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Flamingo Facts For Kids
Interesting Facts About Flamingos For Kids
Flamingos have always fascinated me! I am not sure if it is their beautiful color, odd stance in the water, or just their overall essence. You can never have to much knowledge. That is why I chose to write some flamingo facts for kids!
Flamingo Facts For Kids
Fun Facts About Flamingos For Kids
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Flamingos are one of the most widely recognizable wading birds in the world today and are very social creatures! Although flamingos are considered wading birds, their closest genetic relative is the grebes. Flamingos have a lifespan of anywhere from 20-30 years in the wild, but in captivity it has been known for them to reach up to 50 years old or longer! There are several species of flamingos found around the world, but the greater flamingo is the largest of the species and has the palest plumage of all the flamingos . This flamingo can easily measure up to 5 feet tall, but oddly only weights up to 8 lbs! The smallest of the flamingo family is the lesser flamingo and only reaches about 3 feet tall. One things that all flamingos have in common is their long legs. They can reach anywhere form 30-50 inches, which is longer than their entire bodies! The Andean flamingo is the only species known to have yellow legs.
The word “Flamingo” comes from the Latin and Spanish word “flamenco” which means fire. It refers to the bright color of the flamingos feathers. Flamingos come from a long line of ancient bird lineage, with fossils similar to our modern day flamingos dating all the way back 30 million years ago!
Flamingo Facts For Kids
Flamingo habitat
Flamingos prefer to live in a habitat of low level water. Lagoons, mudflats, or lakes are a prime example of ideal habitats for flamingos. They love spending their time wading around in the water searching for food. They tend to live in large groups and are very social creatures. They are often known to travel up to 300 miles in order to reach their new habitat.
Flamingo Facts For Kids
Can Flamingos fly?
To answer your question YES! Flamingos can fly. Although we think of flamingos as mostly wading creatures, they do fly. In order to gather speed flamingos have to run before they are able to take off. You will mostly see them flying when in their flocks. The speed of a flock can reach anywhere from 30-37 miles per hour!
Interesting Facts About Flamingos For Kids
Fun Flamingo Facts For Kids
Amazing Flamingos Facts For Kids
Interesting Facts About Flamingos For Kids
- Surprisingly flamingos are very strong swimmers even though it is very rare to see them swim they prefer to just wade in the water.
- There are only size species of flamingos around the world from the Caribbean, South America, Africa, the middle East, and Europe.
- Flamingos are born white or gray and can take up the three years to reach their true color of pink, orange or red.
- The color of the flamingos feathers is caused by pigments in what foods they eat. Such as shrimp, plankton, algae and crustaceans. Determines whether their feathers will be pink orange or red!
- The top speed of a flamingo can be as high as 35 miles per hour.
- Whiles feeding, the flamingo holds its bill upside down for sever hours at a time, so they care able to filter their food while they are skimming the water.
- The backward bending “knee” of a flamingo’s leg is oddly enough the birds ankle. The actually knee of the flamingo is so close to the body it isn’t even visible.
- A flamingo flock is known as a flamboyance or a stand.
- The biggest threat to flamingos include, habitat loss, predators, poaching for their beautiful feathers, gathering flamingo eggs for food or their tongues for meat.
- Lawn flamingos have been gracing our yards since 1957 thanks to Don Featherstonce of Massachusetts!
- Flamingos breed in pairs, though it is common for the pairs to change form season to season.
- The female and male flamingos both help to build the nest and only lay one egg each season. The flamingos both defend the egg and once it is hatched they both take on the duties of feeding their chick.
- A flamingo nest is made up of a mound of mud about a foot high. The reason it is so high is to help protect the next from floods and heat from the ground.
- Flamingos live in colonies where the populations can reach in the thousands!
- The oldest Flamingo on record died at the age of 83 years old recently in January 2014 the Adelaide Zoo in Australia.
- Parent flamingos take care of their chicks for up to six years!
- Flocks of flamingos in Africa have been known to reach up to 1 million flamingos. These are the largest flocks in the world.
Flamingo Facts For Kids
Fun and Cool Flamingo Stuff!
Flamingo Facts For Kids Video
Flamingo Facts For Kids
Flamingo Interesting Facts Conclusion
Thank you so much for stopping by today and learning more about flamingos. They are truly a captivating creature. They are definitely one of the natural head turners of the wild. Their pink appearance make them very unique and distinguishable from other birds of their size or type. I have had such a good time researching and sharing all the information I have learned about flamingos. I hope that you walk away from here with more information about them then when you cam. Don’t forget to share all this incredible information to raise awareness, the more people know about these amazing animals, the better off they are!
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Flamingo Facts For Kids
