Flamingos are spectacular birds, dressed in pink feathery coats. With their pretty pink plumage and long legs, flamingos thrive in Africa. Although, there are only six species of flamingos remaining in the world, they can still be spotted easily by birders. These birds favor warmer and watery regions.
Flamingos are seen in the Caribbean, South America, the Middle East, and near the Mediterranean. Since their movement is based upon different factors, one can’t expect to see flamingos at every corner of the lake or wetland.
A trip to Kenya is incomplete without photographing millions of flamingos. In this blog, we’ll explore the best places in Kenya to see these magnificent birds during a Kenya Safari.
Flamingo Species in Africa
Before we move on, it is important to know the species of flamingos found in Africa:
- Lesser Flamingos: These are the shortest out of the flamingo species. These birds have pink plumage, bills, and legs. They have small heads, and long necks, and stand less than a meter tall. The female flamingos are shorter than the males. Their diet consists of a highly specialized menu entirely of benthic diatoms and microscopic blue-green algae, only found in alkaline lakes, saline lagoons, salt pans, and estuaries. Lesser flamingos are primarily found in Eastern and Southern Africa. The best spots to observe these birds are near the Rift Valley Lakes, Southern Namibia, and Botswana.
- Greater Flamingos: The Greater flamingo is the largest out of all the species found. They appear to be pale pink, have a long, lean neck, and have pink bills with a black tip that has a downward curve. In the wild, Greater flamingos can live up to 30 to 40 years old. Their diet consists of crustaceans, mollusks, crabs, insects, worms, and occasionally small fishes. One way to differentiate between Lesser and Greater flamingos is through their bills.
The strikingly pretty plumage of the flamingoes is not hereditary or even in their DNA. They are initially born with a dull gray color. This is because algae and invertebrates have special coloring chemicals known as pigments.The pink colour of flamingos comes from the natural pigments in the algae, crustaceans, and other small aquatic animals that they eat. Flamingos filter-feed on small organisms like algae and shrimp that contain these carotenoids in their bodies. The intensity of the pink colouration of flamingos can vary based on the availability of carotenoids in their diet. Young flamingos don’t have the pink colouration right away.
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In addition to their pink color, flamingos are famous for standing on one leg and although there is no definite scientific reason, it has been proposed that this behavior helps with body warmth retention. Flamingos, like penguins, mate for life and the majority of them breed in Lake Natron, a remote soda lake in Tanzania.
Both types share the same habitat and live in flocks of between ten individuals to over ten thousand.
The collective term for a group of flamingos is a “flamingo colony” or a “flamboyance”. It’s used to describe a group of flamingos because of their bright pink feathers, which are the result of their diet of carotenoid-rich algae and crustaceans.
The Flamingos of Lake Nakuru, Kenya - Nature Documentary - Animal Facts
The Great Rift Valley
The Great Rift Valley is one of the most famous highlights in Africa. It is part of the intra- continental ridge system that runs from north to south through Kenya. The Rift Valley is covered with exceptional lakes, scenic roads, and exotic wildlife.
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Lake Bogoria
Lake Bogoria is situated across the border of Kenya and is located in the more isolated northern Rift Valley, further away from Nairobi and the other soda lakes. It is famous for its steaming geysers and bubbling thermal springs. Lake Bogoria is home to the largest population of Lesser flamingos. Many of these birds have migrated from Lake Nakuru to Bogoria. Although it is a refuge for greater kudu and a few other mammals, this is not a great destination for wildlife viewing beyond the flamingos. Lake Bogoria is not the most accessible lake, given it’s a long drive on the same road in and out and there is no lodging inside the reserve.
Lake Nakuru
Lake Nakuru is one of the Rift Valley’s popular soda lakes. Lake Nakuru is nestled in the vast great Rift Valley, located at an elevation of 1,754 m (5,755 ft) above sea level. The Flamingo birds actually eat blue algae found in Lake Nakuru, so Flamingos are found along the Lake Nakuru coast, making Lake Nakuru appear pink. A pulsing pink swathe of life that carpets the water, the flamingo are a breathtaking sight. The lake has become world famous for these birds, who visit the lake to feed on algae that forms on the lake bed.
