I know many folks are home-bound, so I thought I’d introduce the flock of Chilean flamingos I’ve helped raise at the @NashvilleZoo! With each “bio”, I’ve included a fun flamingo fact.

Ghost is our largest chick, and he’s all attitude, too! He’s not only the biggest, but also the most colorful, for now. It takes up to 2 years for flamingos to get their full coloration.

Paprika is very timid and is our tiniest chick—she only weighs about 1900g. She is usually trailing behind the rest of the flock, or going in the wrong direction . Most birds are full grown by about 6 months of age.

Chilaca is our hot and cold girl—sometimes she wants attention, other times she likes to be left alone, but she’s never far from the flock. Flamingos are gregarious birds, and their flocks in the wild can number in the thousands!

Ají is our first-hatched, so she’s quite special to us. We call her the Queen, but really she stands somewhere in the middle of the hierarchy of the flock, mostly minding her own business. Personality and behavioral types determine the hierarchy of flamingo flocks.

Cayenne finds planes highly suspect. She also doesn’t like geese or noisy people. Flamingos have color vision which helps them distinguish between one another and see predators.

Habanero loves pulling pieces of grass and playing with sticks. If he’s not finding random “toys”, he’s starting fights with other birds. Flamingos are fairly skittish, and it usually takes us about a week to get our flock comfortable with new stimuli.

Jalapeño was the trickiest chick to feed...his first day weaned was one of my favorite days at work . Both male and female parents feed chicks with crop milk, a secretion caused by the hormone prolactin.

Poblano is the most perfect chick. He imprinted on me and considers me his parent. I was fortunate to help hand-raise all of our chicks, but he was my favorite when he was tiny and I’m thrilled that he chose me as his person.

Hope you enjoyed learning a bit about our flamingos at the @NashvilleZoo. Here’s a recording of an IG Live video I did with the chicks: . If you have other questions, I’d love to hear them