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Lesser Flamingo — printable fact sheet
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Lesser Flamingo
Phoeniconaias minor
Phoeniconaias minor is the smallest and by far the most numerous flamingo, with a global population in the millions, and it makes a living where almost nothing else can. Its core habitat is East Africa's soda lakes - Natron, Bogoria, Nakuru - where the water can reach pH 10 or h…
Did you know?
- Despite their abundance in certain areas, the majority of Lesser Flamingos breed at only a handful of sites, making their populations vulnerable to habitat changes.
- Lesser flamingo chicks sometimes develop heavy anklets of crystallised soda that build up on their legs during the walk from the nesting flats and can cripple them. Adults filter-feed with the head upside down, so the top of the bill is at the bottom, and the tongue pumps water through fine plates called lamellae at a rate of several beats a second. The species can shift between lakes in enormous numbers overnight when algal blooms move, so a lake holding a million birds can empty in days.
What I learned
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