The Chilean Flamingo, Flamenco Austral, Phoenicopterus Chilensis

Visiting the gregarious flamingo.

Photos courtesy: Gail Parker

(PATAGONIA, Argentina) - The Patagonian steppe and desert are expansive and sparsely inhabited by humans. So, while driving from the Atlantic coast to the Andes Mountains the sudden appearance of a lake full of a hundred or more bright salmon-colored birds knocked my sox off.

Chubut Mountains, Andes range

With their great size, 43 inches, unmistakable silhouette, and brilliant coloration, one can’t help but recognize the flamingo and be astonished by its beauty.

The beak looks totally black from a distance, but in fact it is a rosy white with only the half extending to the apex being black. Their eyes are pale yellow. Their head and a third of the neck are white with a tinge of rose.

The rest of the neck and body are rose, and the wings as seen from the back are scarlet and black on the tips.

The legs and feet are a bluish grey in juveniles, greenish grey in adults, but in both the knees, toes and interdigital membranes are scarlet.

Photos by Gail Parker

All of this remarkable color is influenced by their food. Flamingos with a higher protein percentage in their diet have darker coloring.

They feed upon phytoplankton and blue green algae mostly; this is collected from the bottom and filtered by their specially designed beaks.

Their mandibles and tongues are lined with lamellae. These structures filter the animal and plant plankton which comprise their diet.

The flamingo is very gregarious with its own kind, yet is very timid and sensitive to loud noises such as airplanes. When we approached, they immediately began distancing themselves from us.

We gamely followed and continued to try to focus and shoot photos, but they kept getting farther and farther away.

So we had to be satisfied with getting a little closer to their neighbors, the spoon-billed ducks who inhabit the same marshy lake. These ducks are difficult subjects to photograph also, but for a different reason... They are in a continuous bobbing motion, plunging their heads into the water and sending their tails pointed toward the sky. Swans accompanied our other friends that day, too.

Watch for Gail's wonderful coverage of the birds of Patagonia in future stories and photojournals here on Salem-News.com.