Sergey Dereliev

Greater Flamingo breeds scattered across the Mediterranean wetlands, C Asia and the Middle East up to India; also in parts of Africa (BirdLife International 2021). Mostly resident; most of the movements are natal/breeding dispersal.  

Season of assessment

B

Population trendIncreasing
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		71800-265000,144000
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Greater Flamingo

There is a high degree of interchange between different regions, resulting in very high overlap and low connectivity.The majority of movements are across the Mediterranean basin, where breeding birds from different regions mix outside the breeding season. Recoveries, therefore, support genetic studies which show that Mediterranean colonies are a single population with a common natural history (Geraci et al. 2012). There are exceptional movements from the SW European breeding nuclei to NW Europe (up to The British Isles). Migration to W Africa detected for the SW/W European Flamingos. Breeding dispersal is usual  and is directly linked to the conditions at breeding sites: higher colony fidelity occurs in less variable environments (Nager et al. 1996).

Recoveries by Condition for Greater Flamingo

Overall, most (~60%) recoveries are of birds seen alive, mostly by reading their leg ring(s). However, even from 1990 to present many birds are still found dead, mostly sick/wounded (21%). As in many other large waterbirds, the use of leg rings has increased the number of recoveries very substantially, allowing a very good understanding of the species’ movement patterns and dynamics.

Annual Movements for Greater Flamingo

Dispersal of both juveniles and adults begins in Aug-Sep, although failed breeders may leave immediately after losing an egg or chick, hence well before Aug. Return to colonies is Feb-Apr in Spain; about one month earlier in N Africa, and one month later in France (Camargue) (Johnson 1989).

Connectivity by Month by Region for Greater Flamingo

Greater Flamingoes have a very complex movement pattern, both temporally and spatially, since all birds from Europe form a single population. Therefore, see the ‘Overall connectivity’ and ‘Annual movements’ sections for details.  

Juan Arizaga

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
BirdLife International 2021 . Species factsheet: Phoenicopterus ruber.
Geraci, J., Béchet, A., Cézilly, F., Ficheux, S., Baccetti, N., Samraoui, B., Wattier, R.2012 . Greater Flamingo colonies around the Mediterranean form a single interbreeding population and share a common history. Journal of Avian Biology 43: 341–354
Johnson, A. R.1989 . Movements of Greater Flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber roseus) in the Western Palearctic. Rev. Ecol. (Terre Vie) 44: 75–94
Nager, R. G., Johnson, A. R., Boy, V., Rendon-Martos, M., Calderon, J., Cézilly, F.1996 . Temporal and spatial variation in dispersal in the greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber roseus). Oecologia 107: 204–211

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