Greater Flamingo
Phoenicopterus roseus
Habitat
Aquatic
Diet
Omnivore
Active Time
Diurnal
Size
3.0 kg
About This Species
Look for large pink-and-white flocks wading and filter-feeding with the bill held upside-down in shallow saline lagoons, salt pans and estuaries. Pink intensity tracks diet, so recently arrived or juvenile birds often look pale grey-white. Flocks are most visible at dawn or dusk when feeding activity peaks, and numbers build through the non-breeding season as birds gather at traditional wintering wetlands.
Ethical Viewing Guidelines
- View from a hide, causeway or the far shore rather than approaching across open mud, since a spooked flock can abandon a feeding site for the day.
- Wild bird protections apply across most of this species' range in Europe, Africa and Asia, though the specific rules and enforcement vary by country, so treat any nesting colony as strictly off-limits and keep well back rather than testing a local boundary.
LCAvesPhoenicopteriformesPhoenicopteridae
Seasonal Activity
522,695 sightings · 2000–2026
Citizen science records via GBIF
All monthsThis month
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Phoenicopteriformes
- Family
- Phoenicopteridae
Traits
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Foraging
- Aquatic
- Activity
- Diurnal
- Body mass
- 3.0 kg
Photo
Wikimedia Commons / Wikimedia Commons
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Occurrence data from GBIF.