Phoenicopterus chilensis

Phoenicopterus chilensis, Photo: Michael Lahanas

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Cladus: Sarcopterygii
Cladus: Rhipidistia
Cladus: Tetrapodomorpha
Cladus: Eotetrapodiformes
Cladus: Elpistostegalia
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Cladus: Reptiliomorpha
Cladus: Amniota
Classis: Reptilia
Cladus: Eureptilia
Cladus: Romeriida
Subclassis: Diapsida
Cladus: Sauria
Infraclassis: Archosauromorpha
Cladus: Crurotarsi
Divisio: Archosauria
Cladus: Avemetatarsalia
Cladus: Ornithodira
Subtaxon: Dinosauromorpha
Cladus: Dinosauriformes
Cladus: Dracohors
Cladus: Dinosauria
Cladus: Saurischia
Cladus: Eusaurischia
Subordo: Theropoda
Cladus: Neotheropoda
Cladus: Averostra
Cladus: Tetanurae
Cladus: Avetheropoda
Cladus: Coelurosauria
Cladus: Tyrannoraptora
Cladus: Maniraptoromorpha
Cladus: Maniraptoriformes
Cladus: Maniraptora
Cladus: Pennaraptora
Cladus: Paraves
Cladus: Eumaniraptora
Cladus: Avialae
Infraclassis: Aves
Cladus: Avebrevicauda
Cladus: Pygostylia
Cladus: Ornithothoraces
Cladus: Ornithuromorpha
Cladus: Carinatae
Parvclassis: Neornithes
Cohors: Neognathae
Cladus: Neoaves
Cladus: Mirandornithes
Ordo: Phoenicopteriformes

Familia: Phoenicopteridae
Genus: Phoenicopterus
Species: Phoenicopterus chilensis
Name

Phoenicopterus chilensis Molina, 1782
References

Molina, J.I. 1782. Saggio sulla Storia Naturale del Chili. Stamperia di S. Tomaso d'Aquino: Bologna. 367 pp. Reference page. 242 Internet Archive , 344.

Vernacular names
العربية: نحام تشيلي
azərbaycanca: Çili qızılqazı
български: Чилийско фламинго
brezhoneg: Flammeg Chile
català: Flamenc de Xile
čeština: Plameňák chilský
Cymraeg: Fflamingo Tsile
dansk: Chileflamingo
Deutsch: Chilenischer Flamingo
Ελληνικά: Χιλιανό φλαμίνγκο
English: Chilean Flamingo
Esperanto: Ĉilia flamengo
español: Flamenco chileno
فارسی: فلامینگوی شیلیایی
suomi: Chilenflamingo
français: Flamant du Chili
עברית: פלמינגו צ'יליאני
hrvatski: Čileanski plamenac
magyar: Chilei flamingó
íslenska: Roðaflæmingi
italiano: Fenicottero del Cile
日本語: チリーフラミンゴ
lietuvių: Čilės flamingas
кырык мары: Чили фламинго
Nederlands: Chileense flamingo
norsk: Chileflamingo
polski: Flaming chilijski
پنجابی: چلی فلیمنگو
português: Flamingo chileno
Runa Simi: Tukuku
русский: Чилийский фламинго
svenska: Chileflamingo
Türkçe: Şili flamingosu
удмурт: Чилиысь фламинго
українська: Фламінго чилійський
Tiếng Việt: Hồng hạc Chile
中文: 智利火烈鳥

The Chilean flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis) is a species of large flamingo at a height of 110–130 cm (43–51 in) closely related to the American flamingo and the greater flamingo, with which it was sometimes considered conspecific.[4] The species is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN.

It breeds in South America from Ecuador and Peru to Chile and Argentina and east to Brazil; it has been introduced into Germany. Like all flamingos, it lays a single chalky-white egg on a mud mound.

