Flamingo Island Q and A

 Have a look at the Save the Flamingo website.

Click here 

Read all about the breeding success of the Lesser Flamingo at Kamfers Dam.

Click here 

More information

What do they feed the young? I have watched them feeding and I wondered if the food also have to go through some process like with most young animals? I don't see a crop on the flamingos.

Do both parents feed the young?

Today is 14th Dec and there are still eggs on the cam visible. Will they still hatch?

Do they have only one brood per season?

thanks for this site  i should be quite interesting

 HOWZITE  - thanks for this site

question  -   what is the main predator on the flamingo

bird      - predators

animal  - predators

reptile  - predators 

 on          adults --

 on          chicks - 

question -    how close is the general public allowed to get

                    to the flamingo  nursery  and do you give out

                    permits to photographer to potograph the birds

The young flamingos are fed a type of flamingo milk. The flamingo text I've read doesn't say whether both parents feed the young, and it is difficult to distinguish the male and female parents from each other without them being marked. Of course you could watch one nest for many hours and see when parents change over and if both feed the chick, but I haven't had the time to do this. 

The main predators of Lesser Flamingo in southern Africa are Marabou Stork, African Fish Eagle, hyaena, jackal and homo sapiens. Chicks are predated on by the same as well as Grey-headed Gull. I may have missed some. 

At Kamfers Dam their predators are dogs, humans, African Fish Eagle, possibly a stray jackal. Grey-headed Gulls are nesting and present on the island so they may be eating eggs and young chicks but we haven't seen this happen yet.

The general public and photographers can get to approx. 100 m from the flamingos on the eastern side of Kamfers Dam where they feed, no permit needed, but you need to cross over a railway line. There are plans to build a viewing platform/hide there sometime next year to make it safer and more accessible. Access to the other side of the dam close to the flamingo island is not premitted and strictly controlled by the landowner. He does allow organised bird groups of limited size access with a local bird guide. Groups are allowed up to approx. 500 m from the island. This is so that people don't disturb the breeding on the island as lesser flamingos are very sensitive to disturbance at their breeding sites. So if you want to photograph the flamingos and chicks on the island you would need a 500 mm lens and converter.    

Yes the eggs will still hatch and the flamingos may still lay eggs until April next year if they repeat what they did last year during their first  breeding event on the island. At their natural breeding sites on extensive pans (Etosha and Sua pan) their breeding is more synchronised and not so extended as they need enough rainfall to start breeding and finish fledging their chicks before the water dries up in these very shallow pans. 

Mostly they have only one brood per season, but they may have two on the island. What we have noticed is that once a chick is off the nest and moves away with its parents, another pair take over the nest and lay an egg. At one nest we watched we saw the chick leave at 5-6 days old and another pair took over and laid an egg the next day!

Is this cam working? I got an email about it & tried to check it out but it wouldn't work. The other 2 work fine (elephant & pan). Is there certain times it's up or what?

Thanks 

 Their intent is to have the cams up 24 hrs a day everyday but the cam feeds are coming from remote areas and the routing is literally around the world.  Due to weather, equipment or other technical problems they may not be functioning properly at one time or another.  All I can suggest is to check in the chat threads for information on the cam status and be patient and try again if it is down for all.

Ok, thanks. 

Missa, it's very difficult to say when they pan and zoom, though I often see the camera change position.

We have had wonderful pics from that cam, mostly we post the pics from that cam in the forum Camera pics. You can look for it here.

Just look through the days.

I made a list of the days with the best pics.

28 August 2008

6 October 2008

17 October 2008 - the first egg spotted on cam

28 October 2008 - a very pink day

30 October 2008

3 November 2008

 4 November 2008

5 November 2008

6 November 2008

9 November 2008 waterlevel has risen remarkably 

18 November 2008 first chick seen on cam

3 December 2008 pics posted in streaming cams pics

3 December 2008 chicks

5 December 2008

6 December 2008

7 December 2008

8 December 2008

22 December 2008

Hi Cerinthe

Thanks for the list of pics, it is very useful. 

Yesterday I uploaded to YouTube 4 videos of recent flamingo and chick activity on the island. Their links: 

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5wDy1kZOiQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkGQloiHGyU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kzakBtbaIY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDW3l4xUb1o

The first one is probably the first filmed record of both parents feeding their chick flamingo milk in the wild. I've found out that the milk is produced in their crops.  You can actually see the milk dripping out of the one parent's bill onto its partner's wing and the chick's head as it waits for its turn to feed the chick. The milk is a bright pink/red colour.  Fascinating! 

