Andean Flamingo

Taxobox
name = Andean Flamingo
status = VU | status_system = IUCN3.1


regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Phoenicopteriformes
familia = Phoenicopteridae
genus = "Phoenicopterus"
species = "P. andinus"
binomial = "Phoenicopterus andinus"
binomial_authority = Philippi, 1854

The Andean Flamingo ("Phoenicopterus andinus") is a bird species in the Flamingo family restricted to the high Andes in S. Peru, Bolivia, N. Chile and NW Argentina. It is closely related to the smaller James's Flamingo, and the two are often placed in the genus "Phoenicoparrus".

Like all flamingos it lays a single chalky white egg on a mud mound.

Andean Flamingos, like all the group, feed by filtering small items from water with their specialised bills. They have a deep, narrow lower mandible, which allows them to eat small foods such as diatoms, in contrast to the wider bill of larger species, which take bigger prey items.

Most of the plumage is pinkish white. The Andean Flamingo is the only species that has yellow legs and feet. Its bill is yellowish as in James's Flamingo, but with a much more extensive black tip.

The Andean Flamingo is at risk of extinction because of hunting, its long breeding cycle, and the low number of breeding sites around the world.

External links

* [http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/search/species_search.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=3772&m=0 BirdLife Species Factsheet.]
*ARKive - [http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/birds/Phoenicoparrus_andinus/ images and movies of the Andean flamingo "(Phoenicoparrus andinus)"]
* [http://www.wisegeek.com/why-do-flamingos-stand-on-one-leg.htm Why do flamingos stand on one leg?]