Birmingham Zoo Announces Newly Hatched American Flamingo Chicks! – August 5th, 2022

The Birmingham Zoo proudly welcomes newly hatched American flamingo chicks to our Zoo family! For the first time, the Zoo’s flamingos have nested and hatched fertilized eggs.
Once flamingos find a mate, they will build a volcano-shaped mud cone as a nest. Flamingo pairs are monogamous; both parents help build the nest, where they lay a single egg that they then take turns incubating for about 28 days.

Named for the Birmingham baseball team that provided the familiar red clay used in their habitat, flamingo chick “Baron” hatched in the nest on 6/29/2022 with fluffy down feathers. The following week, another new chick named Pinecone hatched to a separate set of parents. The flamingo chicks will spend the next several months bonding with parents, learning to feed themselves, and growing more independent.

This year’s successful nesting season may be due in part to the donated clay for their habitat. In 2020, the Birmingham Barons, Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, donated infield clay from Regions Field for the Zoo’s newly renovated flamingo habitat. “It’s the mixture of sand with the clay that makes it a perfect consistency for flamingos to build their tall, mound-shaped nests,” according to Tiffani Thompson, the Zoo’s Assistant Curator of Birds. “We were delighted when they began breeding and nesting in the early spring.”

View Birmingham Zoo Announces Newly Hatched American Flamingo Chicks Press Release HERE.