3 Types of Flamingos

Nearly everyone knows what flamingos look like —pink birds with long legs. You can see them at just about every zoo. You can find them in storybooks.

How Do They Live

Flamingos live in large groups all year long called colonies. Tens of thousands of flamingos can live in one colony! Within a colony, flamingos breed in pairs. Every pair of flamingos does not breed every year, however. Breeding

Flamingos are able to reproduce by the age of about six. There is no specific season associated with breeding, but it seems to be correlated with rain. Nest building may depend on rainfall and its effect on food supply.

When they are ready to lay their breed, birds will form pairs. Within the whole colony, groups of birds will be engaged in courtship displays -, a predictable sequence of displays including marching and head turning, calling and preening. Several hundred to several thousand flamingos are all doing the same behaviors at the same time. This helps to synchronize breeding within the colony, so that most of the birds are laying eggs or raising young at the same time.

Why are flamingos pink?

Feather color varies with species, ranging from pale pink to crimson or vermilion. Caribbean flamingos have the brightest coloration: crimson or vermilion. The Chilean flamingo is pale pink.

How Do They Get Food Out Of The Water?

Flamingos use their large beaks to filter small food items from the water. A flamingo lowers its head into the water, upside-down. It moves its head from side to side, collecting the food/water mixture. The spiny, piston-like tongue acts to pump the water mixture past the toothlike ridges on the outside of the beak and the lamellae, or finger-like projections, inside the beak. The lamellae act as strainers to remove the food particles from the water.

They are birds of prey which, along with hawks and eagles, are from the family Accipitridae.

Red Kites

Red Kites are distinctive because of their forked tail and striking colour – predominantly chestnut red with white patches under the wings and a pale grey head.
They have a wingspan of nearly two metres (about five-and-a-half-feet), but a relatively small body weight of 2 – 3 Ibs.
This means the bird is incredibly agile, and can stay in the air for many hours with hardly a beat of its wings.

Red Kite

Red Kites are neither particularly strong nor aggressive despite being large birds.
Primarily a scavenger and an opportunist; it profits from sheep carrion but is not capable of opening up sheep or lamb carcasses by itself and has to wait until more powerful birds such as ravens or buzzards have made the first inroads before it will attempt to feed.
Red Kites are however predators and take a wide variety of live prey, ranging from earthworms to small mammals, amphibians and birds.

Red Kites usually breed for the first time at 2 or 3 years old. They usually pair for life, although this is thought to be more because of a mutual attachment to the same territory and nest sites rather than any great attachment to each other.

There are a few recorded cases of ‘divorces’ where both members of the original pair were later found breeding with different partners.
Nests are built almost exclusively in trees – mostly in hardwoods, such as oaks, and are usually built at a height of between 4 and 30 metres above the ground. They are usually fairly flat, untidy structures of sticks about 2 feet in width.

For established pairs, courtship and nest-building usually start in earnest during March, about 2 – 4 weeks before the first egg is laid, but first-time breeders may not start until April.

Eggs are normally laid at three-day intervals. Between one and four are usually laid, two being by far the most usual number. Incubation is carried out by the female, who is fed at the nest by the male. Males will incubate for very short periods (usually less than 30 minutes) while the female goes off to feed, hunt or preen. Each egg will hatch between 31 and 35 days after incubation, resulting in chicks hatching at two or three day intervals.

Because of this, sibling aggression is common and the larger chick will peck vigorously at its younger nest-mates if they attempt to get food before it has had its fill. In nests where food is in short supply the size difference between the chicks will increase with the smaller one(s) ultimately dying of starvation or being killed by the larger chick(s).

I never quite caught this special fascination with falcons although I think they are very impressive and beautiful to observe (but I can say the same for many other types of birds). Perhaps my “most memorable” falcon is the bird at left, a spectacular Lanner Falcon at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula in November 1981 (the Sinai was then Israeli occupied; it is now part of Egypt). It is particularly memorable because although I took this photo, I have no memory of it. A week before I had tumbled from a second-floor balcony and been knocked unconscious; I was apparently air-lifted to a hospital by the army. There is an entire blank week in my memory here, but I took extensively field notes of my birding during the days after I returned. I also took rolls of film. One roll starts with a close-up of a Bar-tailed Godwit, then the next shot is a blur of brown feathers hitting to godwit, and then a series of the falcon carrying it off to be devoured. Some of my best stuff — and my only recollections are these photos. Its a weird feeling.

