Lesser Flamingo

The Lesser Flamingo is the smallest flamingo species and the most abundant, with the majority of the world's population concentrated on a handful of highly alkaline soda lakes in East Africa's Great Rift Valley. It has deep pink plumage, a dark red bill that appears almost black at a distance, and a distinctive dark red eye ring. Its small size and dark bill readily separate it from the larger, paler Greater Flamingo with which it often shares habitat.

When hundreds of thousands gather together, Lesser Flamingos create one of the most spectacular wildlife concentrations on Earth, turning lake shores into shifting carpets of pink.

Key field marks

• Smallest flamingo species, noticeably shorter than the Greater Flamingo
• Dark red to blackish bill, appearing almost entirely dark at a distance
• Deep pink plumage, often more saturated than the paler Greater Flamingo
• Dark reddish eye ring

Similar species

• Greater Flamingo is larger and paler with a pink bill tipped black.
• Mixed flocks of both species are common in East Africa; size and bill color are the best distinguishing features.

Habitat

Specializes in highly alkaline (soda) lakes, salt pans, and coastal lagoons where cyanobacteria thrive.

Range

Most abundant in the Rift Valley lakes of Kenya and Tanzania, with additional populations in southern Africa, India, and Pakistan.

Migration

Nomadic rather than strictly migratory, moving between lakes in response to changing water chemistry and food abundance.

Behavior

Forms enormous flocks, sometimes numbering over a million birds, that wade and swim while filtering the water's surface for food.

Voice

High, murmuring, goose-like honks, especially audible from large flocks.

Feeding

Filters blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) and diatoms from alkaline water using fine bill lamellae, feeding with its head upside down and moving side to side.

Nesting

Breeds in massive colonies on isolated mudflats within soda lakes, building mud mound nests; lays a single white egg.