manage the high salt loads associated with many feeding habitats.
Behavior and daily life
Greater flamingos are highly social and can form large feeding and breeding groups. Courtship involves synchronized displays, while nesting colonies build low mud mounds in open shallow-water settings.
Conservation
Current profile labelLeast Concern
Wetland drainage, water extraction, disturbance, pollution, altered salinity, and changes in food supply can disrupt key sites. Large population size does not make every breeding colony secure.
A flamingo feeds with its head inverted, using comb-like structures in the bill to strain food from water and mud.
