Greater Flamingo

Phoenicopterus roseus (Pallas, 1811)

		juvenile
2015-10-26 Tomsk region, the Alexander area, the village of Kievskiy	© Sergey Gashkov

Description

Very long-legged and long-necked large bird with big (not long) knee-like curved bill. In adults all plumage is pink, wing coverts red, primaries black. Male and female similar, male is a bit larger. Young birds off-white, upperpart brownish, underwing can be pink. Weight 2-4 kg, length 125-145 cm, wing 31.0-35.4, wingspan 140-160.

Distribution

Irregularly breeds in Central Kazakhstan (Zhamanakkol, Chelkar-Teniz, Aschitastysor, Tengiz lakes), and also on Caspian Sea. In Siberia, only vagrant. Birds (mailny young) can appear in autumn into Siberia northeast to Yakutia, sometimes in several regions of Siberia in the same time.

Biology

References

Gavrilov E. I., Gavrilov A. E. "The Birds of Kazakhstan". Almaty, 2005.
Э.И.Гаврилов. "Фауна и распространение птиц Казахстана". Алматы, 1999.
В.К.Рябицев. "Птицы Сибири". Москва-Екатеринбург, Изд-во "Кабинетный ученый", 2014.