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With their majestic pink feathers, stilt feet and long necks, flamingos are some of the most fascinating birds alive today. But their strange combination of characteristics raises questions about how they manage to survive in the perils of their environment — and that has led some to question whether or not the flamingo can fly. It’s not a silly assumption. ostriches, emus, and cassowary are among the world’s largest birds – and they also share the inability to fly. That’s not to say that big birds can’t always fly. The wandering albatross has an impressive wingspan of nearly 12 feet and can weigh 16 pounds. Despite this, they can travel more than 10,000 miles without ever hitting land.
The facts behind why some birds lose the ability to fly are complex, and birds don’t have to be particularly large to not fly. The kiwi bird is only about a foot and a half long, and rails are an entire family made up of dozens of species of ratites. The low numbers of mammalian predators combined with the high energy expenditure associated with flying led these remote island species to evolve in isolation. If you’ve ever wanted to know how high, how far, or how long a flamingo can travel, here are the facts — along with the evolutionary context of why their ability to fly evolved the way it did.
Can flamingos fly?
Being able to fly can mean a lot to many different birds – and how far, how high and how long they stay in the air is critical to understanding them. With their heavy bodies and strong legs, peacocks essentially use flight to give their jumps a little extra lift and rest in tree branches. In contrast, the fast spends an average of 10 months a year in flight. Flamingos fall somewhere in between the two. They are capable of flying at high altitudes and over long distances, although they don’t come close to how long a swift can fly. And like the peacock, their flight ability is situational rather than a primary method of navigation.
Also, flamingos don’t use their wings to hunt and catch prey, which means they don’t have to constantly flap their wings to fly. These are soaring birds that let wind currents and the aerodynamics of their wing anatomy do much of the work. But launching into flight requires quite a bit of momentum, and that’s where the flamingo’s lanky legs come in handy. Whether on land or wading in water, a flamingo takes off by running at full speed and flapping its wings quickly.
A greater flamingo can weigh up to nine pounds, but has some serious help thanks to a wingspan of up to two meters. When taking off, flamingos stick their heads forward and continue to flap their wings as well as kick their legs until they stabilize. Landing is similar to an airplane landing. These birds begin to slow themselves down as they descend in height and then extend their legs vertically for landing gear as they begin to approach ground level. Touchdown will take the form of a few long strides on the water or on land before slowing to a stop.
While in the air, the flamingo settles in an ascending pattern to conserve their energy. To maximize their aerodynamic efficiency, they extend their legs horizontally behind them and extend their heads as far forward as possible. These birds still look strange in the sky, but they don’t look clunky. They are effective long-haul fliers that can reach speeds of up to 60 kilometers per hour. How high flamingos fly is one reason you may have never seen one. Their typical flight range of 10,000 to 13,000 feet puts them beyond the reach of the visible eye, but flamingo flight patterns regularly pop up on the radar. Flying at these heights allows flamingos to use less energy in flight and can also serve as a method of avoiding detection by bird predators.
When and why do flamingos fly?
The simplest explanation for why flamingos don’t fly anymore is that their situation doesn’t call for it. This is common in specialized species, which have developed feeding habits that are highly dependent on their particular environment. This can be seen in giant panda bears developing a diet consisting almost exclusively of bamboo and black-footed ferrets threatened with extinction due to the loss of prairie dogs they depend on food (and the prairie dogs’ burrows they rely on for shelter). For flamingos it is brine shrimp.
The algae this shrimp eat produces a chemical called carotenoid that turns their feathers pink. And while that bright color makes them more visible to predators, their long legs allow them to wade into deeper waters where threats like lions and packages hyenas cannot effectively stalk and chase them. In some cases, these wading birds have evolved extreme adaptations for wading in peace. Lake Natron in Tanzania has water toxic enough to remove the skin, but the local flamingos have developed incredibly durable legs that allow them to stand in them indefinitely.
Thanks to those specialized conditions, most flamingos are more likely to walk or swim — which they are more likely to be able to do — than to fly. In their daily lives, flamingos may use a short flight to retreat to the water when attacked or to travel short distances to another feeding place. But there are usually safe waters abundant with food, and so flamingos tend to congregate in sedentary colonies. Short-distance relocations are not uncommon, especially in areas with frequent droughts or floods. Flamingo colonies search for new territory and gather together.
Long-distance migration is not the standard for flamingos, but some habitats require seasonal migration. This is especially true for Andean flamingos that live at elevations above 10,000 feet and must adapt to the fact that their lake habitats freeze over in the winter. When flamingos migrate long distances, they usually do so in a swarm consisting of their colony. Flamingos will usually choose clearly nights to fly and are know
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to prefer those with strong tailwinds to minimize their workload. In a flock, these birds fly at speeds of about 30 to 40 MPH. If flamingos have to fly during the day, they will do so at higher altitudes to avoid predators. An Andean flamingo can fly up to 700 miles in one day, but they are more likely to cover a distance of about half that.
Do all flamingo species fly?
All types of flamingos can fly, and how far and how often they fly depends more on their environment than their species. Some of the most common species known to migrate include the aforementioned Andean flamingo and a population of greater flamingos that seasonally move from their homes in the south of the country. France until Tunisia and Turkey. Members of both the greater and lesser flamingo species fly to western India. Mumbai, in particular, began to see migrations in the early 1980s, but increasing numbers of flamingos have arrived in recent years.
At what age can flamingos fly?
Flamingo chicks are born with gray or white feathers and they don’t begin to develop their flying feathers until around 11 weeks of age. Even at that point, flying isn’t necessarily a given — and their wings won’t be developed enough for truly competent flight. To put the facts regarding the importance of different survival skills into perspective, flamingo chicks will have already left their nests and started foraging with groups of other chicks by the time they are three weeks old. Once they have learned the basics, it will take a few more weeks for a flamingo chick to fly properly.
Why don’t flamingos fly away in captivity?
Flamingos have been kept in zoos for decades, although our understanding of how to keep them from flying away is still evolving — and often a bone of contention and debate among animal welfare advocates. Feather trimming is commonly used, although it is a process that must be repeated and thus is relatively labor intensive. Traditionally, many zoos and exhibits perform an operation called pinioning on the bird. This process removes the joint at the farthest end of the bird’s wing – and while it prevents flight, it can also disrupt their sense of balance and disrupt both courtship rituals and the breeding process itself.
Debate remains over when and how to keep these birds in captivity, with some zoos experimenting with more natural solutions for displaying flamingos. Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City, de San Antonio Zoo, and the Edinburgh Zoo have all retained flamingos that are not secured in habitats of varying accessibility at different points.
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