In a sweet surprise, a flamingo has created a buzz after laying her first-ever egg at 70. The bird, named Gertrude, is part of over 65 flamingos at Pensthorpe Nature Reserve in Norfolk, UK. Ben Marshall, the reserve’s managing director, said that Gertrude laid the egg after spending her whole life being “unlucky in love”. What makes this incident even more special is that Gertrude is already past her “youth”. On average, flamingos only live up to 40 years in the wild, but Gertrude is 70 years old.
Ben Marshall told BBC that even though Gertrude’s egg is most likely infertile and would not hatch, it is still “amazing” to see her experience maternal instincts after she laid her first egg. Gertrude’s partner is a 37-year-old flamingo, named Gil. He added, “Whilst Gertrude won’t have an egg to hatch this year, lots of our other flamingos are due to hatch their flaminglets in a few weeks. We know that Gertrude is very protective of the young in the flock and will make a great aunt and babysitter of the impending young!” At this time, the Pensthorpe Nature Reserve is already seeing scores of flamingos building their nests and hatching eggs.
The flamingos reach sexual maturity after five to six years. They lay just one egg per mating season and build a ground nest to hatch it. Their mound-like nests can be up to 12 inches tall. Both “parents” of the egg work together to build the nest which can take up to six weeks to perfect.
The nesting is done in groups. The flamingos usually build their nests on islands or the coastline of a lake. Both the male and female flamingos take turns to incubate the eggs. When one flamingo is incubating, the other one from the pair forges for food. Flamingo eggs have an incubation period of about 30 days. After hatching, the fledging period for flamingos ranges between 65 to 90 days.
Unlike most birds and animals, flamingos do not have a fixed breeding season. Instead, their breeding is linked to rainfall levels which in turn provides them with enough food resources near wetlands. Before breeding, male flamingos perform elaborate courtship rituals to attract females. These mating rituals consist of wing-spreading and dancing.
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