The Greater Flamingo Gazette #4 June 2020 Greater Flamingo news from around the Mediterranean | | Dear Greater Flamingo Sponsors, We hope you and your loved ones are doing well. The flamingos probably didn't suffer from the lockdown. They can't tell us about it, but they must have appreciated the silence (at least if it wasn't covered by the noise of their fellow flamingos) and the absence of human disturbance. Our efforts to attract flamingos to the Fangasssier lagoon did not bear fruit this year. Despite a favourable pond impoundment and the construction of more than 600 nests, only a few hundred birds were observed this spring, and did not attempt to lay eggs on the islet. | | Fangassier islet abandoned (24 april 2020) © Antoine Arnaud | | But then, where are the flamingos? On the other hand, the Aigues-Mortes colony is on the right track, with the occupation of a fairly large islet which gives hope of good breeding success. Approximately 13,000 installed pairs have recently been observed on the various islets and dikes. Unfortunately, the current sanitary situation complicates the monitoring of this colony and it is possible that we will not be able to ring the chicks there this summer. | | Aigues-Mortes Flamingo islet (22 May 2020) © Antoine Arnaud/ Tour du Valat/ Salin d'Aigues-Mortes | | And elsewhere? In Spain, in Doñana in Andalusia, the water levels are not perfect but flamingos try to nest. In the Ebro Delta, because of the storm Gloria, there has been destruction which, together with the restrictive conditions of confinement, seriously complicates access to the site for monitoring. In Algeria, a large congregation of about 5,000 individuals in full parade around the Ezzemoul Sebkha breeding islet was observed in mid-April giving hope for a good breeding season. In Sardinia, between 12,000 and 15,000 pairs of flamingos are settled as the size of the colony continues to increase. In Turkey, in the Gediz delta, already 15,000 pairs were observed for a total of about 19,000 expected. A major rehabilitation work on the breeding islet took place this winter. In the United Arab Emirates, there have already been more than 1,000 births in the Al Wathba Wetland Reserve. In Iran, 10,500 couples have also settled there to breed (see below). | | © Jean-François Hellio & Nicolas Van Ingen | | The flamingos of the moment Focus on a few individuals observed in recent months 
This flamingo was born and ringed on August 8, 2012 at the Fangassier lagoon at the age of two months. Since then, it has only been observed twice, in January 2016 in Mauritania and in January 2020 at the Pointe de Mouillot in the Bouches-du-Rhône. JSSN is a great traveller, since its birth, it is estimated that it has travelled more than 7,000 km! 
FNTT is a male Camargue flamingo born and ringed in 2005 at the Fangassier lagoon. It was observed in 2006 in Portugal and since then, it remains rather in the south of France, having been seen many times in the Aude, Bouches-du-Rhône or Gard regions.
It has just been seen at the Aigues-Mortes salt marsh with its chick (see picture below). It is one of the first births of the year. | | FNTT taking care of the chick in the nest, observed on May 21, 2020 at the Aigues-Mortes salt marsh © Antoine Arnaud/ Tour du valat/ Salin d'Aigues-Mortes | |  
FNDT is a male Camargue flamingo born and ringed in 2004 at the Fangassier lagoon. It is not as much of a traveller as JSSN, since it is estimated that it has travelled 2,000 kilometres since it was ringed. FNDT spends a lot of time in Spain, notably at the Laguna de Villena, Alicante, where he was observed on April 18 this year.This does not prevent him from returning to the Camargue at the time of breeding, as he was seen at the Aigues-Mortes salt marsh May last year. FNDT is on the photo (see below) with KAPP, a male Camargue flamingo born and ringed in 2013 at the Fangassier lagoon. He had been observed in Italy a few months after his birth, then at the African Reserve of Sigean in September 2019. | | KAPP and FNDT observed on 18 April 2020 at the Laguna de Villena, Alicante, Spain © Santiago Hernadez | | 
This Italian female was born and ringed in 2009 at the Saline di Comacchio. This adventurous had been observed in March 2010 in Turkey. On April 12, 2020, ITFN has just been observed in southern Iran, in the Shadegan Marshes, near the mouth of the Euphrates River, watching an egg. To date, it has travelled more than 3,500 kms at least. | | | | |  
A couple of ringed flamingos were observed in April at Pont de Gau Ornithological Park. It is a male wearing the BKLA ring, born in 1992, accompanied by KBCH, a young female born in 2013. That's a 21-year difference, which is quite rare among flamingos that tend to pair by age! Other exceptions suggest that these differences may be present in both directions. For example, a 37-year-old female was observed with a 10-year-old male. This raises the question of the involvement of age in the choice of sexual partner in flamingos. As we discussed in the previous gazette, the more complex a bird dances, the greater its probability of reproducing (Perrot et al. 2016). Thus, the complexity of the dance would be a signal of an individual's reproductive quality. It has been observed that an individual exhibiting a complex dance, as in the case of flamingos in their twenties, will pair up with an individual whose parade will be just as elaborate, and therefore from the same age group. They will let the individuals exhibiting less sophisticated dances pair up with each other, aged less than 15 and more than 25 years old. This is called homogamy for complexity, a phenomenon that would explain why we very frequently meet couples of similar age, but also couples with a big difference in age! | | Courtship display © Samuel Hilaire | | Couples but also beautiful friendships... A recent study by researchers at the University of Exeter, published in the journal Behavioural Processes, revealed that flamingos would be loyal in friendship. The study was carried out over five years and included flamingos from the Caribbean, Chile, the Andes and Lesser Flamingoes. It found that flamingos form lasting friendships, and conversely, they avoid individuals with whom they do not get along. | | A surprise for the summer... It was time to modernize our system and to offer you new options! We have some nice surprises for you to celebrate the beginning of summer...
Get ready to discover a new website dedicated to flamingo sponsorship, with a private area for sponsors.
Flamingos, each more charming than the next, will be waiting for you... There will be something for everyone!
| | Did you know? - Flamingos don't know social distancing. Nests are 35 cm apart on average with extremes of 12 to 72 cm. Each pair has a territory of about one square metre.
- Both parents take turns incubating the egg (rotation of 1 to 4 days).
- Both the male and female have a hatching patch, a skin area temporarily devoid of plumage to ensure better heat transfer to the egg.
| | Ready to renew your support for 2020 ? This is the place to go! You can also adopt a flamingo on line for you or for a loved one. Here's the place! Thank you for your support and do not hesitate to talk around you about our Greater Flamingo programme! | | | |
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