American Flamingo / Grote of Caribische Flamingo, Segansi

American Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
Dec 2022. Hundreds of Flamingos © Alexander Elias	Jan 2023 © Alexander Elias	July 2008 © Dominiek Plouvier
© Joop Schultz	Nov 2014 © Dinesh Ramlal	© Valdano Samson
© Ton Plug	© Ton Plug	© Lidwien Peterse
© Lidwien Peterse	Jan 22 © Francita Rijhiner	© Dough Gochfeld
© Dough Gochfeld

The flamingo is a long bird, that breeds in the Carribean, for instance on the island of Bonaire. But it breeds also in the north of Brazil (Amapá). In south and middle America it is somewhat more red than birds of the same species from Europe, Asia and Africa. It does not breed in Suriname (although a colony probably was still around in 1930), but it visits the coast in large groups. There it searches for food in soft mud. Flamingos eat by walking slowly with their heads down, filtering small animals from the water and algae. In zoos they must be fed the right kind of food to keep their color, just like the scarlet ibisses (food with a lot of carotene, I suppose). Confusingly, in Suriname the local name of scarlet ibisses is 'flamingo'.
When they fly, flamingos are easily recognisable by their long legs. Between 1970 and 1975 Arie Spaans recorded some days with hundreds of flamingos flying along the coast and the last years those same numbers are reported in counts from an airplane. Most birds are seen between January and June, but they are present in all months, coming from breeding places in Brazil and the Carribean (Bonaire for instance). In the seventies more birds have been reported from the east coast than from the west coast in Suriname, the last years it is just the other way around.
Photos by Dough Gochfeld of the Audubon society at Warappakreek and by Dominiek Plouvier at the Matapica beach in Suriname in July 2008 and then one by Joop Schultz of a group of Flamingos passing the Kwerimanbank in Suriname. Dinesh Ramlal saw his group at Bigi Pan in november 2014.
Dominiek Plouvier made the video of more than a hundred Flamingo's at Bigi Pan.

Video (click the link or the 'play'-button to see)
Video recording of a American Flamingo © ;

Distribution

Each small square indicates the observation of at least one (group) of these birds, the medium ones at least four observations on different days and the largest ones ten or more. The color of each square indicates: blue for coastal area, yellow for savanna and red for rainforest.
Not all places in Suriname have been equally often visited by birders, so the distribution of the squares gives an indication of the whereabouts of the birds, but also of the birders. Some places deep in the south have no reported bird observations, by experienced birders, within 60 kilometer.

Abundance in different areas
coastal zone (blue dots on the map) :
northern savannas (yellow dots (in the north)) :
rainforest under 400 m (red dots) :
rainforest above 400 m (red dots) :
Sipaliwini savanna (yellow dots (in the south)) :
A blank is shown if not convincingly reported in the zone. Data interpreted by Arie Spaans, Otte Ottema and Jan Hein Ribot.

Names
Scientific name:	Phoenicopterus ruber
Order:	Phoenicopteriformes
Family:	Phoenicopteridae, 1 in Suriname
Dutch:	Grote of Caribische Flamingo, Segansi
English:	American Flamingo
Sranan ('Surinamese'):	Zeegans / Segansi
Guyana:
Papiamento:	Chogogo, Flamingonan
Spanish (Venezuela):	Flamenco, Tococo
Portugese (Brazil):	Flamingo
Arowak:	Jawloe
Carib:	Tokoko
French:	Flamant rose

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 91 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.	The 2 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest. Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences. The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Observations through the year

Observations of breeding through the year

The 91 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.

The 2 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest.

Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences.
The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Last update: September 2024 by Jan Hein Ribot. Please mail your comments, photos to: jhribot ( residing at ) gmail (point!) com.
observations can be uploaded to suriname.observation.org or ebird.org ).