Animals

Pairi Daiza Foundation

TICKETS & RESERVATIONS

Chilean Flamingo

Flamant Du Chili - Pairi Daiza
Bird

An elegant bird

This is a large species of American flamingo (approximately 1m30) which doesn’t live only in Chile, but in that country, it can be observed on the salt-water lagoons of the Andean altiplano, where it can withstand the freezing temperatures of the high-mountain nights. The plumage of the Chilean Flamingo is less red than that of the Cuban Flamingo : this colour is due to its diet of algae and little shrimps which are packed with carotene, the pigment of tomatoes, carrots and… shellfish shells (the colour of cooked lobsters !). Inside its beak (as with all flamingos), there is a kind of filter which enables the bird to retain plankton and small shellfish, while raking the muddy bottoms of the marshes, estuaries and lagoons of its habitat. This elegant bird builds a nest with the mud from the banks, in the form of a truncated cone of approximately 40 cm, with a hollow receptacle at the top where a single egg is laid. If it doesn’t find enough wet earth, it lays its egg right on the ground, as much as possible between plants.

Flamant Du Chili - Pairi Daiza
Identity card

A "near threatened" species

  • Name : Chilean Flamingo
  • Latin name : Phoenicopterus chilensis
  • Origin : South America, from Peru to Tierra del Fuego
  • IUCN status : Near threatened
  • Cites : Appendix II

Sponsor the Chilean Flamingo

Sponsorship amounts are exclusively for the Pairi Daiza Foundation for projects for the conservation and protection of threatened species.

Je parraine les Flamants du Chili