Flamingo: The Bird’s Reproduction, Babies and Lifespan

There’s no specific time of year that these birds breed. However, the breeding time is the same throughout a flock or colony. That way, the chicks are born at the same time and can be raised together. Conditions such as the level of rainfall and the amount of food available to these birds can both influence when the breeding season takes place.

When breeding season arrives for a colony, the male flamingo struts around in front of females showing off and preening his feathers. Though these birds are thought to be monogamous, there are some males that mate with multiple females.

Flamingos build a nest that’s essentially a mound of mud with a shallow hole at its top. The female lays just one 5-ounce egg in the hole and both parents take turns keeping the egg warm until it hatches. The incubation period falls between 27 to 31 days. The White ibis bird which is similar to a flamingo has an incubation period of 21 days.

The baby or flamingo chick weighs around 3 ounces. Flamingo chicks are born with white downy feathers and a straight beak. A young flamingo’s feathers don’t come in fully pink until they reach the age of about 2 years old. Its beak begins to curve downward at about 11 weeks of age.

A chick stays with its parents for 5 days. The parents both feed the chick by releasing food from their stomachs into a chick’s mouth. Yuck! When the chick is 5 days old, it joins a small group of other chicks where it stays for three weeks. During this time, when the chick is hungry, the parents feed it. But how do the parents find their chick when it’s hanging around with other chicks? Answer: The parents find their chick by the sound of its peeps and honks.

After this three-week period, the parents move their chick to a larger group of other young flamingos where it learns to find food on its own. As you see, all birds in a flamingo colony play a part in raising young ones. Flamingos reach sexual maturity at 3 to 5 years old.

This bird can live from 20 to 30 years in the wild. Furthermore, they can live for 50 years or more in zoos. The oldest recorded flamingo lived to be 83!

Avian flu and tuberculosis (both respiratory issues) are common illnesses of the flamingo.