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Looking for chicks? Head down to ABQ BioPark Zoo and visit baby flamingos
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About a dozen ABQ BioPark Zoo visitors gave a collective “aww” as they watched three fuzzy flamingo chicks walk inside the wattled crane habitat area Thursday.
“Let’s go, babies,” BioPark Birds Curator Karen Waterfall told the chicks. “Let’s keep walking.”
Two of the chicks strutted as they took a lap inside the Africa exhibit. The oldest, who is over a foot tall, practiced standing on one leg. The youngest chick remained behind the others, stopping to lie down and eat anything they could sink their beak into.
“Walk with your friends,” Waterfall said to the youngest chick, who goes by “Little.”
Little was born Aug. 6. The other two, “Middle” and “Biggie,” arrived July 11 and July 30, respectively. It is unclear whether they are male or female. The care team needs to schedule a blood test in about a month to determine their genders, the BioPark Zoo said in a news release.
To ensure the safety of the chicks, their eggs were moved from Flamingo Island to an incubator, with decoy eggs left in their place on the island, according to the BioPark. After the eggs hatched, the chicks began frequent formula feedings before transitioning to pellets.
“Our care team has been hand-raising the chicks and monitoring them closely to help them meet their developmental milestones,” Waterfall said.
About a week after they hatched, the birds started exercising.
“We started walking them when they were 5 days old or so because it’s super important to get them outside, get them lots of exercise,” Waterfall said. “These are long-legged birds. They need a lot of exercise so that the legs properly grow.”
With the three newcomers, there are now 19 flamingos at the zoo, BioPark spokesperson Greg Jackson said in an email.
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In 2024, the zoo welcomed a new male flamingo named Ziggy. But this year’s hatchings marked the first time in over a decade that multiple chicks have hatched, according to the BioPark.
“Before Ziggy, the last one that hatched here was in 2014,” Waterfall said in a news release. “We had maybe a couple of eggs in between there, but nothing that was fertile. We’ve not been through this before, so we’re just excited.”
While the chicks are being housed in a temperature-controlled facility, people can check them out every day at 11:15 a.m. inside the wattled crane habitat.
As the chicks get acclimated to their new surroundings, Waterfall hopes they will be able to stay outside longer.
“It just kind of depends on how they’re continuing to develop,” she said. “We kind of, you know, watch their behavioral cues to see when they’re ready.”
