Mar 12, 2025, 12:18 PM IST

8 interesting facts about flamingos

Monica Singh

Here are some interesting and fun facts about the pink coloured bird.

The word Flamingo comes from the Spanish and Latin word ‘flamenco’ which mean fire, it refers to the bright colours of the bird’s feathers.

Name Meaning

Flamingo chicks are born grey when hatched, and they develop their pink colour over time.

Baby chicks

Flamingos pink colour is obtained from its diet. Each flamingos’ shade of pink varies by species, with the Caribbean species a vivid pink and the Greater species a pale pink.

Pink Pigment

Fully grown flamingo male birds can grow in excess of 180cm tall – that’s the same as supermodel height of 5’11.

Size of a supermodel

A typical lifespan for a flamingo bird in a zoo is an astonishing 60 years, with the longest lifespan recorded being a bird at an Australian Zoo, who lived to be 83.

Lifespan

Flamingos (like penguins) are monogamous birds. The females lay only a single egg each year, if anything happens to that egg which results in it no hatching, flamingos don’t typically lay a replacement which means it can often take several years for the flamingo population to grow.

Monogamous Species

A flock of flamingos are called a colony, regiment or flamboyance. These terms refer to any size flock of flamingos greater than two (who are simply known as a pair).

Flamboyance

There are six flamingo species, including the Caribbean, lesser, greater, James's, Chilean, and Andean. 

Species