Chilean Flamingo

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iChilean Flamingo

Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Phoenicopteriformes
Family: Phoenicopteridae
Genus: Phoenicopterus
Species: P. chilensis
Binomial name
Phoenicopterus chilensis
Molina, 1782

The Chilean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis) is a large species (110-130 cm) closely related to Caribbean Flamingo and Greater Flamingo, with which it is sometimes considered conspecific. This article follows the treatment in Ibis (2002) 144 707-710.

It occurs in temperate South America. Like all flamingos it lays a single chalky white egg on a mud mound.

The plumage is pinker than the slightly larger Greater Flamingo, but less so than Caribbean Flamingo. It can be differentiated from these species by its greyish legs with pink "knees", and also by the larger amount of black on the bill (more than half).

Chilean Flamingo
Enlarge
Chilean Flamingo

[edit] References

  • BirdLife International (2006). Phoenicopterus chilensis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is near threatened