Zoo welcomes first flamingo chick of the year

There’s a new chick on the block at the Fort Worth Zoo.

Covered in gray, downy feathers, the first Lesser Flamingo chick of the year was born on Valentine’s Day. In an average year, the Fort Worth Zoo hatches around 20 Lesser Flamingo chicks a year, making the zoo the top Lesser Flamingo breeding program in the world, said bird curator Katy Unger.

The chick will grow quickly — it only takes about three months for them to attain full size — but it won’t have full pink plumage for up to four years, Unger said.

“They are surprisingly smart,” Unger said. “They are very protective of their babies.”

After three years, the feathers will be white and turning a light pink, but the bird’s legs won’t turn from gray to pink until its fourth year.

Three species of flamingos reside in the Fort Worth Zoo; Carribbean, Chilean and the Lessers. The Lessers are the smallest species and the only African species at the zoo.

Over the years, they’ve been especially hard to breed in captivity. Fort Worth has the system down.

The first Lesser chick hatched in Fort Worth in 2002 and the program has flourished since then. The Lessers are the only species at the zoo that breeds indoors.

The zoo keeps the nesting room warm and surrounds it with mirrors to make it look as if the birds are in a huge flock — which replicates the feeling in a natural habitat, Unger said.

Zoo workers begin putting the flamingos in the breeding room in December. The eggs appear about a month later and then around February and March the eggs begin to hatch. Each flamingo pair has one chick per year, Unger said. Flamingos can live a long time in captivity. Currently the oldest flamingo at the zoo is 53, with many in their 40s.

In a a few months, the chicks will be are let out into the enclosure with the rest of the flock.

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 9:37 AM with the headline "Zoo welcomes first flamingo chick of the year."