#1165 · 🐦 birds
Lesser Flamingo
🇳🇱 Kleine Flamingo ·Phoeniconaias minor
10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © Uday Agashe · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 2. © russellstreet · CC BY-SA 4.0
- 3. © Jane · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 4. © Ulf Teghammar · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 5. © Callum Evans · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 6. © Nik Borrow · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 7. © Nabok · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- 8. © Nik Borrow · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 9. © Dwight Bohlmeyer · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 10. © Tobin Sparling (he/him) · CC BY-NC 4.0
what is it?
The lesser flamingo ( Phoeniconaias minor ) is a species of flamingo occurring in sub-Saharan Africa with another population in India. Birds are occasionally reported from further north, but these are generally considered vagrants. Until 2014, it was classified in genus Phoenicopterus but is now classified as the only species in the genus Phoeniconaias , the only monotypic genus of flamingo.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 4,855 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1798 (228 years ago).
- Not originally Dutch: it was introduced to the Netherlands.
fact sheet
- English
- Lesser Flamingo
- Nederlands
- Kleine Flamingo
- scientific name
- Phoeniconaias minor
- class
- Aves
- order
- Phoenicopteriformes
- family
- Phoenicopteridae
- IUCN Red List
- NT · near threatened
- in NL
- introduced
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings in Europe
- 244
- sightings worldwide
- 4,855
- GBIF records in NL
- 155
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1798 by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire
IUCN in Dutch: gevoelig. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Phoenicopteridae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 4259, Wikidata Q242369, GBIF 2481104, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.