FLAMINGO, the name given to birds of the genus Phoeni copterus. The common flamingo, P. roseus, is in both sexes white in colour, with a rosy tinge above, the wings scarlet, bordered with black (as in all species). The legs of all these birds are very long, the feet webbed, the neck long and the beak bent in the middle. P. roseus ranges from the Cape Verde Islands to India and Ceylon, reaching Lake Baikal in the north and Madagascar in the south. It is replaced in South Africa by P. minor. A third species, P. ruber, light vermilion in colour, inhabits America from Florida to Para, while two other species also occur in South America. Fossil flamingoes have been found in the Lower Miocene of France and the Pliocene of Oregon and in later rocks.
The food of these birds consists of the small aquatic inverte brates, living in the mud of lagoons ; these the bird sifts out with its bill, the roomy lower jaw being furnished with numerous lamellae. The head is held upside down when feeding. When fly ing the neck is stretched out straight. The nest is built of mud, and is a conical structure rising a few inches out of the water i; the latter subsequently sinks, it may be much higher. One or two chalky white eggs are laid and the young have a straight bill, short legs and white down. The bird sits in the normal way, with the legs doubled up under it.