While the big falcons are glamorous and get all the ink, I am more emotional about the story of the Mauritius Kestrel (right). Over the sorry history of man’s destruction of birds and their habitats, this is one of the best success stories going. When I first began birding at a more active pace and my thoughts first turned to world birding in 1974, this was considered the rarest bird in the world. There were only two nesting pairs but two unmated individuals — a total of just six birds — left in the world. But conservationists, spearheaded by Tom Cade, Stanley Temple, C. G. Jones and others, got international backing just in time. They developed a captive breeding program and a public awareness campaign. By the publication of Cade’s (1982) Falcons of the World there were 15 in the wild; 1983 ten of those were captured for breeding (see Jones 1980 for more details). The government of Mauritius also increased the sizes of reserves. When I visited ten years later (1992) the program was going so well there were 250 in the wild and many still being raised in captivity. I understand the wild population is now up to 500 or so and all available habitats on the island have been recolonized. Given this dramatic history — an escape from extinction that passed through a genetic bottleneck when numbers were so low — I still consider the Mauritius Kestrel of the “best birds in the world,” even though today’s birder need only visit Mauritius briefly to see one.

Among the falcons, some 13 species are called “kestrels” but all of these are still retained in the genus Falco that includes all the large hunting falcons; together the genus Falco comprises 38 species, or 60% of the Falconidae.

The other species within the Falconidae are scattered among the caracaras — long-legged neotropical birds, some of which include carrion in their diet, the unique Laughing Falcon Herpetotheres cachinnans and the forest-falcons of the Neotropics (many of them secretive), and the pygmy-falcons and falconets of the Old World tropics. The latter are tiny species like this Pygmy Falcon (below; photo by Dale & Marion Zimmerman) of the open plains of East Africa. The small falconets hunt the forests of Southeast Asia, Borneo and the Philippines.

In the New World, the caracaras can be conspicuous. Birds in the “Crested Caracara” group are prime examples. They are very much an open country bird and readily willing to take carrion. This Southern Caracara (above left) on the Brazilian Pantanal has just recently been split from the Northern Caracara Caracara plancus which ranges from south Texas and Florida to northern South America (Dove & Banks 1999). Their ranges are divided by the Amazon River, and the southern species has a uniformly barred back, rump and tail (and breast) unlike the white-chested, black-backed birds north of the river. Other caracaras are forest edge species, often following the rivers through the lowlands and hunting along the banks. The Black Caracara (below) is such a bird. It is widespread in the South American lowlands; here it uses driftwood on a Napo River islet as a hunting post.

The best known falcon is the Peregrine (above in a fine photo by Ed Greaves) which, if I’m not mistaken, has the most extensive range of any bird species in the world. It is a magnificent hunter, dropping from the skies at high speeds on its prey. This photographed Peregrine has just taken, plucked, and eaten a shorebird on a beach in northern California but Peregrines also prey heavily on waterfowl and, in cities around North America, the prey is mostly introduced Rock Doves (feral pigeons). There the Peregrine has adapted to city life by nesting on skyscraper ledges or bridge girders which replicate the conditions of the steep, inaccessible cliffs it uses for breeding in the wilderness.

In the United States, Peregrines were once more widespread and reasonably common but the species suffered precipitous continental declines in the 1960s and early 1970s due to pesticides, shooting, and nest-robbing for falconry. The widespread use of the pesticide DDT caused eggshell thinning; thin eggs easily broke and eventually nest sites were abandoned. By the early 1970s only one pair was known to nest in the California. In my home county (Monterey) Peregrines had historically been known at some 24 nest sites but the last site was abandoned in the mid-1960s. Fortunately the banning of DDT and governmental listing as an Endangered species, aided tremendously by a hands-on recovery program, have returned the Peregrine to a stable healthy population. The recovery effort was spearheaded in the late 1970s and 1980s by the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group who removed thin-shelled eggs from nests for safe hatching in captivity, returned young to nests and then closely monitored their success. The Ventana Wilderness Society also released captive-reared birds from a hack site above the Big Sur coast beginning in 1986. By 1980 there were again five Monterey County nests occupied that fledged 4 young. The active intervention phase of Peregrine Falcon management ended in my county about 1990. With these management efforts the local breeding population has rebounded; today there are 6-9 nests from Hurricane Pt. south to the San Luis Obispo Co. line, and it is possible that traditional interior sites have been or will be reclaimed.

The Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus Leucocephalus) is the only eagle species living strictly in North America. It is a fish eagle that has a presence in every state in the U.S.A. except Hawaii. The Bald Eagle can have a wing span of up to eight feet and can weigh up to 15 pounds. It inhabits areas near large bodies of water where there are plenty of fish to eat and tall trees in which to nest and roost. Bald Eagles are monogamous and remain faithful to their mate until death. Females lay one to three eggs annually in the spring time, and the incubation period is approximately 35 days.

American Blad Eagle

Young (immature) Bald Eagles are dark brown in color when they fledge the nest at about 12 weeks of age, and the head and tail feathers turn predominantly white in their fourth or fifth year. Bald Eagles can live up to 40 years in the wild and longer in captivity. They are primarily fish eaters. Other fish eagles that can be found outside the United States around the world include: White-bellied Sea Eagle (White-breasted Sea Eagle), Solomon Sea Eagle (Sanford’s Sea Eagle), African Fish Eagle, Madagascar Fish Eagle, Pallas’ Fish Eagle (Band-tailed Fish Eagle), White-tailed (Sea) Eagle (Gray Sea Eagle), Lesser Fishing Eagle, Greater Fishing Eagle (Gray headed Fishing Eagle) and Steller’s Sea Eagle.

Immature Bald Eagle

The Golden Eagle (Aquila Chrysaetos) is a large brown and golden colored booted eagle that can be found in mountainous areas of the U.S.A. This bird of prey can weigh up to 15 pounds and can have a wing span of up to eight feet. It ranges throughout the Western Hemisphere, Europe and Asia. It builds nests on mountain rocks and ledges, and feeds on small mammals and reptiles.

Other booted eagles that can be found outside the U.S. around the world include: Asian Black Eagle, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Greater Spotted Eagle, Tawny Eagle, Steppe Eagle, Imperial Eagle, Gurney’s Eagle, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Verreaux’s Eagle (African Black Eagle), Wahlberg’s Eagle, Bonelli’s Eagle, African Hawk Eagle, Booted Eagle, Little Eagle, Ayre’s Hawk Eagle, Rufous-bellied Eagle, Martial Eagle, Black & White Hawk Eagle, Long-crested Eagle, Cassin’s Hawk Eagle, Crested Hawk Eagle (Changeable Hawk Eagle), Mountain Hawk Eagle, Java Hawk Eagle, Celebes Hawk Eagle, Phillipine Hawk Eagle, Blyth’s Hawk Eagle, Wallace’s Hawk Eagle, African Crowned Eagle, Ornate Hawk Eagle, Black Hawk Eagle (Tyrant Hawk Eagle), and Black

Golden Eagle

The Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja) is a splendid example of a Giant Forest Eagle. It is a lovely grey, black and white bird with a prominent crest. It is endowed with thick legs and massive feet. It is perhaps the largest eagle in the world, with some females weighing 20 lbs. or more. It lives in the rainforests of Central and South America, and preys primarily on birds and various mammals, including sloths and monkeys. It builds a huge stick nest in the crotch of an emergent forest tree. It is currently a threatened species due to the destruction of the rainforests. Other Giant Forest Eagles that can be found around the world include: the highly endangered Philippine Eagle, the Guiana Crested Eagle, and the New Guinea Eagle.

