What kind of noise do flamingos make

Flamingos are highly social birds who form strong pair bonds. They live in extensive flocks, as they need to be part of a large group for breeding to occur. They communicate with each other with a range of vocalizations and visual displays. In flocks of hundreds or thousands of flamingos, it is important that individual specimens can find their families.

Birds paired off for breeding have locator calls that allow them find each other. Pairs find a suitable spot to build a nest and defend their nesting territory. Both parents build the nest; once the female has laid the egg -- normally one egg but sometimes two -- both defend the nest and the egg from other pairs who want the nesting territory. They take turns incubating the egg and foraging.

They recognize each other with a nasal double honk contact call, which the partner will return even if they can't see each other. Different individuals have honks with different amplitude modulations.

While the chick is still inside the egg, a few days before hatching, he will make cheeping vocalizations. Both parents learn to recognize the sound of their chick and will make low grunting vocalizations so the chick imprints on them. The parents will make their contact calls to the chick as he leaves the nest. The parent will call to the chick who will recognize it from up to yards away. Chicks respond only to their own parents' contact calls. Flamingo skin is pink and flamingo blood is pink, but popular claims that flamingo eggs or even flamingo egg yolk is pink are completely untrue, and any photos showing it have been photoshopped.

Flamingos are very noisy birds and communicate by honking loudly. They also make a growling and grunting noise in addition to a warning call when they feel threatened.

Flamingos in Africa rely on the teeming life of freshwater and soda lakes, which they strain through the sieve-like structures in their bills. But many of the lakes on which they depend are ephemeral, prone to drying out almost completely. But on the parched coast of Namibia, greater flamingos appear to know when the rains are due in the usually dry Etosha Pan that lies km away.

But nobody knows if this is true, and, if it is, how they do it. Like the magnetic sense, the weather sense of flamingos and other birds is an enigma.

Males and females perform a spectacular courtship dance to attract a mate. Once formed, flamingo pair bonds are mostly monogamous. Interestingly, so much carotenoid is taken up by their crop milk that by the end of a breeding season parents of both sexes have lost the pink colouring from their feathers and appear almost white.

Scientists have found that the blood biochemistry of each of the six flamingo species varies, with different species seeking specific types of carotenoid. This accounts for the range of hues. Little grey baby flamingo chicks hatch atop a mud nest constructed by the adults and take up to three years to attain their full mature plumage.

The flamingos become pink over time as their feathers are slowly dyed by the carotenoids in their diet. This surprising behaviour was seen in all six species of flamingo resident at the wetland centre, and one flamingo was even seen barging into another that was fast asleep on one leg.

Flamingos can live a long time — some individuals have been recorded at 70 years of age, giving them one of the longest lifespans in the bird world.