page_title: James's flamingo
section_title: Feathers
hierarchical_section_title: James's flamingo / Description / Feathers
caption_attribution_description: Bill of Andean Flamingo (Phoenicoparrus andinus; top) and James Flamingo (Phoenicoparrus jamesi, bottom)
context_page_description: James's flamingo, also known as the puna flamingo, is a species of flamingo that populates the high altitudes of Andean plateaus of Peru, Chile, Bolivia, and northwest Argentina.
  It is named for Harry Berkeley James, a British naturalist who studied the bird. James's flamingo is closely related to the Andean flamingo, and the two make up the genus Phoenicoparrus. The Chilean flamingo, Andean flamingo, and James's flamingo are all sympatric, and all live in colonies. James's flamingo was thought to have been extinct until a remote population was discovered in 1956.
context_section_description: Newly hatched flamingos are gray or white. They gain color after 2 or 3 years of age. The active component that gives the feathers the pink color are the terpenoids alpha- and beta-carotenes (similar to carotene in carrots). A diet rich in carotene allows them to produce pigmented feathers. An adult has 12 main feathers designed for flight on each wing. The body is covered in contour feathers, which protect the bird and also help with waterproofing from a secretion of oil at the base of the feather. When roosting, they face the wind so rain does not get up and under the feathers. Plumage is pale pink, with bright carmine streaks around the neck and on the back. When perched a small amount of black can be seen in the wings, these are the flight feathers mentioned above. There are typically 12 to 16 tail feathers. James's flamingos molt their wing and body feathers according to their breeding schedule and the color of the new feathers depends on the quality of the diet that they have obtained. No evidence of color differentiation is seen between the males and females.
caption: Comparison of bills of Andean flamingo (top) and James's flamingo (bottom)
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