CONTENTS At the Animal Park 2 Five Kinds of Flamingos 6 Males and Females 12 Nest Building 16 New Chicks 22 Leaving the Nest 26 Feeding 28 Colorful Feathers 34 Preening 36 New Feathers 38 Flying 40 Long Lives 42 Beautiful Birds 44 Index 48
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people made it possible for us to do this book and we would like to thank them for their time expertise and cheerful cooperation We want to express our appreciation to all the people who helped us at Busch Gardens in Tampa Florida and particularly to Michael Wells Curator of Birds and to Glenda Gilmore and Christine Mackey in the Marketing Department We are grateful for the assistance of Dennis Testa and his staff at Hialeah Racetrack Hialeah Florida We also thank the Greater Los Angeles Zoo in Los Angeles California especially June Bottcher Publicity Michael Cunningham Cunningham Assistant Curator of Birds and Cathy Christel flamingo keeper And as always we thank our editor Andrea Curley for her support and encouragement on this project 1
At the AnimAl PArk A distant noise startled the group of flamingos feeding in the shallow water at the edge of the small lake Suddenly all eyes were alert as the birds turned swiftly to move farther along the shore Running as fast as he could go four-week-old Chogogo raced to keep up with the long-legged adults Like the bodies of other young flamingos flamingos Chogogo’s was still covered with soft downy feathers Although these would soon be replaced with longer smooth feathers it would be several years before the young flamingo wore the elegant pink plumes of the older birds 2
