View from the Zoo: Baby flamingo who stands out from the crowd

Flamingo chicks start life almost white in colour before developing grey feathers and eventually becoming completely pink!

Due to one of our flamingo’s laying this egg quite late in the year, the chick would have struggled in the very cold winter we had. Therefore, the decision was made by the keepers to raise the chick themselves. This meant regular feeding throughout the day as well as lots of attention and going for walks for exercise too.

As he has grown he has now been introduced to his parents and the rest of our flamboyance of flamingos!

This is very special to us and if you are wondering why we are called Flamingo Land it is because when we first opened in 1959, they were one of the first animals to be displayed here.

Some of our individuals are over 60 years old and some flamingos in captivity have lived to over 70 years. In the wild their natural lifespan tends to be 20-30 years.

It takes between 27 and 31 days for a flamingo egg to hatch with both parents taking it in turns incubating the egg by sitting on top of the nest mound. Here at Flamingo Land we have special incubators for any eggs that we know parent birds won’t be able to look after and this is where our flamingo egg was monitored for a month before hatching.

You will be able to see the flamingo chick with its parents in the flamingo enclosure within the South American area of the zoo and by the Mansion House. With grey feathers and not as tall as the others it does stand out from the crowd.