Andean flamingo
| Andean flamingo | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Phoenicopteriformes |
| Family: | Phoenicopteridae |
| Genus: | Phoenicoparrus |
| Species: | P. andinus |
| Binomial name | |
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Phoenicoparrus andinus Philippi, 1854 |
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The Andean flamingo (Phoenicoparrus andinus) is one of the rarest flamingos in the world. It lives in the Andes mountains of South America. Until 2014 it was classified in genus Phoenicopterus. It is closely related to James's flamingo, and the two make up the genus Phoenicoparrus. The Chilean flamingo, Andean flamingo and James's flamingo are all sympatric, and all live in colonies (including shared nesting areas).
The flamingo has a pale pink body with brighter upperparts, deep vinaceous-pink lower neck, breast, and wing-coverts. It is the only flamingo species with yellow legs and three-toed feet. The bill of the Andean flamingo is pale yellow and black.
These flamingos are filter-feeders and their diet ranges over the entire spectrum of available foods, from fish to invertebrates, from vascular plants to microscopic algae.
The flamingos feed from the bottom layer of the lake for small particles, mainly diatoms. They have a deep-keeled bill; the upper mandible is narrower than the lower, creating a gape on the dorsal surface of the bill. The bill morphology facilitates feeding of diatoms through inertial impaction. This mechanism entails that food particles denser than water, such as diatoms, would impact the filtering surface in the bill causing water to flow out of the mouth and leaving diatoms in the flamingo's bill. The flamingos forage in shallow salty waters for resources. They exhibit the most flexible foraging pattern compared to that of the Chilean and James's flamingos.
A study has showed that when grouping the Andean flamingos with Chilean flamingos or with James's flamingos, Andean flamingos adopt the foraging patterns of the species it is grouped with. Thus, when grouped with the Chilean Flamingo, it will use a moderate and deep foraging depth strategy more than or the same as expected. If they are grouped with James's flamingo they will adopt the edge and the shallow foraging strategy. However, the overall foraging behavior of Andean Flamingo remains unclear and further studies are needed to determine this process.
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Wikipedia