Do Flamingos Fly? Here's The Truth About Flying Flamingos!

Flamingos are ground-dwelling birds that are a bright pink color and have curved beaks and long graceful legs.

They are a very popular sight for zoo documentaries or wildlife and coastal photography. The way they stride through the water, sweeping their beaks to collect fish from the water is quite mesmerizing.

Flamingos can fly, but unlike most birds, they tend to stay on the ground for the majority of the time, and they only fly when they need to feed on fish from the water. When they fly, they fly at high altitudes and for long distances.

They can even complete a distance of 375 mi (603.5 km) just in one night by having a speed of 35 mph (56.32 kph) and flying at 15,000 ft (4.57 km).

They are wading birds who have various species and can be seen across America, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean (Caribbean flamingo), and some parts of Europe too. There is not one country to which all the flying flamingos belong.

Their name has been taken from the Portuguese word which means 'flame-colored' because of their light pink and reddish color.

Their famous and appealing body color comes from the diet which they have. Their diet includes algae and brine shrimp.

Flamingos which are often in captivity become white as they do not get the mature pink pigment from the seafood. The various color variations which we see in the flamingo species are basically because of the difference in their diets.

Those species that eat blue-green algae in large amounts tend to have distinct color patches.

As we know that flamingos can fly, they display some flying attempts and a few pedaling movements, but because their bodies are very large, they do not find it easy to fly. Flamingos are rare swimmers and have webbed feet which help to hunt for fish better in saline lakes.

There are various types of flamingos like the Chilean flamingo which is found in central Peru, coastal South America, Argentina, Galapagos Islands, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil. Apart from Chilean flamingos, another one is the Lesser flamingo which can be seen in western, easter, and southern areas of Africa.

They can be seen in large amounts in India too.

The James flamingo is the most restricted one. They can be seen in northeastern Chile, northwest Argentina, southern Peru, and western Bolivia.

The Andean flamingos are seen in South America, in the regions of northwestern Argentina, western Bolivia, southern Peru, and north-central Peru.

The Caribbean flamingos, according to their name, can be seen in the Caribbean, mainly in Turks, Caicos, The Bahamas, Yukatan, and Cuba. The Greater flamingo is the most abundant of them all, and it can be seen in northwest India, Africa, the western Mediterranean, northern Europe, East towards Siberia, and the Middle East.

People have the perception of flamingos being flightless, but they are not at all flightless birds, they just don’t fly very frequently. The fact is that flamingos are not very closely linked with birds like chickens, turkeys, or peacocks who just primarily live on the ground and do not fly like other birds.

Flamingos are from the family Phoenicopteridae.

This family just comprises flamingos in the bird category. Other wading birds are not close relatives to flamingos even though they themselves are wading birds.

The roseate spoonbill, which resembles flamingo a lot, is not a relative.

The closest relative which these wading birds have is the grebe which does not have any resemblance to them of any kind. Flamingos are found in subtropical and tropical areas all around the world.

By nature, they are not migratory, but because of changes in the climate conditions of an area and scarcity of water, they have to leave the breeding ground and are left with no other option but to migrate to new places with good resources to sustain themselves.

There can be many conditions behind their migration, like the freezing of lakes for the birds inhabiting the high altitudes, the rising level of the water bodies in which they breed, and the most significant is the occurrence of the drought seasons in the habitat. Flamingos mostly return to their old habitats after some time.

Read on to know more about these fascinating flamingos. You can also read flamingo facts and if fleas can fly articles on our website.

Why do flamingos not fly?

Despite their long legs and necks, still, their flight is elegant and does not seem awkward. While in flight, other birds tend to draw their legs straight together underneath their bodies and tuck them into their feathers to minimize the drag they get.

However, the legs of flamingos are too long to perform this. The birds who have very long necks often keep their necks in an S-shape to keep everything compact for flight, but again, the flamingo’s neck is very long to do this.

To fly, flamingos just try to keep their legs and necks straight out and use them for counter-balancing to keep the weight centered.

The drag also gets minimized when they keep them straight. They do get less maneuverable by doing this as compared to other birds, but most of the time they tend to stay on the ground so that doesn’t affect them much.

Although they have long legs and thin bodies, flamingos are not as agile as they would like to be. Instead, they use a distinctive take-off pattern to get off the ground.

These birds fly rapidly and build up speed by taking quick steps and running in the water. They then need a bit of runway to get airborne. Although flamingos aren’t considered a true migratory species, they often fly.

They can be found in shallow warm waters and will often relocate if they sense they are threatened or disturbed. They also fly if they feel like they’re being chased away. These birds like to stay in shallow water and get uncomfortable in cold water.

In zoos, they have all the necessary things like ample food shelter and so on. This is why flamingoes do not fly in zoos.

How high do flamingos fly?

Since we always observe these pink birds on the ground, people may wonder why they do not see them flying. The height at which these flamingos fly is about 10,000 ft (3.04 km) or even higher than that.

Due to flying at very high altitudes, their pink color isn't always visible easily from the ground. There will be many instances when a bunch of flamingos will fly above you but because of the height, you will be unable to see them.

Flamingos take care of their offspring in the first month, and in the first few weeks, they don’t make them learn or understand the flying position. They develop the flying feathers later in the 11th week after their hatching. The chicks then themselves start to attempt flying after their feathers are fully grown.

After three months the young flamingos start to fly for the first time. Babies do not develop the pink color so soon, they look more or less gray in color. Their excretion is not pink.

Flamingos fly in formations when they fly long distances. The flock often organizes itself in a shape where all of them can remain close.

Flamingos need to constantly flap when they fly and that’s why they stay close to each other because that gives them a collective push while flying. The flying speed of a typical flock varies in accordance with the wind, their speed varies between 30-40 mph (50-65 kph).

Flamingos prefer clear and less cloudy weather. They frequently change their flight formations with respect to the speed of the wind so that they can get the maximum push.

The most used formation by them is the V-formation, apart from that, a ball-like formation can also be seen.

When flamingos fly in the sky, they make loud noises that are similar to that the noises of geese. Thanks to this type of communication, they get the chance to organize themselves better.

People believe that flamingos communicate about locations, dangers and to locate their groupmates. When they begin to land, the flock gets scattered and looks quite irregular as they all search for various spots to land.

What has wings but cannot fly?

There are as many as over 60 species of flightless birds present in the world. It’s just that these species lost their ability to fly due to evolution.

The ability to fly gives the birds an extra advantage to escape the predators, making their nests far from the reach of terrestrial animals. They also can cover long distances in search of water and food, or for the need of better climate.

There are many birds like the steamed duck, penguin, set, ostrich, kiwi, kakapo, cassowary, deviation, and dodo, which have wings but cannot fly.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for facts about whether flamingos can fly then why not take a look at where eggs come from or where nuts come from as well?