Flamingos - Flamingoes

[paul m]

Saw some semi-domesticated flamingos the other week with individuals of very diferent colours. Would that be because the pale ones were youngsters? Or are they different species and how do you tell the American and Afro-European ones apart?

[chris butterworth]

American Flamingo's tend to be the more richly coloured ( although this does depend on what they are feeding on ) and the bill, behind the black tip, has a reddish / deep pink / orangeish patch, as in the photo, while Greater has an all pink bill behind the black with a yellowish patch around the gape ( often almost impossible to see ). Greater ( the old world birds ) are so pale as to be almost white with just the wing coverts bright red. The legs always seem brighter pink on Greaters than American to me, but that could just be down to the contrast with the paler plumage. Young birds are noticably grey in both species.

Chris

[Ferret]

Have you seen this site, Wildfowl Identification - Flamingos Identification - Wildfowl Photography - Types of Flamingos. , might be what you want.
Ferret