SBA #8: Flamingone?
The cache is the 8th of 9 caches placed within this special place - regarded by birders as the one of the best birding sites in the Western Cape. Thanks are due to the Supervisor of the False Bay Nature Reserve for kind permission to places caches here.
The cache, a small flip-topped dispensing pot, is hidden on the edge of Pan 2 where a substantial group (''pat' or 'colony') of these unmistakeable and beautiful large birds were located at the time the cache was placed . . . but had all gone when the location was revisited several months later, as that part of the pan had dried out. However, one is almost certain to see them somewhere at SBA on any given visit. See Gallery for a collection of great photos of this spectacular bird.
To reach the cache location:
a) To reach the centre starting point of SBA: use the waypointsforGC846D9 Strandfontein Birding Area #1: Bird Info Centreto reach the multi-junction at the hub of the spokes of tracks leading between the pans. Then proceed with b) or c) as desired.
b) Direct from the Information Centre: head straight across here (ie. 3rd exit coming from the SBA entrance gate) heading south-west between P2 & P3 past the location of GC846EV_SBA#9: Spur-winged Gooseto the junction @ S 34 05.173 E 18 30.405. Turn right here and continue past the location of GC846ED SBA#7: Sacred Bin Chicken HQ to the cache location.
c) Continuing the cache sequence: from GC846ED SBA#7: Sacred Bin Chicken HQ continue heading north on the track alongside Pan 2 to the cache location
Flamingos are one of the highlights of a visit to SBA and although both species found in Africa may be seen - the Greater Flamingo is a CV (Common Visitor) whereas the Lesser Flamingo is uncommon.
The greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) is the most widespread and largest of the 6 species of the flamingo family. It is found in Africa, on the Indian subcontinent, in the Middle East, and in southern Europe.
It is usually 110–150 cm tall and weighs 2–4 kg but the largest males grow up to 187 cm tall and 4.5 kg.
Most of the plumage is pinkish white, but the wing coverts are red and the primary and secondary flight feathers are black. The bill is pink with a restricted black tip, and the legs are entirely pink.
Chicks are covered in grey fluffy down. Sub-adult flamingos are paler with dark legs. Adults feeding chicks also become paler but retain the bright pink legs. The coloration comes from the carotenoid pigments in the crustaceans (especially brine shrimp) that live in their feeding grounds. Secretions of the uropygial gland also contain carotenoids. During the breeding season, they increase the frequency of their spreading uropygial secretions over their feathers and thereby enhance their colour. This cosmetic use of uropygial secretions has been described as applying 'make-up'. They spend up to 25% of their time preening.
It lives in mudflats and shallow coastal lagoons with salt water. It is a bottom feeder and forages both by day and night, feeding by filtering particles through tiny platelets in the bill. Its diet consists of crustaceans (especially brine shrimp Artemia salina), molluscs, annelid worms, larval aquatic insects, small fish, adult terrestrial insects (e.g. water beetles, ants), the seeds or stolons of marsh grasses, algae, diatoms and decaying leaves. It may also ingest mud in order to extract organic matter. Using its feet, it stirs up the mud, then sucks water through its bill and using its tongue pumps the water out to filters out the food. It feeds with its head down, and its upper jaw is movable and not rigidly fixed to its skull.
They find safety in numbers, which helps to protect individual birds from predators while their heads are down in the mud. They also breed while gathered in groups. Once mating is complete, a (life-long) pair takes turns incubating (for 30 days) the chalky-white single egg laid on a mud mound. Young birds are born gray and white and do not turn pink for 2 years. The parents secrete a pink fluid called 'crop milk' to feed their chicks for the first 3-4 weeks after their birth. Fledging takes 75-77 days. When wetlands and pools are dry and food scarce, they may not breed.
They communicate vocally with a goose-like honking. Living in extremely large colonies, they are able to use these sounds as well as non verbal forms of communication to engage with each other. They are particularly noisy during mating season. They don’t like their natural environment to be disrupted by noise, people, or other animals as this can create high levels of stress for them to deal with and affect breeding.They are generally non- territorial but protect their nests during breeding seasons.
Typical lifespan is 30-40 years in the wild but >60 years in captivity.
Adult flamingos have few natural predators, but eggs and chicks may be eaten by Marabou storks, raptors, crows and gulls.
The main threats to flamingo populations are bacteria, toxins, and pollution in water supplies, which is usually run-off from manufacturing companies, and encroachment on their habitat.
In human captivity, the first recorded zoo hatch was in 1959 at Zoo Basel. In Zoo Basel's breeding program, over 400 birds have been hatched with 20-27 per year since 2000. The oldest known greater flamingo was a bird at the Adelaide Zoo in Australia that died aged at least 83 years - the exact age is not known, as he was already a mature adult when he arrived in Adelaide in 1933. He was euthanized in January 2014 due to complications of old age.
Videos: see here (huge numbers of flamingo at Lake Bogoria in Kenya), here (mating - not easy!), here (the life of the GF) and here (slow-motion take-off).