PS the FlamCam is set to automatically move to 4 different positions. Whenever I have some spare time I move the camera and zoom in to observe behaviour, take photos and videos. Unfortunately this is usually after work or on weekends, so after 16h30 (local time) on weekdays (and not every day) and anytime I get the chanceon the weekend. 

Enjoy! 

Do they ring some of the flamingos?

What other birds are there at Flamingo Island? Is there somewhere a list of what you usually see there

How long do they occupy the nest after the egg hatched? Once the chick jumps off the nest mound does it ever get back on it, like at night to sleep?

Where do the flamingos migrate to inbetween breeding seasons?

Glad to see the flam cam working again

I noticed that many birds are already there ...and some of them was standing on nests this evening ...

Are they ready to start a new breeding season ..???

Have you noticed if they have started to repair their nests ...???

Have you seen them mating ?

At last flamingos left the dam...for winter or they stayed around ?

and as Cerinthe asked before where they have gone ?

Glad to see you zooming this evening ...I noticed this young bird

How old is it ...When the last eggs have been laid on nests the previous breeding season ?

Was it April as you wrote at your message below or later ?

Have you seen any pair breeding for second time during the previous breeding season?

At what age the lesser flaningo are mature and when they get the pinky colour???

This question is about the Grey headed Gull

We saw them nesting and having chicks...

Isn't it too early ..or they nest during all the year ?

And a last one

Can you give us a small report for the previous breeding season ...??

Thank you very very much

How many falmingos are there at the kamfer dam now ?

Has their population icreased in comparsion with the first year

At the moment we think there are about 30 000 flamingos on and around the island. There are more on the rest of the dam. Last count of all the flamingos on Kamfers Dam came to 83 000 in 2008. However, some have moved off, we suspect north to Etosha and Makgadigadi Pan, and fledglings have been reported at other pans and dams throughout South Africa.

This breeding season (the second for the island) started six weeks earlier than the first and the first chick was spotted in November. The breeding lasted throughout the summer and the last small chicks were seen in April. Every bit of space for a nest was used to breed, eggs were even laid in the gaps between nests.  We have just finished using aerial photos to count the chicks and total number of chicks came to 13 000. This is great news as the first season roughly 9000 chicks hatched.  Let's hope they keep this up every year!

The grey headed gulls are an interesting case. This is the first time they've been recorded as breeding at Kamfers Dam. We first noticed them breeding in May/June and they have continued until now. They are using the flamingo nests as well as areas inbetween and all sorts of materials they can find to build their own nests. Some gull nests even include parts of flamingo chick caracasses. I think they are opportunistic and have used the island while the flamingos are not breeding and taking up all the space. I'm not sure when the gulls' usual breeding time is, will have to do some research.

I think this chick is one of the last ones that hatched in April. So it is four or five months old.

They start getting pinker at about a year, but will only be very pink when they sart to breed at four years old.

I've not been able to recognise a particular pair with any unique markings to see whether they breed for a second time in the same breeding season. We will have to catch and tag some to determine this, which may be done in 2010.

We are so happy to be able to see what's going on on the island again too!

The flamingos are moving on to the island again and getting ready for breeding. They are developing their dark pink feathers on their backs now and becoming pinker overall. This indicates they are ready to breed. A few days ago I saw a flock start doing their courtship dances on the middle section of the island. As you observed, they are standing and sitting on the nests already, I think they are inspecting them to see what repairs need to be done and claiming theirs or another's nest. They should start repairing or building up the nests soon in areas where there is wet mud. Not sure if they will wait for the first rains of the season though. No mating seen as yet.

Many of the lesser flamingos are resident at Kamfers Dam in which the island is situated. The dam is large, about 400 ha in size and currently has a high enough biomass of food to support between 20 000 - 80 000 flamingos for most of the year. They do not use the island much through winter although some do still sleep on the island instead of around the edges of the dam. The flamingos do come and go throughout the year as previous years' counts show fluctuations in numbers over the months and years.

We are not sure of their exact movements, but there have been records of a few birds, fitted with satellite transmitters, moving between Makgadigadi pan in Botswana, Etosha Pan in Namibia, the coast of Mozambique and Kamers Dam, Kimberley, South Africa. We know they also move around locally to other seasonal pans after the rains.