Andean Flamingo
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Order: Phoenicopteriformes
Family: Phoenicopteridae

[Photo] Andean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus andinus) at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre, Gloucestershire, England. Photographed by Adrian Pingstone (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Arpingstone) in June 2003 and placed in the public domain.

The Andean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus andinus) is a bird species in the Flamingo family restricted to the high Andes in S. Peru, Bolivia, N. Chile and NW Argentina. It is closely related to the smaller James's Flamingo, and the two are often placed in the genus Phoenicoparrus.

Like all flamingos it lays a single chalky white egg on a mud mound.

Andean Flamingos, like all the group, feed by filtering small items from water with their specialised bills. They have a deep, narrow lower mandible, which allows them to eat small foods such as diatoms, in contrast to the wider bill of larger species, which take bigger prey items.

Most of the plumage is pinkish white. The Andean Flamingo is the only species that has yellow legs and feet. Its bill is yellowish as in James's Flamingo, but with a much more extensive black tip.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andean_Flamingo

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