American flamingos.
American flamingos.

American Flamingos

American flamingos live in South America and various islands around it all the way up to Florida.

American flamingos.

American flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber), Toronto Zoo.

Just like the scarlet ibis, the American flamingo gets the color of its plumage from the carotenoids in the crustaceans in its diet.

In the wild American flamingos are salt water birds and have all sorts of adaptations to their environment. Flamingos have salt glands to get rid of excess salt so as to allow them to drink salt water if they need to. Flamingos can also drink hot water e.g. from a geyser to get fresh water.

Further Readings:

Caribbean flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) on ARKIVE.
American flamingo on Wikipedia.
Last updated: July 30, 2014

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