How many species of flamingoes do you think we have in the world? They are divided into six races as follows:

• Phanaecopterus  ruber-American flamingo=Ph. ruber ruber,
• Phanaecopterus  antiquorium-European or Greater flamingo=Ph. ruber ruseus,
• Phanaecopterus  chilensis-Chilean flamingo=Ph. ruber chilensis,
• Phanaeniconaias  minor– Lesser flamingo
• Phanaecoparrus  andinus-Andean  flamingo
• Phanaecoparrus   jamesi-James’s  flamingo

Only the first three can be said to be of three separate species. The species of Phanaenicopterus have bills of swallow-keeled type which only a part of inner surface of the mandibles covered with fine filtering laminae.The other three all have bills of deep-keeled type with only a part of the inner surface of the mandible covered with the filtering laminae. Birds with deep-keeled bills are adapted to feed on very small organisms as opposed to those with swallow-keeled bills that can be more extensive in their tastes and the number of laminae per centimeter varies from species to species. The number of the laminae dictates the size of food that can be grabbed on the filtering mechanism but the laminae of the Greater flamingo do not all lie in the same direction but across each other in a way that they have a different action from three other species.

By Duncan.