Caribbean Flamingo

Meet the Caribbean Flamingo!

Like other flamingo species, the Caribbean Flamingo has a bill with a rigid upper jaw and immobile lower jaw. The lamellae that line the inside of its bill and tongue (which acts as a suction and blowing pump), allow them to filter brackish water to ingest food.

They have especially long necks and legs, even longer than other species of the flamingo family. It is the largest flamingo on the continent, and the second largest in the world, surpassed only by the common flamingo. Its color can vary from pale pink to crimson or vermilion, depending on the area where it lives and the amount of crustaceans with high carotenoid content it consumes.

What are its habits?

This species of flamingo resides in large colonies. Each pair marks a small territory surrounding the nest during the nesting season. The pair's clutch consists of a single egg, from which a chick will hatch and be fed by its parents until it is three months old.

Conservation

Extinct

Extinct in the wild

Critically endangered

Endangered

Vulnerable

Near threatened

Least concern

Insufficient data

Not evaluated

DID YOU KNOW ...

The Caribbean Flamingo lives in tropical areas of the New World such as the Antilles, the Yucatan Peninsula, northern Colombia and Venezuela, the Galapagos Islands and northern Honduras.