Sixteen greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) chicks have hatched at Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna. But anyone expecting the newcomers to already display the species’ characteristic pink colour will have to wait: during their first weeks of life, the chicks are covered in grey down.
That inconspicuous colour also serves a protective function.
“The inconspicuous down provides them with ideal camouflage on the muddy nesting mounds and, ideally, protects them from predators,” explains curator Folko Balfanz.
It is only at around three years of age that their plumage will display its striking pink colour. Rather than being present from birth, the characteristic pigmentation comes from the birds’ diet.
“The characteristic colour of greater flamingos comes from their food. Small crustaceans and algae, which they filter from the water with their bills, contain pigments from the carotenoid group,” Balfanz explains.
Fed with crop milk during their first weeks
Before the chicks can filter their own food from the water, they depend on their parents. During their first weeks of life, they are fed crop milk, a nutrient-rich secretion produced by glands in the oesophagus.
The first chicks at Schönbrunn hatched in late August, meaning that the group now includes young birds at different stages of development.
“We currently have chicks of all sizes. The first ones hatched at the end of August. They have already left their nests and formed a kind of kindergarten,” says keeper Dominik Eigenbauer.
The group of chicks is always accompanied by individual adult birds, while the parents continue to return regularly to feed their own young.
Finding their chick among a group of similar-looking grey youngsters is not a problem: the parents recognise their offspring by its individual call.
Europe’s only native flamingo species
There are six flamingo species worldwide, and the greater flamingo is the only one that also occurs in Europe. Large colonies can be found in areas including the Camargue in southern France and Andalusia in southern Spain.
It is also the largest flamingo species, reaching up to 1.4 metres in height.
For Schönbrunn’s 16 newest arrivals, however, their famous pink plumage is still a long way off. For now, the chicks remain grey as they grow together in their own flamingo “kindergarten”.
