It is commonly known that animals have certain “dances” to attract potential mates during their courtship season. They do it in order to get the attention of the opposite gender. Another reason for animals to dance is to convey a message, for example, to share information about the location of a food source. Other studies revealed that some animals even dance to music. The most famous example of this is the parrot. This aspect reinforces the similarity with human behavior since we also dance to the rhythms of the music.
The Andean flamingo belongs to the family Phoenicopteridae and has the scientific name “Phoenicoparrus andinus”. Their average life span in captivity is about 50 years, and in the wild, it is 20 to 30 years. They weigh up to 4 kilograms and can reach a height of 1.40 meters.
Their maximum speed that they can reach when running is 60 kilometers per hour. They are very closely related to the species of Jame’s flamingos.
Furthermore, the Andean flamingo has a graceful body. His neck and legs are quite long and not straight but curved. Its feather’s color is a light pink except for the ones on the beak of his body, where they are black. The flamingo’s legs are yellow, and it has a curved, black, and yellow bill. When flamingos get born, they are not pink but white or gray. They develop this color in the first three years after birth.
One can find the Andean flamingo on the South American continent, in the countries of Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Peru. They live in the neotropical realm. The highland salt lakes are their natural habitat, but in the winter they migrate to wetlands that are lower to look for food.
Moreover, they form flocks that consist of multiple thousand animals, and these flocks change their locations multiple times over the year (between ponds and lagoons).
Flamingos ingest their food by swirling up the water with their feet and then putting their heads completely under the water’s surface. Then they suck in the water and dirt, and to get rid of the mud, they throw their heads from one side to another. Then, they are only left with the plankton, the larvae of insects, and tiny fish.
Other than that, the population of the Andean flamingo declined because they lost some habitation areas due to human interference, and mining activities led to a change in the water level.
The IUCN red list classified them as “vulnerable”. Nowadays, their population number is stable,with 39,000 flamingo individuals.
Flamingo’s courtship dance is one of their forms to communicate with one another and to impress a potential mate. An interesting aspect is that they do this dance not alone but in a group. The first typical movement they make is to raise their heads and get their necks in a stiff and straight position. Then, they swing their heads from one side to another. Sometimes they additionally raise their wings, and then they try to convince the other male flamingos to join them, but sometimes the females also join in. When there are many flamingos dancing, it resembles a line dance. However, even though flamingos have a wide repertoire of dance moves to impress their potential mates, success is not guaranteed.
The season of reproduction for the Andean flamingo is in the months of December and January. Flamingos are monogamous, which means that the same couple stays together for multiple years. In their relationship, both genders are responsible for incubating the egg for 27 to 31 days. After the chick hatches from the egg, it takes at least 6 months up to 10 months for it to get independent from the parents.
Sources:
https://animalia.bio/andean-flamingo
https://tierrahotels.com/10-curious-facts-about-the-andean-flamingo/
https://www.amnh.org/explore/news-blogs/research-posts/march-of-the-flamingos
https://thepopularflamingo.com/blogs/posts/flamingo-mating-dance
https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2022.806631
