Two Male Flamingos Become Dads By Raising a Baby on Their own

Two flamingo dads are successfully raising an abandoned chick after keepers placed it in their shared nest.

Flamingo fathers Hudson and Blaze took the egg under their wings after it was rejected by its biological parents at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo.

The lone American flamingo egg was initially placed in an incubator at the UK’s largest zoo after the parents ditched the nest. 

But keepers at the Bedfordshire zoo moved it into one shared by Hudson and Blaze, who they deemed the best candidates amongst the whole flamboyance - the collective term for a group of flamingos.

They sat tight on the egg until it hatched and have been taking exemplary care of their new baby ever since keepers said.

Bird team leader Tim Savage, said: “Flamingos usually work together, as a monogamous pair, to care for their eggs and subsequent chicks.

“Hudson and Blaze were the clear choices for the incubated egg, as they have always proved to be ideal parents.

“After the chick hatched in their nest, they sat with it for two weeks, keeping it warm and protecting it from other flamingos, who often squabble and shove around different nest sites.”

Tim added: “Fluffy grey flamingo chicks are fed with bright red “crop milk,” which is made by both male and female parents.

“It is made in the linings of their digestive tract and contains fat, protein, and blood cells.

“You can often spot the new parents in a group because they give so much of their own pigment to their chicks that they almost turn white!”

Same-sex flamingo pairs have been encountered before at the zoo, as have trios whereby a mixture of male and female birds share one nest.

Penguins are also known to form same-sex pairings during the breeding season.

Independent