Greater Flamingo

The greater flamingo is the largest and most widespread flamingo. It stands 110–150 cm tall on long, entirely pink legs. Most of the plumage is pinkish-white, the wing coverts are red and the flight feathers black, The bill is pink with a small black tip. Young birds are paler with dark legs, and chicks are covered in grey down. The call is a goose-like honking (Wikipedia, general species account).

The pink colour comes from carotenoid pigments in the tiny organisms flamingos filter from the water. In the breeding season, flamingos spread more of their carotenoid-rich preen oil over their feathers, making themselves pinker in a kind of cosmetic display. Like all flamingos, the greater flamingo lays a single chalky-white egg on a mud mound. Adults feeding chicks become paler but keep their bright pink legs (Wikipedia, general species account).

India's main breeding site is Flamingo City in the Great Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, where Salim Ali estimated around half a million birds in 1945 and more than 70,000 birds have nested in about 100 ha; unregulated tourism and army movements disturb the colony (Key Biodiversity Areas factsheet). Across India, though, the State of India's Birds 2023 estimates a long-term decline of about 71% since before 2000, with numbers still falling by about 7% a year, and rates it a High conservation priority (SoIB 2023). It moves around within India between seasons.