Never mind the neighbours.

It's very late in the year for flamingos to be breeding but this fact seems to have passed Slimbridge's flock of Chilean flamingos by. Visitors to the South American Pen will notice that there are several nests created right at the rear of the enclosure, far away from the usual nesting island. The birds have created these nests themselves, showing their skill and dexterity in being able to build such large nest mounds from scratch. Even those some of these birds have been in captivity for decades, they still posses the skills to successfully build their own mud nest mounds. Although, as the photo below shows they have attracted some rather peculiar neighbours...

 The Chilean flamingo nests, being so close to the fence of the North American Pen sometimes attract a noisy gang of the Richardson's cackling geese who seem to enjoy shouting through the fence at their new, rather gangly neighbours. This does not seem to perturb the flamingos one bit!

If these eggs are fertile then the avics will step in and give the birds a helping hand. Fingers crossed that Chilean chicks could be on the way...

  • Share this article