Born Gray: Sixteen Flamingo Chicks Await Their Future Pink Feathers

Sixteen flamingo chicks have hatched at Schönbrunn Zoo, but their famous pink feathers are still years away.

The young birds are currently covered in mouse-gray down, which provides camouflage in their clay nesting mounds and helps protect them from predators, according to curator Dr. Folko Balfanz.

The chicks develop their characteristic pink plumage at around three years old. Their color comes from their diet, including small crustaceans and algae containing carotenoids that the flamingos filter from water with their beaks.

During their first weeks, the chicks are fed crop milk by their parents, a nutrient-rich secretion produced by glands in the esophagus.

The zoo currently has chicks of different sizes. The first hatched at the end of August and have already left their nests, joining together in a group resembling a nursery.

Adult flamingos accompany the group, while the parents continue returning regularly to feed their young.

Parents have no trouble identifying their own chicks among the group because each young bird has an individual call.

There are six flamingo species in total. The greater flamingo is the only species that also occurs in Europe, with large colonies found in the Camargue region of southern France and in Andalusia in southern Spain.

The greater flamingo is also the largest flamingo species, growing up to 1.40 meters tall.