Dad duty: Same-sex flamingo couple hatches egg, cares for chick at San Diego zoo

A pair of flamingos have become first-time parents at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park after hatching an egg together. And they’re both dads.

The male foster parents — both in their 40s — are raising one of six chicks born this year at the North County park, which cares for nearly 100 lesser flamingos with their distinctive long legs, flexible necks and pink feathers.

The same-sex duo’s unusual path to parenthood came after wildlife care staffers noticed the two working together to build a nest. Flamingos at the park don’t have names but are known by their colored leg band numbers — in this case, White 77 and White 26.

“They started paying a lot of attention to an empty nest mound, taking turns sitting on it, manicuring it. They built it up, just the two of them, but obviously weren’t laying an egg since it was two males,” recalled Erin Massey, a lead wildlife care specialist who has been at the park for 27 years.

Same-sex pairings of males or females occur in some animals in captivity and in nature. The park previously had a bonded pair of Chilean flamingos, both females, raise a chick together after they both laid eggs. Before that, a pair of male crowned cranes fostered a chick together after they were given a fertile egg, Massey said.

Because the two flamingos were exhibiting strong nesting behaviors, staffers decided to give them a fake egg to see what would happen.

Part of the motivation was to keep them busy so they’d leave alone other pairs that were caring for eggs. Flamingos are very social and nest close to each other, and sometimes dominant birds will kick less-assertive birds out of their nests.

Wildlife care staff also wanted to see how they’d do with the fake egg to see if they were good foster parent candidates.

“Once we gave them the fake egg, they were both showing a lot of interest,” Massey said. “They were very excited. They were talking to each other. They were standing over the egg. One of the males got onto the nest immediately and sat down right away.”

For the next several weeks, she said, White 77 and White 26 were doing “exactly what we would expect any regular pair of nesting flamingos to do,” including taking turns sitting in the conical-shaped nest.

A real egg

It turns out, the Safari Park did have a need for foster parents. In one case, a male flamingo became injured, leaving all the egg-care duties to his female partner, who was skipping meals to stay on the nest. That egg was given to foster parents to raise.

In another case, staffers pulled a fertile egg from one pair in hopes they would lay again — known as “double clutching.” That egg went to the foster dads on Aug. 3.

Three weeks later, their chick hatched, a tiny gray fluff of feathers about the size of a tennis ball. It is not yet known if it is male or female.

As the chick grows, it will keep its gray feathers for about a year until pink feathers come in. Baby flamingo legs stay black for about three years before they, too, turn pink.

To keep the flamingos from flying off, wildlife care staff will trim the feathers on one of their wings.

In the chick’s early days, the foster parents kept a close watch. They took turns sitting on the tiny bird in the nest for its first five or six days to keep it warm and protect it from predators. They each fed it “crop milk,” which comes from the flamingos’ upper digestive tract. Both males and females produce crop milk.

After the bird was old enough to leave the nest, Massey said, it wandered around with its two dads chasing behind it.

“You always know who the parents are because you see this little baby bopping around and there’s two birds chasing it everywhere it goes, all over the habitat,” Massey said.

Now that the chick is about 6 weeks old, it hangs out with the other youngsters. But the young birds still rely on their parents and will let out a distinctive call when they want to be fed.

Because of their success, she said it is possible the two birds will remain a bonded pair and could be tapped to be foster parents again.

Massey said using foster parents helps the Safari Park’s goal of producing as many healthy chicks as possible.

Largest flock in the U.S.

Lesser flamingos are a species found in sub-Saharan Africa and western India and are considered near threatened, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Their numbers in the wild are in decline, and breeding areas are threatened.

There are approximately 550 lesser flamingos in U.S. zoos, a park spokesperson said.

“Historically, lesser flamingos have a really low fertility rate with their eggs. They’re very difficult to breed. So any fertile eggs and pairs who lay fertile eggs are incredibly valuable,” Massey said.

She said about a decade ago, the decision was made to move all the lesser flamingos from the San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld San Diego to the Safari Park. Lesser flamingos, which are the smallest flamingo species, are thought to prefer and feel more comfortable in bigger groups.

The park now has the largest flock in the country.

“Everyone kind of decided that we have such a good setup, and the birds here were doing so well, we’d best combine all of those birds to create a large flock to make them more comfortable. And it’s been really successful in our breeding of birds,” Massey said.

However, breeding did decline in the past couple of years after park managers moved all the park’s birds to protected spaces to try to keep them safe from highly pathogenic avian influenza, a highly contagious disease.

The lesser flamingos were moved from a lagoon near the entrance to the Safari Park to an outdoor space that was netted so they could be shielded from wild migratory birds that could be carrying the virus.

The flamingos were moved back about a year ago and are monitored closely for signs of illness.

Because of all the disruption, however, no breeding occurred. But after a year of settling in, park staffers this year witnessed a lot more courtship behavior, including birds marching together in synchronized steps and flagging, where they stretch their necks and then turn their heads back and forth rhythmically.

In all, 27 eggs were laid, seven of which were fertile and six that hatched.

“We had so many birds out there sitting on eggs — whether they were good or not, that makes the other birds feel comfortable to lay,” Massey said.

This season’s success has Safari Park workers hopeful there will be more baby flamingoes in their future.

“We do have some younger birds out here that are starting to show interest, and they’ve witnessed a very successful year,” Massey said. “So we’re optimistic that we’ll get even more next year.”