Flamingos and wading birds in U.S. zoos

Lookalikes from different families

Long legs, long necks and a habit of wading have evolved several times, so this group is defined by lifestyle rather than ancestry. Flamingos are most closely related to grebes. Cranes belong to a separate order, Gruiformes. Storks form their own order, while herons, ibises and spoonbills have been moved to the order that holds the pelicans. In North America "wader" may refer to these long-legged birds, while in Europe the word means sandpipers and other shorebirds.

The easiest field mark is the neck in flight. Herons fold the neck into a tight S-shape when flying; cranes, storks, ibises and spoonbills fly with it stretched straight out. Ibises have long, downcurved bills for probing mud, while the roseate spoonbill has a flat, spoon-shaped bill.

Flamingos

Flamingos form a single family of six species: four in the Americas and two in Africa and Eurasia. They filter-feed with the bill held upside down, straining brine shrimp, blue-green algae, insect larvae and small molluscs through comb-like lamellae. Their pink comes from carotenoid pigments in that food, and well-fed birds are the brightest. The Caribbean flamingo is the only flamingo native to North America, and the lesser flamingo is the smallest species. Flamingos live in colonies that can number in the thousands.

Cranes, storks, herons and ibises

Cranes are often considered the tallest flying birds. Most are gray or white with red bare skin on the face, but the crowned cranes, such as the grey crowned crane, wear golden feather crowns. Cranes are known for elaborate mating dances.

Storks are heavy birds that soar on rising warm air to save energy, and they communicate at the nest by clattering their bills. The marabou stork is often credited with the largest wingspan of any land bird. Herons usually stand still and wait for prey; the boat-billed heron is a nocturnal hunter with a broad, scoop-like bill. The scarlet ibis gets its color from a diet rich in crustaceans.

Wetlands under pressure

Many cranes depend on wetlands and grasslands, and most nest in shallow marshes. Most crane species are classified as threatened or worse, and the whooping crane fell to just 21 wild birds by 1941 after hunting and wetland loss. Hunting bans, habitat protection and captive breeding have brought it back from that low, and its plight inspired some of the first U.S. laws protecting endangered species.

The northern bald ibis lost 98% of its population between 1900 and 2002. Protection in Morocco helped numbers grow enough for it to move from Critically Endangered to Endangered in 2018.