Flamingo fever for bird watchers at Marievale
These birds usually fly great distances overnight to new feeding and nesting grounds.
Hundreds of flamingoes had been sighted at the Marievale Nature Reserve over the past few weeks.
Low water levels have created perfect feeding grounds for the birds, with flocks congregating at various spots around the reserve.
Visitors are thrilled to have seen so many flamingoes, both lesser and greater, in concentrated areas in the wetland.
Stan Madden, a local ornithologist, estimates there are over 1 000 birds present, with lesser flamingoes unusually mixing with greater flamingoes.
These birds usually fly great distances overnight to new feeding and nesting grounds.
In October last year at Marievale, a lone black lesser flamingo caused quite a stir, bringing birders from all over the country to view this unusual specimen.
Greater flamingoes are paler and larger, standing at about 1.55m. Adults have a yellow eye and a pale pink, dark-tipped beak, whereas lesser flamingoes are pinker and have a reddish eye and maroon-coloured beak and stand about 1.2m tall.
Both species get their colour from the blue-green algae and brine shrimps they consume. Both these species are tolerant of high concentrations of salt found in various salt pans where they breed and feed.
