PINK WAVE

Thousands of leggy birds flock at the coastal lagoons of Yucatán in south-east Mexico to feed and breed. Meet the fiery Caribbean flamingos

- CATHERINE SMALLEY

Take off

When Caribbean flamingos move en masse, they make a huge visual impact. And an aural one too, with excited honking cries that signal the imminent ascent, then the beating of powerful wings nearly 2m wide as the birds fly between breeding, feeding and sleeping sites. Adults stay within Yucatán, but juveniles can venture beyond Mexico to the USA, the Bahamas, Cuba and the Caiman Islands.

Look out

Raccoons, jaguars and crocodiles pose a threat to flamingos, but safety is found in numbers. While some have their heads down to feed, others keep a beady eye out for lurking predators. Like whales, these birds are filter-feeders, and contained within their impressive-looking, aquiline beaks is a syringe-like mechanism that sucks up water and strains out food such as algae and small crustaceans.

Colony copulation

“There are a ton of things that are not known about flamingos, but we believe they have a different breeding partner each year,” says Claudio. Courtship and mating happens at scale, with synchronised hormone release ensuring that breeding and nesting occurs at the same time across the colony.

Bird city