The flamingos feed mostly on the blue-green algae, the prawns, and some aquatic insects; Lake Nakuru, which is a park, is abundant with the blue-green algae, making it the ideal location for a flamingo. The foundation of the park’s food chains is the cyanophytespirulinaplatensis which can support huge numbers of lesser flamingo. During peak season over one million flamingos congregate on the lake plus half a million pelicans.
Lake Nakuru National Park provides the visitor with one of Kenya’s best known images - thousands of flamingo, joined into a massive flock, fringe the shores of this soda lake. They move back and forth, feeding and occasionally and spectacularly taking to flight, filling the sky over the lake with colour. The lake is extremely variable in size- changing from 5 up to 30 sqkms in area.
Eight years ago, flamingos left Nakuru, never to return due to the lake’s rising water levels. This reduced their feeding and breeding grounds. This has also increased the number of visitors who had diminished as the sightings of flamingos almost vanished. Now, the flocks of lesser flamingos feed on algae and diatoms found in Lake Nakuru. The larger flamingos feed on the creatures found in the mud, including crustaceans, whereas smaller flamingos prosper from floating algae in the lake’s alkaline waters.
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During the prolonged dry season, freshwater sources are limited, around which animals gather. In the dry months, particularly in times of drought, the rosy-throated flocks migrate north from Lake Nakuru to another well-known feeding site for flamingos in Kenya, Lake Bogoria, where the birds are in fact observed all year long. You can easily reach Lake Nakuru by car via a tar road from Nairobi.
Lake Nakuru is a shallow strongly alkaline lake set in a picturesque landscape of surrounding woodland and grassland. The landscape includes areas of marsh and grasslands alternating with rocky cliffs and outcrops, stretches of acacia woodland and rocky hillsides covered with a Euphorbia forest. The lake’s catchment is bounded by Menengai crater to the north, the Bahati hills to the north east, the lion hill ranges to the east, eburu crater to the south and the mau escarpment to the west. Three rivers, the Njoro, Makalia and Enderit drain into the lake.
Lake Elementaita
One of the lesser-known ‘soda lakes’ or saline lakes in Kenya's Great Rift Valley, Lake Elementaita is one of the main feeding lakes for the Lesser flamingo. This area of breathtaking beauty, also home to many rare species of animals, is just a 30 minute drive to the more famous Lake Nakuru. Much of the lake is part of the private Soysambu Conservancy that serves as a sanctuary for colobus monkeys, endangered Rothschild giraffes, elusive predators, and plains game.
Lake Elementaita is also home to the tufted-eared caracal, golden and striped jackals and other smaller predators. More than 450 bird species have been identified in the area. The largest populations are great white pelicans and lesser and greater flamingos. In June 2019, for example, over a million flamingos were recorded here.
Lake Nakuru National Park
Lake Nakuru was first gazetted as a bird sanctuary in 1960 and upgraded to National Park status in 1968. A northern extension was added to the park in 1974 and the lake was designated as a Ramsar site in 1990. The surface of the lake occupies about a third of the park. The lake supports a dense bloom of the blue-green CyanophyteSpirulinaplatensis from which it derives its colour. It is a food source for flamingos. The lake is fringed by alkaline swamps with areas of sedge, cypruslaevigatus and typha marsh along the river inflows and springs. The surrounding areas support a dry transitional savanna with lake margin grasslands. Climatic conditions - Warm and dry.
Nakuru has more than just flamingos… This is a major National Park and an important sanctuary for Rhino. Both Black and White Rhino are found here, and are often seen resting under acacias by the Lake shore. The park abounds with game. There are huge herds of Waterbuck, Zebra, Buffalo, the endangered Rothschild Giraffe and more. This is one of your best chances of seeing Leopard in Kenya, and there are several large prides of Lion. Exploring beyond the lake is always rewarding and there are forests, cliffs, waterfalls and more to be found here. Nearby Nakuru town is a busy and thriving local centre with a bustling market.
