Flamingo Habitat

Thanks to the Women’s Board of Lincoln Park Zoo, a new flock of Chilean flamingos has taken up residence in a renovated home that mimics their natural habitat.

The south end of the Waterfowl Lagoon now provides a level, wet expanse that slopes gently toward the water and thick plantings designed to offer the flamingos the sense of colony size and isolation that encourages them to breed.

Made possible by a generous commitment from the Women’s Board of Lincoln Park Zoo, the new facility also includes brood boxes where the birds can raise young, a food-preparation area and a new indoor enclosure that the birds can access without handling from keepers.

The site of the former domed enclosure has been transformed into an overlook where visitors can view the variety of rare ducks and geese—as well as seasonal migrants—that share space with the flamingos in the transformed lagoon.

Meet the Animals

The flamingo family, Phoenicopteridae, is one of the most ancient of bird families, dating back 30 to 50 million years. Native to the Andes Mountains, Chilean flamingos are much hardier than American flamingos , which had inhabiated the previous facility, and so are better suited to Chicago’s weather.

Although the Chilean flamingo is not endangered, all flamingo populations have the potential for rapid decline. The wetland habitats these striking birds require are being reduced and degraded by land drainage for agricultural use, introduction of fish to some lakes, loss of water to crop irrigation and pollution and other human disturbances. Human activity around breeding sites can also lead flamingos to abandon their nests.