Harpy eagle

The Bateleur Eagle (Terathopius ecaudatus) is an abberrent, but well known member of the Serpent or Snake Eagle group. Like other members of the group, the Bateleur Eagle has a large head covered with long feathers and stocky legs with short stubby toes – ideal for grasping snakes. Unlike some Snake Eagles, the Bateleur, which is “acrobat” in French, spends a lot of time soaring. It may cover 100 miles or more a day in search of food, which includes carrion and animals such as antelope, mice, birds and various reptiles. The Bateleur is a large, handsome jet black eagle with white under the wings, rufous tail and back, gray on the shoulders, bright crimson face and legs, and a black beak. Females are around 24 inches in length, and males are slightly smaller. Wingspans range from 6 to 7 feet. The Bateleur is found in the tree and brush savanna throughout Africa, south of the Sahara. Other Snake Eagles that can be found around the world include: Short-toed Eagle, Brown Snake Eagle, East African Snake Eagle (Southern Banded Snake Eagle), Banded Snake Eagle, Crested Serpent Eagle, Kinabalu Serpent Eagle, Nicobar Serpent Eagle, Andaman Serpent Eagle, Congo Serpent Eagle (African Serpent Eagle) and Madagascar Serpent Eagle.

Bateleur Eagle

General Description: Adult northern goshawks are bluish- gray on the back, wings, and tail, and pearly gray on the breast and underparts. The dark gray cap is accented by a light gray stripe above the red eye. Like most birds of prey, female goshawks are larger than males. A typical female is 25 inches (65 cm) long, has a wingspread of 45 inches (115 cm) and weighs 2¼ pounds (1020 g) while the average male is 19½ inches (50 cm) in length with a wingspread of 39 inches (100 cm) and weighs 2 pounds (880 g).

Adult sharp-shinned hawks have gray backs, wings and tails (males tend to be bluish-gray, while females are browner) with white underparts barred heavily with brownish-orange. They also have red eyes but, unlike goshawks, have no eyestrip. A typical female weighs 6 ounces (170 g), is 13½ inches (35 cm) long with a wingspread of 25 inches (65 cm), while the average male weighs 3½ ounces (100 g), is 10 inches (25 cm) long and has a wingspread of 21 inches (55 cm).

In both species, immature birds are brown on the back, wings and tail, with buff-colored underparts streaked with brown. The eyes of young accipiters are yellow; it takes several years for them to change to the red of adults. Young goshawks have a buff eyestripe. In both species, the long tail is broadly banded with dark gray in adults and dark brown in immatures. The tail is tipped with white in adults and buff in immatures.

Food Habits: Accipiters are adept at flying quickly through dense woods in search of their favored prey. The hawks’ short, broad wings enable them to accelerate rapidly, and their long tails are efficient rudders for steering around trees. The birds employ this ability to negotiate wooded habitats in hunting. They perch quietly in trees or move stealthily from perch to perch. When prey is sighted, they make a rapid dash after it. If the intended prey is not caught quickly, the pursuit is dropped after a short distance. When the hawks do get close, they reach out with their long legs and grab the animal with powerful, taloned feet. Goshawks have tremendously strong feet and legs and are capable of subduing large prey, such as snowshoe hares, grouse, ptarmigan, and ducks. They also eat squirrels, voles, shrews, and some of the larger songbirds and shorebirds. In contrast, the more maneuverable sharpshinned hawks have proportionally longer, narrower toes and are more efficient at capturing songbirds. Sharp-shins also eat a few small mammals and occasionally catch large insects. Typically, a few feathers or tufts of fur are ingested with each meal. These, along with bones and fragments of insect exoskeleton, are not digested but are bundled into compact “pellets” and regurgitated. Pellets can often be found among prey remains near the birds’ favorite perches (accipiters usually take their kills to “plucking perches” or “butcher blocks” where they pull out the feathers or fur of prey before eating it). Pellets and other remains provide biologists with valuable clues to the hawks’ diets.

Life History: While accipiters can and do exploit a variety of habitats for hunting, they prefer to nest in mixed stands of coniferous and deciduous trees. They often return to the same general area in successive years and will occasionally reuse an old nest. The area immediately surrounding the nest is vigorously defended against intruders—the adults scream and dive at interlopers, slashing and grabbing at the offenders with their feet.

Northern goshawks build large stick nests, usually in a major crotch of birch or aspen trees. Nesting usually begins in early to mid-April, often when there is still snow on the ground. Goshawks lay one to four eggs, with three or four being the most common clutch sizes. Young goshawks hatch in late May or early June, grow quickly, and fledge in early to mid-July. The young birds remain in the vicinity of the nest as they develop their powers of flight and sharpen their hunting skills. The parents continue to feed their offspring for as long as the young birds remain in the area, often until early August. Northern goshawks do not make long-distance migrations and can be found year-round throughout their range in Alaska.

