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Family of birds

Flamingos or flamingoes /f//l//ə//'//m//ɪ//ŋ//ɡ//oʊ//z/ are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbean), and two species native to Afro Eurasia. A group of flamingoes is called a "flamboyance".

The name flamingo comes from Portuguese or Spanish flamengo ("flame colored"), which in turn comes from Provençal flamenc – a combination of flama ("flame") and a Germanic like suffix ing. The word may also have been influenced by the Spanish ethnonym flamenco ("Fleming" or "Flemish"). The name of the genus, Phoenicopterus, is from the Greek φοινικόπτερος phoinikopteros, ); other genera names include Phoeniconaias, which means "crimson/red water nymph (or naiad)", and Phoenicoparrus, which means "crimson/red bird (though, an unknown bird of omen)".

The family Phoenicopteridae was introduced by the French zoologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1831, with Phoenicopterus as the type genus. Traditionally, the long legged Ciconiiformes, probably a paraphyletic assemblage, have been considered the flamingos' closest relatives and the family was included in the order. Usually, the ibises and spoonbills of the Threskiornithidae were considered their closest relatives within this order. Earlier genetic studies, such as those of Charles Sibley and colleagues, also supported this relationship. Relationships to the waterfowl were considered as well, especially as flamingos are parasitized by feather lice of the genus Anaticola, which are otherwise exclusively found on ducks and geese. The peculiar presbyornithids were used to argue for a close relationship between flamingos, waterfowl, and waders. A 2002 paper concluded they are waterfowl, but a 2014 comprehensive study of bird orders found that flamingos and grebes are not waterfowl, but rather are part of Columbea, along with doves, sandgrouse, and mesites.

Recent molecular studies have suggested a relation with grebes, while morphological evidence also strongly supports a relationship between flamingos and grebes. They hold at least 11 morphological traits in common, which are not found in other birds. Many of these characteristics have been previously identified on flamingos, but not on grebes. The fossil palaelodids can be considered evolutionarily, and ecologically, intermediate between flamingos and grebes. For the grebe flamingo clade, the taxon Mirandornithes ("miraculous birds" due to their extreme divergence and apomorphies) has been proposed. Alternatively, they could be placed in one order, with Phoenocopteriformes taking priority.

Flamingos filter feed on brine shrimp and blue green algae as well as insect larvae, small insects, mollusks and crustaceans, making them omnivores. Their bills are specially adapted to separate mud and silt from the food they eat, and are uniquely used upside down. The filtering of food items is assisted by hairy structures called lamellae, which line the mandibles, and the large, rough surfaced tongue. The pink or reddish color of flamingos comes from carotenoids in their diet of animal and plant plankton. American flamingos are a brighter red color because of the beta carotene availability in their food while the lesser flamingos are a paler pink due to ingesting a smaller amount of this pigment. These carotenoids are broken down into pigments by liver enzymes. The source of this varies by species, and affects the color saturation. Flamingos whose sole diet is blue green algae are darker than those that get it second hand by eating animals that have digested blue green algae. Though flamingos prefer to drink freshwater, they are equipped with glands under their eyes that remove extra salt from their bodies. This organ allows them to drink saltwater as well.

Flamingos are considered very noisy birds with their noises and vocalizations ranging from grunting or growling to nasal honking. Vocalizations play an important role in parent chick recognition, ritualized displays, and keeping large flocks together. Variations in vocalizations exist in the voices of different species of flamingos.

Flamingos are very social birds; they live in colonies whose population can number in the thousands. These large colonies are believed to serve three purposes for the flamingos: avoiding predators, maximizing food intake, and using scarce suitable nesting sites more efficiently. Before breeding, flamingo colonies split into breeding groups of about 15 to 50 birds. Both males and females in these groups perform synchronized ritual displays. The members of a group stand together and display to each other by stretching their necks upwards, then uttering calls while head flagging, and then flapping their wings. The displays do not seem directed towards an individual, but occur randomly. Flamingo pairs establish and defend nesting territories. They locate a suitable spot on the mudflat to build a nest (the female usually selects the place). Same sex pairs have been reported. After the chicks hatch, the only parental expense is feeding. Both the male and the female feed their chicks with a kind of crop milk, produced in glands lining the whole of the upper digestive tract (not just the crop). The hormone prolactin stimulates production. Crop milk contains both fat and protein, as with mammalian milk, but unlike mammalian milk, it contains no carbohydrates. (Pigeons and doves—Columbidae—also produce crop milk (just in the glands lining the crop), which contains less fat and more protein than flamingo crop milk.) For the first six days after the chicks hatch, the adults and chicks stay in the nesting sites. At around 7–12 days old, the chicks begin to move out of their nests and explore their surroundings. When they are two weeks old, the chicks congregate in groups, called "microcrèches", and their parents leave them alone. After a while, the microcrèches merge into "crèches" containing thousands of chicks. Chicks that do not stay in their crèches are vulnerable to predators. When young flamingos are around three to three and a half months old, their flight feathers will finish growing in, allowing them to fly.

The first flamingo hatched in a European zoo was a Chilean flamingo at Zoo Basel in Switzerland in 1958. Since then, over 389 flamingos have grown up in Basel and been distributed to other zoos around the globe. Greater, an at least 83 year old greater flamingo, believed to be the oldest in the world, died at the Adelaide Zoo in Australia in January 2014. Zoos have used mirrors to improve flamingo breeding behaviour. The mirrors are thought to give the flamingos the impression that they are in a larger flock than they actually are.

In the Americas, the Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped nature. They placed emphasis on animals, and often depicted flamingos in their art. The Ancient Egyptian god Set is depicted with a flamingo head in the Book of the Faiyum. Flamingos are the national bird of the Bahamas. Andean miners have killed flamingos for their fat, believing that it would cure tuberculosis. In the United States, pink plastic flamingos are sometimes used as lawn ornaments. They were first designed by Don Featherstone in 1957. Their popularity was influenced in part by the prevalence of flamingo souvenirs in Florida along with the Flamingo grand hotel in Miami Beach, prompting the correlation of flamingos with style and wealth.