A PINK PARADISE

Venezuela is a country known for its beautiful landscapes and its great diversity of fauna and flora, but did you know that in this Caribbean country exist a colorful bird called Caribbean flamingo that lives and reproduces on its shores?

Flamingos are birds of aquatic habits that are among the living species as one of the oldest and most striking in the world. These birds have been favored with bright colors and a large number of adaptations that allow them to use the wild ecosystems of wetlands.

The Caribbean flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber ruber), is a bird that measures 1.20 to 1.45 meters high and its body mass ranges from 2.10 to 4.10 Kg, being the female of smaller size and body mass than the male, the coloration of its feathers varies from pink to reddish contrasting with the black color present on the outer edges of the wings. Its head is small followed by a long and slender neck. Other morphological characteristics are the lack of feathers in the tibia and the three webbed front fingers, which allows them to enter areas of 26 to 50 centimeters deep and hold onto the mud.

These birds feed on blue-green algae and diatoms, tiny planktonic crustaceans, small mollusks and some insect larvae. The Caribbean flamingo is also known as "American red flamingo” due to its coloration, which is obtained by its diet rich in carotenoids. The carotenoids present in the food, are degraded by liver enzymes and converted into pigments usable as canthaxanthinas, found in the animal in feathers, skin and egg cover.

The flamingos build a nest of 1 m of base, 0.60 m high and about 0.45 cm wide, usually put one or two white eggs weighing about 100 g., The incubation period lasts approximately 28 days with the alternate participation of both male and female.

In Venezuela, flamingos breed annually in the Wildlife Refuge and Fishing Reserve Cienaga Los Olivitos, Miranda municipality, Zulia state, Venezuela RAMSAR site of Venezuela, this refuge is a coastal estuarine wetland, which constitutes a natural habitat for resting, feeding and nesting a great diversity of aquatic and terrestrial avifauna.

In mid-October the number of individuals of this species increases in the refuge due to the start of the breeding season that begins with courtship activities, however it can be seen that throughout the year the population of flamingos in the refuge is approximately 100,000 individuals that increases during the breeding months.

I hope you have enjoyed this post :)

@yolicas