One of Kenya's classic national parks, Lake Nakuru earned its fame for the mirage-like mega-flock of pink flamingos that once covered large parts of its shallow waters. However, rising water levels in recent years due to flooding have caused a big drop in salinity, and the flamingos began to flock to other soda lakes. Some returned in 2017, numbering in the thousands, not millions, so if conditions are right, the flamingos may return.
A Lake Nakuru safari has a great deal to offer besides its magnificent bird life. Lake Nakuru's woodland is home to a good population of leopards, though they can be difficult to see. The park's black rhinos are usually tucked away in thick bush, too, but the unmistakably large grazing forms of southern white rhinos are very easy to spot on the plains south of the lake. Down here you're also likely to see plenty of buffalo, eland and shaggy waterbuck (nakuru is Swahili for “Place of the Waterbuck”). Rare Rothschild giraffes can be seen on the open plains too, as can the park's few lions. This good concentration of large mammals, plus the park’s convenient location just 143 miles northwest of Nairobi, means Lake Nakuru does see a fair amount of tourists.
Wildlife
Birds: Up to 1.5 million flamingos plus 450 other species of birds. Fauna includes Thompson’s and Grant’s gazelle, the rare long-eared leaf-nosed bat, colobus monkey, rock hyrax, hippo, leopard, lion, rhino, waterbuck, impala, gazelle, striped hyena, bat-eared fox, wild cat, reedbuck and golden cat. Restocked mammals include the lion, black and white rhino and the endangered Rothschild’s giraffe.
Activities
Bird watching, camping, picnic, finest views of the lake from Baboon Cliff, Lion Hill and Out of Africa Hill.
Best Time to Visit
The best time for a Kenyan safari and to see flocks of flamingos is during the dry season from June to early March.
Challenges and Conservation
Water levels in Lake Nakuru have varied considerably, with the lake almost drying up several times over the past 50 years. In the 1990’s, the water level of the site plunged dramatically. Then in 2013, it received a very large increase in water levels. Local climate changes have also been hypothesized to contribute to the changing environmental conditions in the lakes catchment.
The number of flamingos has been decreasing recently, possibly due to too much tourism or by pollution resulting from industrial waste dumping into the water sources in the surrounding area - changes in water quality make the lake temporarily inhospitable for flamingoes. Since 2021, there has been an alarming increase in the rising water levels at the lake caused by climate change.
Lake Bogoria, Lake Nakuru and Lake Elementaita in Kenya have been collectively recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, The Kenya Lake System. Lake Nakuru is the most accessible and has the most wildlife, but flamingo mega-flocks are now hit or miss here, depending on water levels. Lake Elementia is a smaller, less-visited lake nearby, which usually has some good flamingo sightings and nesting grounds for great pelicans.
Lodges and Resorts
There are several lodges and camps located near Lake Nakuru and Lake Borgoria that offer visitors an excellent opportunity to see the flamingos in Kenya.
- Another lodge within Lake Nakuru National Park, it offers breathtaking views of the lake and the surrounding wilderness.
- The lodge is located on the shores of Lake Borgoria and offers guests stunning views of the lake and the flamingos.
- Located on the shores of Lake Elementaita, which is home to flocks of flamingos.
- The resort is located on the shores of Lake Naivasha offering stunning views of the lake and its flamingos.
Lake Nakuru Facts
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Location | Rift Valley |
| Lake Type | Alkaline lake |
| Primary Outflows | Lake Nakuru has no outflow. No rivers or cracks flowing out of Lake Nakuru |
| Basin Countries | Kenya |
| Surface Area | 5 to 45 km2 (1.9 to 17.4 sq mi) |
| Average Depth | 1 foot (0.30 m) |
| Max. Depth | 6 feet (1.8 m) |
| Surface Elevation | 1,754 m (5,755 ft) |
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