Flamingo Flocks and Hummingbird Flowers

Breeding Season at Maplecroft Zoo

1Yuki Tanabe spends her summer in the teen volunteer program at Maplecroft Zoo. This year her mentor, keeper Hollis Okwuosa, works on two conservation projects about how animals and plants produce offspring.

2The first project is about flamingos. In the wild, flamingos live in flocks that can hold thousands of birds. Before nesting season, groups of them perform displays together: they stretch their necks up, flick their heads from side to side and march in tight groups across the shallow water. Many birds pair up after these displays. Each pair builds a cone-shaped mound of mud at the edge of the water, and the female lays one egg on top. The two parents take turns sitting on the egg. After it hatches, both parents feed the chick a fluid called crop milk, which they make in their throats, for several weeks until the chick can feed itself.

3Zoos that keep flamingos share their records. Mr. Okwuosa showed Yuki the records from four zoos for one breeding season, in the first table.

4The second project is in the zoo's outdoor hummingbird aviary. Its netting keeps the birds inside but lets small insects such as bees pass through. Yuki watched two kinds of plants for one hour on each of three mornings. Red salvia has long, narrow, tube-shaped red flowers with little scent. Its nectar sits at the bottom of each tube, and the pollen-making anthers stick out over the opening. The yellow daisy has flat, open flower heads that give insects a place to land, and it has a sweet scent. Yuki counted every visit to each plant. She also noticed that hummingbirds often left the salvia with a dusting of yellow pollen on their foreheads.