Chilean Flamingo Chicks Hatched at Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin [PHOTOS]

Baby animals!  What could be cuter?  Well it's happened again, it's the season for chicks and the Ellen Trout Zoo is proud to announce the hatching of two Chilean Flamingos.  If you have been to the zoo recently you may have already had a chance to see them.  Several other pairs of flamingos are also incubating eggs, so we will have more to come!  Flamingo chicks are covered in a thick white down.  They have bright pink beaks and legs when born which gradually turn to a dark grey to black in color.

In the wild, Chilean Flamingos live in large flocks and have developed a social structure in which large numbers of flamingos are needed to stimulate breeding.  In 2007, the flock of Chilean Flamingos at the Ellen Trout Zoo doubled in size when we merged our existing flock with one from another zoo.  This sudden increase in size stimulated the flock and our breeding attempts with this species became much more fruitful.

Zoo visitors have noticed the mounds of mud in the enclosure with birds sitting on them.   Both the male and female will build a nest mound from the surrounding mud.  The nests may vary from a few inches to over a foot in height.  Each nesting female will lay a single egg that is incubated by both parents.

Over the last several weeks, lucky visitors have had glimpses of eggs as birds stood up or the males and females switched off incubation duties. In the last week, two eggs have hatched.  Both chicks are being raised by their parents.  For the first few days, they remain in the nest and will begin standing and moving around on the top of the nest mound.  After five days or so, chicks will begin to leave the nest for short periods.  As they grow stronger, they will take longer excursions from the nest with their parents and soon will be eating a little food on their own while still being fed by the parents for many weeks to come. So we will have lots of chances to see some tiny Flamingos! We already had a baby lion cub, check him out HERE!