Notable birds to look out for... the Andean who likes to float.
Swimming is a behaviour that all flamingos will indulge in. You can see this quite a lot with the greater flamingo flock at WWT Slimbridge in their new "Flamingo Lagoon" enclosure. Swimming is good exercise for flamingos; it keeps their feet and legs healthy and encourages them to spend their time feeding and foraging like they would in the wild. However, one of the Andean flamingos (leg ring JBB) has taken this to the extreme and has decided that floating is much better than swimming. I'm pretty certain that he performs this behaviour just for fun and looks very relaxed with the world when he is floating, but perhaps that is a little too much of a humanised viewpoint?! Some of the Andean flamingos at WWT Slimbridge are grand old pensioners, so who can blame them for having a leisurely float around their pond? We'd probably all do the same thing!
JBB is a very tall, very brightly coloured flamingo who is quite imposing to the other birds and generally gets his own way. He has an especially tempestuous relationship with "JAA" another tall male flamingo and the two of them really do not get on. In fact they can generally be seen at opposite ends of the flock from one another, so it is highly likely that they will not be sharing the same bit of their pond to go floating in! The water in the Andean flamingos' pen is deep enough for them to swim, float, paddle and get their heads right under to grub around in the silt to forage; these guys are big birds and hence need a substantial water depth if they are are to act in this manner. It is the lesser flamingos that would win the competition for being able to swim in the shallowest of water, and can often be seen swimming right up into the shallows of their pool with their webbed feet padding on the bottom of the pond. A bit like children at the beach, still trying to stay afloat even when there is more sand than water under them!
