Today, April 26, is International Flamingo Day. It falls on the birthday of John James Audubon, an American artist and ornithologist who created an image of the American (Caribbean) flamingo for the book Birds of America. The holiday was started in 2020 by a group of specialists with the aim of drawing the attention of the international community to the problem of preserving these birds.

Mykolaiv Zoo joins the celebration of International Flamingo Day.

Today, the collection of flamingos in our zoo includes 2 species: the greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) and the American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber).

There are 2 male American flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber) in our zoo, they are almost the same age as our new zoo territory, today they are more than 40 years old. These bright beauties came to the zoo in 1988 at the age of 8 from the Netherlands. By nature, our favorites are very pedantic and conservative: they are used to their "routine of the day", they clearly know at what time they should enter the house and are used to doing it only by one path, and if there is any obstacle in the way in the form of a hose or paper, they refuse to enter until the obstacle is removed. Their neighbors in the aviary are a group of greater flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus), which consists of 7 individuals. Of them, 3 individuals arrived at our zoo in 2008, and 4 individuals arrived in 2013. Greater flamingos have been kept in Mykolaiv Zoo since 1992. Birds make friends with each other.

The main diet of flamingos in Mykolaiv Zoo consists of gammarus, mosquito grubs, finely chopped fish fillet, minced meat, bread and carrots.

This graceful bird occurs in the south of Ukraine every year, and in 2017 there was a known case of nesting on Sivash in the Kherson region. But in the spring of 2023, at least 35 pink-winged flamingos flew to the National Nature Park "Tuzlivski lymany". "During the war, a miracle began to take place in the summer in the national natural park "Tuzlivski lymany". For the first time in Ukraine, flamingos (from the Latin "flamma" - flame) in the number of 570 adult birds decided to live from spring to autumn in the Tuzliv estuaries and bring their young. Earlier, in 2017, for the first time in Ukraine, they tried to form a colony in the Kherson region on Lake Churyuk, not far from Crimea, but they brought out only 3 chicks and their fate is unknown. During the full-scale invasion of the rashists and the occupation of the Kherson region, the birds left the temporarily occupied territories and chose the Tuzliv estuaries.

For the first time, "scout" birds appeared in a large flock in 2021. In the year when a large number of youngsters and adult birds died in the main flamingo colonies in Turkey on Lake TUZ. And we predicted at that time that they would definitely nest with us soon. And here is the war year 2023. They appeared in our national park in April, and in May they immediately chose a place for nesting on the coast of the Burnas estuary near the village of Bazaryanka. But the nesting there was unsuccessful: children constantly appeared, poachers appeared at night, many domestic dogs – all this, despite the 270 nests built by birds, forced them to leave this dangerous place. But we believed that they would definitely find another place in the national park and hatch chicks this year. And so it happened.

At the end of June 2023, they nested in a very interesting place of the national park – on the border of the large Tuzliv estuaries of Shagana and Alibey. And so, over the weekend, we, the employees of the national park and its friends, managed to hold an event for ringing the chicks. The Ukrainian Bird Protection Society and the Ukrainian Bird Ringing Center helped us in this. This is a great success – "Tuzliv" flamingos produced 192 chicks during the war. By the way, among adults there are birds with colored rings from France, Turkey and Spain. We hope that after the Victory, many Ukrainians will be able to visit the national park and see the wonder of nature - greater flamingos." (Ivan Rusiev).

In order to draw attention to the preservation of this Red Book bird in Ukraine, Mykolaiv Zoo held a series of environmental and educational events, namely:

- a thematic lecture with an interactive quiz for visitors;

- design of an information stand dedicated to the International Flamingo Day;

- a video story dedicated to the International Flamingo Day;

- thematic class of a group of young biologists with a demonstration program on enriching the habitat of flamingos.

For our birds, the zoo's young biologists built artificial nests from clay, in order to stimulate the birds to breed. Such a practical activity benefited both young researchers and birds, who tested them for strength and practicality with interest. The children were asked to keep diaries of observations of the behavior of flamingos. Young naturalists received a lot of positive emotions, impressions and experiences, we hope that the birds too.