The name flamingo comes from Portuguese or Spanish flamengo 'flame-colored', which in turn comes from Provençal flamenc … See more

Flamingos usually stand on one leg with the other tucked beneath the body. The reason for this behaviour is not fully understood. One theory is that standing on one leg allows the birds to conserve more body heat, given that they spend a significant amount … See more

Feeding
Flamingos are omnivores who filter-feed on brine shrimp and blue-green algae as well as insect larvae, small insects, mollusks and crustaceans. Their bills are specially adapted to separate mud and silt from the food they … See more

Ancient Roman cuisine
While many different kinds of birds were valued items in Roman food, flamingos were among the … See more

• Flamingo Resource Centre
• Flamingo videos and photos on the Internet Bird Collection See more

The family Phoenicopteridae was introduced by the French zoologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1831, with Phoenicopterus as … See more

In captivity
The first flamingo hatched in a European zoo was a Chilean flamingo at Zoo Basel in Switzerland in 1958. Since then, over 389 flamingos have grown up in Basel and been distributed to other zoos around the globe. See more