Editing Flamingo (section)

===Life cycle===
Flamingos are very social birds; they live in colonies whose population can number in the thousands. These large colonies are believed to serve three purposes for the flamingos: avoiding predators, maximizing food intake, and using scarce suitable nesting sites more efficiently.<ref name=Picket1994>{{cite journal |last1=Pickett |first1=C. |last2=Stevens |first2=E. F. |year=1994 |title=Managing the Social Environments of Flamingos for Reproductive Success |journal=Zoo Biology |volume=13 |issue=5 |pages=501–507 |doi=10.1002/zoo.1430130512}}</ref> Before breeding, flamingo colonies split into breeding groups of about 15 to 50 birds. Both males and females in these groups perform synchronized ritual displays.<ref name=Ogilvie1986>Ogilvie, Malcolm; Carol Ogilvie (1986). ''Flamingos''. Gloucester, UK: Alan Sutton Publishing Limited. {{ISBN|9780862992668}}. {{oclc|246861013}}.</ref> The members of a group stand together and display to each other by stretching their necks upwards, then uttering calls while head-flagging, and then flapping their wings.<ref name="Studer-Thiersch 1975">Studer-Thiersch, A. (1975). "Basle Zoo", pp. 121–130 in N. Duplaix-Hall and J. Kear, editors. ''Flamingos''. Berkhamsted, United Kingdom: T. & A. D. Poyser, {{ISBN|140813750X}}.</ref> The displays do not seem directed towards an individual, but occur randomly.<ref name="Studer-Thiersch 1975"/> These displays stimulate "synchronous nesting" (see below) and help pair up those birds that do not already have mates.<ref name=Ogilvie1986/>

Flamingos form strong [[pair bond]]s, although in larger colonies, flamingos sometimes change mates, presumably because more mates are available to choose.<ref name="Studer-Thiersch 2000">{{cite journal | last = Studer-Thiersch | first = A. | date = 2000 | title = What 19 Years of Observation on Captive Great Flamingos Suggests about Adaptations to Breeding under Irregular Conditions | journal = Waterbirds: The International Journal of Waterbird Biology | volume = 23 (Special Publication I: Conservation Biology of Flamingos) | pages = 150–159 | doi = 10.2307/1522160 | jstor = 1522160}}</ref> Flamingo pairs establish and defend nesting territories. They locate a suitable spot on the mudflat to build a nest (the female usually selects the place).<ref name="Studer-Thiersch 1975"/> Copulation usually occurs during nest building, which is sometimes interrupted by another flamingo pair trying to commandeer the nesting site for their use. Flamingos aggressively defend their nesting sites. Both the male and the female contribute to building the nest, and to protecting the nest and egg.<ref>{{cite book  |last1=Johnson |first1=Alan |last2=Cézilly |first2=Frank|year=1975 |title=The Greater Flamingo |pages=124–130 |publisher=T & AD Poyser Ltd. |location=London |isbn=978-1-4081-3866-3}}</ref> Same-sex pairs have been reported.<ref name="Bag-Flamingo">{{cite book |last=Bagemihl |first=Bruce |year=1999 |title=Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity |url=https://archive.org/details/biologicalexuber00bage/page/524 |publisher=Stonewall Inn Editions |pages=[https://archive.org/details/biologicalexuber00bage/page/524 524–7] |isbn=978-0312253776 }}</ref>

After the chicks hatch, the only parental expense is feeding.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cézilly |first1=F. |last2=Johnson |first2=A. |last3=Tourenq |first3=C. |year=1994 |title=Variation in Parental Care with Offspring Age in the Greater Flamingo |url=http://sora.unm.edu/node/104905 |journal=The Condor |volume=96 |issue=3 |pages=809–812 |doi=10.2307/1369487|jstor=1369487 }}</ref> Both the male and the female feed their chicks with a kind of [[crop milk]], produced in glands lining the whole of the upper digestive tract (not just the crop). The hormone [[prolactin]] stimulates production. Crop milk contains both fat and protein, as with mammalian milk, but unlike mammalian milk, it contains no carbohydrates.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Ward |first1=Ann M. |author2=Amy Hunt |author3=Mike Maslanka |author4=Chris Brown |title=Nutrient Composition of American Flamingo Crop Milk |url=https://nagonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Ward-Nutrient-Composition-Of-American-Flamingo-Crop-Milk.pdf}}</ref> ([[Columbidae|Pigeons and doves]] also produce crop milk, though just in the glands lining the crop, which contains less fat and more protein than flamingo crop milk.)<ref>{{cite book |title=The Birder's Handbook |first1=Paul |last1=Ehrlich |first2=David S. |last2=Dobkin |first3=Darryl |last3=Wheye |year=1988 |page=[https://archive.org/details/birdershandbookf00ehrl_0/page/271 271] |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-0-671-62133-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/birdershandbookf00ehrl_0|url-access=registration }}</ref>

For the first six days after the chicks hatch, the adults and chicks stay in the nesting sites. At around 7–12 days old, the chicks begin to move out of their nests and explore their surroundings. When they are two weeks old, the chicks congregate in groups, called "microcrèches", and their parents leave them alone. After a while, the microcrèches merge into "crèches" containing thousands of chicks. Chicks that do not stay in their crèches are vulnerable to predators.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gaillo |first1=A. |last2=Johnson |first2=A. R. |last3=Gallo |first3=A. |year=1995 |title=Adult Aggressiveness and Crèching Behavior in the Greater Flamingo, ''Phoenicopterus ruber roseus'' |journal=Colonial Waterbirds |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=216–221 |doi=10.2307/1521484|jstor=1521484 }}</ref> When young flamingos are around three to three and a half months old, their flight feathers will finish growing in, allowing them to fly.<ref name=":04">{{Cite book |last=Arnold |first=Caroline |title=Flamingo |publisher=Morrow Junior Books |others=Illustrated by Richard Hewett |year=1991 |isbn=9780688094119 |pages=11, 13, 22, 41}}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Flamingo and offspring.jpg|American flamingo and offspring: The {{linktext|arcuate}} (curved) bill is adapted to bottom scooping.
File:Chilean Flamingo Feeding.jpg|Chilean flamingo feeding its young
File:Large number of flamingos at Lake Nakuru.jpg|Colony of lesser flamingos at [[Lake Nakuru]]
</gallery>