ISLAND CONSERVATION-The mysterious flamingos of Seychelles |10 October 2005

It's tough enough to get to its only nesting site on Aldabra, yet even then, ninety-nine percent of visitors will never see a flamingo. There are some people who have been to Aldabra many times and have never seen a single one.

The Greater Flamingo is big. It stands taller than any other bird in Seychelles. But size is not everything and mystery still surrounds the flamingos of the islands. It breeds in the remotest corner of the remotest island of Seychelles. To reach its home, the pools of south-east Grand Terre, requires a minor expedition and major determination.

In September, the staff of Seychelles Island Foundation on Aldabra made a remarkable discovery: six old nests, one showing signs of recent use. This is the largest number of complete nests ever found. Only in 1995 was it discovered that the Flaman breeds on Aldabra at all.

In April that year, SIF staff explored a remote pool in the Cinq Cases/Takamaka area of Grande Terre and found a small grey chick following adults. Four days later they returned to check for nests and found three complete and three partially complete nest mounds. Breeding was again confirmed in 1996.

Four young birds, little bigger than chicks, were sighted in a group of sixteen birds and three nest mounds containing egg fragments were located. Yet it is still not known whether or not birds breed every year or just every now and then.

The Flaman may have been much more common in the past, Abbott reporting flocks of up to 1,000 birds in 1892. Today flocks seen at Aldabra normally number only a dozen or so birds, though in September SIF staff discovered a flock of 43 birds, the largest seen for nearly 40 years.

Aldabra is the only coral atoll in the world where the Flaman breeds, and the only oceanic nesting site other than this is on the opposite side of the Indo-Pacific, the Galapagos Islands. Colonies of flamingos elsewhere rarely breed with less than 50 pairs, yet there are no reports in recent times of groups this large at Aldabra.

The Flaman is one of the strangest looking birds of Seychelles. The odd-looking bill is something like a broken nose but it is tall and elegant, the entire white body flushed with bright pink, the wings coloured a wonderful shade of crimson and the legs are the longest of any Seychelles bird. The Creole name comes from the shiny red feathers of the birds' wings and flanks.

The birds carry out remarkable displays, stretching the neck and bill skyward and turning the head from side to side, cocking the tail and spreading wings to display the strikingly wing colours. They then march in one direction in dense flocks, suddenly turning 180o and marching back again. Yet to this day, no one has witnessed this sight on Aldabra. There is still a lot out there to be discovered.

By Adrian Skerrett