First Caribbean flamingo chick in five years!
1st July 2025
Tickled pink with newly hatched Caribbean flamingo chick!
Above: shortly after the chick hatched you can still see the egg shell.
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UPDATE 8th JULY 2025
We now have a blog followiing the chicks progress from day one which you can see HERE.
SPECIAL UPDATE 4th JULY 2025
The flamingo chicks first real big adventure!
This is a bit of a longer video for flamingo fans, and well worth the watching all the way to the end, as the chick takes a little breather half way through. This is the first time our chick, that hatch on the 1st July 2025 has been encouraged to get its feet into the muddy lagoon by its parents, and is then led safely back to the nest for a rest. Big thanks to visitor Laura Herbert for sharing her video.
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ORIGINAL NEWS STORY 2nd July 2025
Head of Softbills Becky Waite comments “What a cracking start to July and such fantastic news. This is the very first flamingo chick to hatch on the nest and being reared by parents Edwina and Anthony. They are also the parents to Derek their previous chick who was hand-reared in 2019, it’s lovely that Derek will have a brother or sister. It’s early days but the chick looks healthy and is being well cared for by its parents.
Follow the progress of the flamingo flock on the Park’s webcam HERE and you can visit Paradise Park on any day from 10am.
Below: you can clearly see the egg tooth on the end of the beak. The chick used this to break through the shell.
For the first few days the chick will stay on the nest, building up its strength and practicing some wobbly standing. But in a week or so it will be up and off the nest and starting to explore. It will start to turn grey after about a month, and then you will start to see hints of pink starting to show after 3-4 months, turning stunning pink by two years old. The pink colour comes from a pigment called carotenoid in their food.”
Below: Edwina feeds her chick a special red liquid known as crop milk.
Both Edwina and Anthony are 23 years old. They came to Paradise Park in 2004 having been bred at Chester Zoo two years earlier.
VIDEO CLIP of a very wobbly chick trying to stand and then doing it’s first poop!
The first flamingo egg of the season was laid by Penelope. Sadly for her and her mate Colin, it was not fertile. They may have laid too early but we are sure they will try again in the future.
Paradise Park Wildlife Sanctuary has a flock of nine flamingos called Derek, Doris, Anthony, Alan, Colin, Richard, Edwina, Rita and Penelope. They build their nests in the shallow muddy area of their lagoon.
Flamingos form strong pair bonds, and just one egg is laid with both male and female feeding the chick on a special ‘crop milk’. They are long lived birds that can reach the age of 40 and able to breed from age 6.