Flamingos live in great colonies on lakeshores, river mouths, shallow ponds and marshy places, preferring water that is slightly salty. A nest is made by rolling mud (sometimes mixed with pebbles) into little balls with their beaks to a selected spot and tamping the balls in place until the nest is six inches to three feet high above the water. It looks like a miniature mountain with a large crater on top, designed to hold a single egg. In the hot sun this nest dries almost as hard as cement. And that’s all they do to their nest; they do not line it with soft material as most birds do.
There may be thousands of nests in one colony. Each one looks identical, but every bird knows which is its own. Just one egg is laid each year in late winter or early spring. The parent flamingos share in incubating it for about a month and feeding the young bird after it hatches.
The gray, fluffy chicks are covered with soft down. Their bills at first are straight and legs are short, but these grow quickly. At two and a half months they can fly and are nearly full-grown in a year’s time. However, they do not turn pink until four years old. Then, with great displays of their pretty wings, necks, heads and legs, mates are chosen, and soon a new pair is building another nest and raising their own little chick.
Shrimp are flamingo’s favorite food, and these along with small crabs help account for their brilliant red plumage. They also eat great quantities of algae, plankton, insects and fish. In Kenya where food is plentiful, it is not unusual to see these lovely birds feeding in groups of thousands, turning a large water hole into a beautiful pink area in the otherwise dry desert. Visitors sometimes ride in airplanes to get the best view of them.
For many years these birds were cruelly killed for their beautiful feathers as well as for their very tasty meat. But we are thankful that in most places they are now protected.
It is not difficult to think of the Creator’s pleasure in creating such lovely birds, and He gives us the assurance in the Bible that He is good and kind to them. And it is He who provides for our needs too. But He has done more than that, as we read in Hebrews 11:4040God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:40), “God [has] provided some better thing for us.” This promise is, “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)). It is only through faith in the Lord Jesus that this wonderful gift can become ours. Have you accepted Him as your own Saviour? Is the gift of eternal life yours?
ML-12/19/2010