[EBB Sightings] Flamingo identification

It sounds like this south county Flamingo is being nice and sedate. If so, 
and you have a scope, bill color and pattern is probably the most reliable 
i.d. factor. I saw several thousand Greater Flamingoes in the Petite 
Camargue in May (most of them flying, so bill color not a factor in 
identication). Since Chilean Flamingoes are an accidental there, we took 
the trouble to try to figure out how we'd know one if we saw it.

The easiest field marks:

Greater Flamingo has light pink bill with a SMALL black tip.
Chilean Flamingo has a pink bill of which about HALF is black.
Lesser Flamingo has a dark red bill (so dark it looks black in many lights) 
with a small black tip.

Aside from the red knees, etc., mentioned in earlier posts on Chilean 
Flamingoes, Lesser Flamingo has dark red legs.

I'm throwing all this in because any Flamingo around here could be any species.

There are some nice Flamingoes at the Oakland Zoo, by the way.



Tom Condit
tomcondit at igc.org