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The tall, pale-pink wading bird with a long neck and a black-tipped, downcurved bill.

How to spot it

A tall wading bird up to about 1.5 m, with a long neck, long pink legs and a thick, sharply downcurved pink bill tipped in black. It is mostly pale pink, and in flight it flashes startling crimson-and-black wings.

Where it lives

The most widespread flamingo, on shallow salt lakes, coastal lagoons and estuaries across Africa, southern Europe and southern and western Asia.

What it eats

It filter-feeds with its head upside down, pumping water through comb-like plates in the bill to sieve out brine shrimp, algae and tiny invertebrates — the very food that turns its plumage pink.

Song & behaviour

Highly social, gathering in flocks thousands strong, with goose-like honking and elaborate mass displays of head-flagging and wing-saluting.

Nesting

Colonies nest out on the mud, each pair raising a single chick on a low cone of dried mud built above the waterline.

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