The pink flamingo or greater flamingo (scientific name Phoenicopterus roseus) has a Latin etymology: phoenix= phoenix ("purplish", from the color of the Phoenix) and pteron = wing. It is translated as "purplish wings." In Sardinian have different names. In the area of Cagliari is called "su Mangoni" whereas in the area of Oristano is called "sa genti arrubia" which means "red population".
Adults are characterized by pinkish white plumage with flaming red wing coverts, contrasting with the black flight feathers. The bill is pink with a restricted black tip, long pink legs and yellow iris. They can reach 180 cm of wingspan and 200 cm in length, from the bill tip to the tip feet. Although the plumage is similar, the sexes differ in size: females weigh about 2 kg and males 4 kg. Incubation of the eggs takes about a month and the chicks remain in the nest for about a week and dependent on their parents for a month. The young are brownish grey with the mantle streaked with brown, brown-black flight feathers and white rosy under wing, and with the bill and feet brownish grey. Through intermediate stages of colouring, they go to adult plumage on the 3rd/4th year. The average lifespan is about 30 years, even more.
The flamingos feed on molluscs, aquatic insects and small crustaceans, including the small pink shrimp called Artemia salina, from which they get the carotenoids: the pigments that give the characteristic colour to the plumage. Thus the coloration of the plumage depends on the amount of micro-crustaceans eaten, and varies from white to pink, more or less intense. Living in brackish environments, flamingos have a salt gland, located near the eyes, immediately under the skin, which allows them to pour the salt taken in excess outside of their body from the openings of the nostrils. They feed through their beak used upside-down, skimming the water's surface and moving the seabed with a particular dance.
The Pink Flamingo has a very high mobility. Migratory and wintering, from 1993 it is also a nesting specie in Sardinia. The nest is a mud mound on which, in the spring, they lay a pair of white eggs. The nests are located 20-50 cm from each other and like all colonial birds also flamingos defend a small area surrounding their nests. To lay their eggs they synchronize themselves in subgroups. It lives in large colonies, and prefers not to mingle with birds of other families. It exhibits a group courtship, which involves tens of individuals. The aim of a group courtship is to have a reproductive synchrony with a following simultaneous deposition of eggs. Although they have a group courtship, with dances of 2/3 weeks, the couple seems to resist for a lifetime.
Pink flamingos are certainly more famous for their beautiful plumage than for their voice. They fly often emitting a sound like goose, bass and nasal. However, they redeem themselves with their beautiful flight, and it is recommended, for the fans of birdwatching, to capture the best photos of them, during the particularly take-off, which takes place after a short ride on the surface of the water.