Flamingo 'village' helps raise nearly 12,800 chicks at Türkiye's Lake Tuz

It takes a village to raise a child, and at Türkiye's Lake Tuz, that village is made up of thousands of flamingos.

Nearly 12,800 flamingo chicks hatched this year are growing under the protection of adult birds through an unusual communal childcare method known as the "creche" system.

Professor Ahmet Karatas, the project’s coordinator, said researchers considered the figure one of the best recorded in recent years.

Karatas said flamingos at Lake Tuz raise their young collectively through the creche system, a behavior observed in only a small number of bird species.

Of approximately 11,000 bird species worldwide, only around 50 are known to use similar communal childcare, including flamingos and penguins.

The arrangement resembles a human nursery: while most adult flamingos leave to find food, several hundred remain behind to protect and supervise thousands of chicks.

The adults gather the chicks into large groups, defend them against potential threats, guide them around the wetland and lead them to suitable feeding areas.

Karatas estimated that the number of chicks indicated the presence of more than 6,000 breeding pairs in the area.

While more than 5,500 adults may leave the colony during the day to feed, the remaining birds collectively care for the young, allowing the chicks to remain protected without every parent staying at the nesting site.

​​​​​​​Important wetland for flamingo breeding

Located on the border of Ankara and Konya provinces, Lake Tuz is considered one of the world’s most important wetlands for flamingo breeding.

The flamingo population is being monitored under a project conducted by Türkiye’s Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Ministry to study and protect species and habitats within the Lake Tuz Special Environmental Protection Area.

The presence and breeding success of flamingos in the region are closely connected to water availability, he said.

Rainfall during the winter and spring was considerably stronger than in recent years, benefiting Lake Tuz and several surrounding wetlands.

Tersakan, Bolluk and Kulu lakes, which had dried out in previous years, now hold water at varying levels, providing flamingos with additional feeding and breeding habitats.

"The rainfall positively affected the flamingos’ feeding and breeding areas," Karatas said.

Flamingos also depend on a highly specialized diet, making the condition of the surrounding wetlands particularly important.

The birds feed mainly on the brine shrimp Artemia salina and certain algae. A comb-like structure inside their bills allows them to filter these small organisms from the water.

That specialized anatomy makes it difficult for flamingos to switch to fish, seeds or other plants when their usual food becomes scarce.

Lake Tuz and the nearby Tersakan and Bolluk lakes in Konya’s Cihanbeyli district contain some of the region’s richest flamingo feeding grounds.

The birds primarily use the central part of Lake Tuz for breeding before travelling to feeding areas throughout the surrounding wetland system.