Chilean Flamingo

Chilean Flamingo
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Phoenicopteriformes Family: Phoenicopteridae Genus: Phoenicopterus Species: chilensis
Binomial name
Phoenicopterus chilensis Molina, 1782

The Chilean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis) is a large species (110-130cm) closely related to Caribbean Flamingo and Greater Flamingo, with which it is sometimes considered conspecific. This article follows the treatment in Ibis (2002) 144 707-710.

It occurs in temperate South America. Like all flamingos it lays a single chalky white egg on a mud mound.

The plumage is pinker than the slightly larger Greater Flamingo, but less so than Caribbean Flamingo. It can be differentiated from these species by its greyish legs with pink "knees", and also by the larger amount of black on the bill (more than half).