These flamingos are mainly restricted to salt lagoons and soda lakes but these areas are vulnerable to habitat loss and water pollution.
Description

The plumage is pinker than the slightly larger greater flamingo, but less so than the Caribbean flamingo. It can be differentiated from these species by its grayish legs with pink joints (tibiotarsal articulation), and also by the larger amount of black on the bill (more than half). Young chicks may have no sign of pink coloring whatsoever, but instead remain gray or peach.[5]
Diet

The Chilean flamingo's bill is equipped with comb-like structures that enable it to filter food—mainly algae and plankton—from the water of the coastal mudflats, estuaries, lagoons, and salt lakes where it lives.[6]
Breeding

Chilean flamingos live in large flocks in the wild and require crowded conditions to stimulate breeding. During breeding season, males and females display a variety of behaviors to attract mates, including head flagging—swiveling their heads from side-to-side in tandem—and wing salutes, where the wings are repeatedly opened and closed. Flamingos in general have a poor record of successful breeding because they will delay reproduction until the environmental conditions are favorable for breeding.[7]

Males and females co-operate in building a pillar-shaped mud nest, and both incubate the egg laid by the female, taking turns to sit on the egg.[7] Upon hatching, the chicks have gray plumage; they do not gain the typical pink adult coloration for 2–3 years. Both male and female flamingos can produce a nutritious fluid from glands in their crop to feed their young. Due to their diet, this crop milk is crimson in color.[6]
In captivity

The first flamingo hatched in a European zoo was a Chilean flamingo at Zoo Basel (Switzerland) in 1958.[8]

In 1988, a Chilean flamingo that lived in the Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City, Utah, had mistakenly not received his routine wing clipping. The flamingo escaped,[9] and became a local legend in the greater Salt Lake area known as Pink Floyd the Flamingo. Pink Floyd came to Utah in the winters to eat the brine shrimp that live in the Great Salt Lake, and flew north to Idaho and Montana in the spring and summer. Pink Floyd became a popular tourist attraction and local icon until his disappearance and presumed death[10] after he flew north to Idaho one spring in 2005 and was never seen again.

Since there is such a decline in the numbers of this species, breeding programs have been implemented in zoos to offset the decline of the wild stock numbers.[7]
See also

Andean flamingo

References

BirdLife International (2018). "Phoenicopterus chilensis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2018: e.T22697365A132068236. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22697365A132068236.en. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
"Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
Çınar, Ümüt (November 2015). "04 → Cᴏʟᴜᴍʙᴇᴀ : Pʜᴏᴇɴɪᴄᴏᴘᴛᴇʀɪfᴏʀᴍᴇs, Pᴏᴅɪᴄɪᴘᴇᴅɪfᴏʀᴍᴇs, Mᴇsɪᴛᴏʀɴɪᴛʜɪfᴏʀᴍᴇs, Pᴛᴇʀᴏᴄʟɪᴅɪfᴏʀᴍᴇs, Cᴏʟᴜᴍʙɪfᴏʀᴍᴇs". English Names of Birds. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
Knox, A.G.; Collinson, M.; Helbig, A.G.; Parkin, D.P.; Sangster, G. (2002). "Taxonomic recommendations for British birds". Ibis. 144: 707–710. doi:10.1046/j.1474-919x.2002.00110.x.
"Photo". Zoo View. XXXVII (4). Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens: 1, back cover. 2004.
""Chilean Flamingo Fact Sheet, Lincoln Park Zoo"". Archived from the original on 2015-12-20. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
Farrell, Barry. "Breeding behavior in a flock of Chilean flamingos (Phoenicopterus chilensis) at Dublin zoo". Zoo Biology.
"Zoo celebrates 50 years of flamingo breeding and science". Basler Zeitung. 13 August 2008. Archived from the original on 22 March 2009. Retrieved 21 March 2010.
"Utah's Wild Chilean Flamingo, Pink Floyd!"
"Feeling Blue About Pink Floyd". Deseret News. 26 March 2007. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2016.