Sharp-shinned hawks nest most frequently in middle-age (25-45 years old) spruce trees. They usually build their bulky twig nests close to the trunk midway up the nest tree. Sharp-shins lay three to six eggs (most commonly five or six) in late April or early May, and the young hatch about 35 days later. Young sharp-shins grow rapidly and fledge 22 to 25 days after hatching—about the same time that young goshawks are leaving the nest.

Sharp-shins follow the same post-fledging pattern as goshawks, but their dispersal from the nest area is faster. Most sharp-shins follow waves of migrating songbirds in the fall and spend the winter in the warmer regions, although some individuals overwinter in Southcentral and Southeast Alaska.

Because young accipiters usually weigh less than their parents and have slightly longer flight feathers, their wing loading is lower (i.e., less weight distributed over a large wing area). This enables young birds to fly slower and more buoyantly than adults, but they still occasionally fall victim to their own clumsiness and fatally miscalculate a landing. A large number of birds succumb to other hazards, including disease, predation, flying into windows, being shot by humans, and being struck by vehicles. The first hard freeze of the year eliminates many birds, especially those sharp-shinned hawks which have not yet gone south. Goshawks also fall victim to the weather; birds which are barely able to catch enough food to stay alive in warm weather don’t survive for long when cold weather increases the food intake requirements. As many as 80-90 percent of birds die during their first winter.

Northern goshawks have few enemies in the wild other than the elements. They are rarely caught in a position where they are unable to either defend themselves or evade their attacker. They are most vulnerable when the female is incubating eggs or brooding small nestlings and when the young are first learning to fly. At these times, other large hawks or owls occasionally kill goshawks; and bears, lynx, and other climbing predators sometimes reach nests and eat young birds. Sharp-shinned hawks have similar enemies, including the goshawk itself. Although many goshawks are killed in the name of defense of poultry or other small livestock, only a few birds actually deserve the oft-applied title, “chicken hawk.”

While it is illegal to kill raptors, the goshawk and the sharp-shinned hawk may be kept in captivity by falconers, providing they have the required permit, which is issued jointly by state and federal authorities.

Preservation of Alaska’s raptors depends on research and habitat protection. Increased knowledge and preservation of critical habitat will help perpetuate the woodland hawks of Alaska.

Tufted Puffin

Types of Birds

Birds are generally recognized as the feathered, flying members of the animal kingdom, situated in the class Aves.

The world’s ten thousand bird species typically get organized into approximately thirty different orders.

Approximately nine hundred year round and migratory bird species live in the United States. They generally fits into eighteen different bird orders.

• Loons (Order Gaviiformes)
• Grebes (Order Podicipediformes)
• Albatross, Sharwaters, Strom Petrels (Order Procellariiformes)
• Pelicans and Cormorants (Order Pelecaniformes)
  

  Black And White Bird

• Herons (Order Ciconiiformes)
• Ducks, Geese, Swans (Order Anseriformes)
• Eagles, Falcons, Hawks, Vultures (Order Falconiformes)
• Chachalaca Grouse, Turkey, Quail (Order Galliformes)
• Rails (Order Gruiformes)
• Shorebirds such as Plovers, Sandpipers, Gulls and Terns (Order Charadriiformes)
• Cuckoos, Roadrunners Order: Cuculiformes
• Nighthawks Order Caprimulgiformes
• Doves and Pigeons (Order Columbiformes)
• Owls (Order Strigiformes)
• Swifts, Hummingbirds (Order Apodiformes)
• Kingflisher (Order Coraciiformes)
• Woodpeckers (Order Piciformes)
• Everything else (Order Passeriformes)

Almost one-half of North American species fit into the Passeriformes order, the perching birds. Passerines (sparrows, finches, cardinals, jays, crows, warblers and more), as they are collectively known, are the most common birds seen in residential areas and backyard feeders.

With the exception of Loons, Albatross and Nighthawks, the links in the box on the right point to pictorial essays covering all the different types of birds found in the United States. The pictures of birds link leads to a complete list of about 150 different birds.