Birdwatchers in Goa have been going crazy the past one month thanks to the sighting of the very rare and vagrant winter visitor to Goa, the Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus). The Greater Flamingo belongs to the Flamingo family (Phoenicopteridae) which has six species distributed across the world. Greater Flamingo is one of the most widely spread species of Flamingo in the world, being spread across Africa, South Europe and South Asia. The name Flamingo is derived from a Spanish word which means “colour of flame”.
This species is huge in size, with the standing height of adult birds reaching up to five feet! The bird is tall and has lanky legs which it uses to wade into deep waters. The adult bird is rosy white with scarlet-black wings and a massive pink beak which is downcurved. Immature birds however are grayish brown with dark beak. The Greater Flamingo get together in big flocks often numbering hundreds of individuals, but it is not rare to see small flocks of tens. Sometimes few individuals might also wander to unexplored locations and hence Dr Salim Ali had classified them as nomadic in addition to being local migrants.
The beak of the Greater Flamingo is a wonder of evolution. The beak has a sieve like structure which is used to filter out its food - mostly algae, snail and small crabs. The scarlet-pink colour of Flamingo’s in general have been of particular interest to researchers and now we understand that carotenoid, a pigment found in carrot, is responsible for this bright colouration. No, Flamingos don’t eat carrot but they acquire this pigment from algae and crabs that are part of their diet. Once they start digesting their food, carotenoid pigment is broken down in their liver into pink and orange pigment which then gets deposited on their feathers and beak.
The Greater Flamingo was first reported from Goa in 2000 by ornithologist Heinz Lainer when he observed an adult bird in Divar Island. The next report of this species was in 2006 at Divar. After a gap of nine years, on December 2015 local birder Qupeleio De’Souza and later Arabinda Pal, a student of Goa University reported a single individual from Morjim. This individual has now decided to spend the winter in Goa and is being constantly sighted in various places of the state.
The Greater Flamingo is classified as least concerned with respect to conservation priority, but recent studies have indicated that disturbance at breeding sites results in low reproductive success. They are further affected by surface runoff which leads to pollution of their habitats. This visit to Goa by the Greater Flamingo has made many birders happy and there is hope that the birds keep visiting the state in the years to come.
