Flamingo colonies & courtship

Greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus). Sardinia, Po Delta, Tuscany, Puglia, Italy.

Best time: 1 Feb – 30 Apr (February to April). Where: Parco Naturale Molentargius, Cagliari, Valli di Comacchio, Po Delta, Saline di Margherita di Savoia, Puglia (Italy). Time of day: Colony gabbling and marching displays are strongest from sunrise to about 09:00 and again from 17:00 to sunset.

• You can go on your own
• Low cost
• Binoculars helpful
• Sound 4/5

Open it in the interactive calendarSunrise and sunset listening times for the day you pick, and the map.

When is the best time?

Peak: 1 Feb – 30 Apr. Courtship displays Feb–April; present all year

Active from 1 Jan to 31 Dec (all year) in a typical year.

Time of day

Colony gabbling and marching displays are strongest from sunrise to about 09:00 and again from 17:00 to sunset; flights between lagoons at dusk.

• Morning colony: sunrise → 09:00
• Evening flights: 17:00 → last light

What will you hear?

Goose-like gabbling of big flocks, and the synchronised 'marching' displays with a constant honking.

Binoculars?

Binoculars helpful. Flocks from the embankments at 100–300 m; binoculars show the marching displays.

Where to go

• Parco Naturale Molentargius, Cagliari — Breeding colony next to the city; airport and road noise. Map
• Valli di Comacchio, Po Delta — Thousands of birds; boat trips, and the cleanest background. Map
• Saline di Margherita di Savoia, Puglia — Large saltpans and colony; industrial salt works. Map
• Laguna di Orbetello (WWF), Tuscany — Also spoonbills and ospreys. Map

How to go on your own, and what it costs

Molentargius: free, on foot or bike from the Cagliari or Quartu entrances along the public embankments (colony area closed). Comacchio: free public embankments and the Argine Agosta road through the Valli; boat trips are paid. Margherita di Savoia: the SP road along the saltpans. Orbetello WWF oasis: entry ticket, weekend opening — the Orbetello town lagoon walls are free.

Cost: Free on embankments; Orbetello WWF oasis entry and Comacchio boat trips paid (check current prices).

Field-recording notes

Close colony sound is the prize. Molentargius is easy access but noisy; Comacchio is cleaner. Colonies are strictly protected — record from the embankments.

Sources

• Parco del Delta del Po
• Parco Molentargius

Similar spectacles

• Flamingo colonies of the CamargueFrance · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Mar–30 JunGoose-like honking from thousands of birds, the massed 'marching' displays, and flights of hundreds passing low over the étangs at dusk.
• Diawling floodplain — pelicans, flamingos and Palearctic ducksMauritania · Wintering waterfowl · peak 15 Nov–15 FebPelican flotillas grunting, garganey and pintail flocks whirring off the flooded basins, flamingo chorus, and the low background of the Diama dam and the Senegal river.
• Tagus estuary in winter: flamingos, avocets and 100,000 waterbirdsPortugal · Wintering waterfowl · peak 15 Nov–28 FebFlamingo flocks honking as they move between the estuary and the Lezíria rice fields, avocet and godwit roosts chattering on the salinas at high tide, teal whistling on the lagoons and the great winter silence of the open marsh broken by hunters' shots outside the reserve.
• Marchica lagoon, the Moulouya mouth and the Mohammed V reservoir — the Mediterranean east in winterMorocco · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Dec–15 FebFlamingo honking across a lagoon the size of a city, wigeon whistling, shelduck, the bugling of common cranes at the Mohammed V shore at dusk, and in spring a booming bittern and avocet colony clamour at the Moulouya mouth. Nador's traffic and the fishermen's outboards are the backdrop; the Moulouya is quieter.
• Saharan lagoons — Khnifiss and Dakhla Bay in winterMorocco · Wintering waterfowl · peak 15 Nov–28 FebFlamingo honking in the hundreds across a lagoon with no other sound at all, wader flocks lifting, the rattle of royal and Caspian terns, and on Dakhla Bay the blow of a humpback dolphin close to shore.
• Sidi Moussa–Oualidia lagoons — 10,000 waders, flamingos and the salt-pan roostsMorocco · Wintering waterfowl · peak 1 Nov–28 FebAvocet and stilt yelping over the salt pans, godwit and dunlin flocks whirring up at each marsh harrier, flamingo honking from the lagoon, slender-billed gulls — against surf on the dune bar and the oyster farms' outboards.

More: all spectacles in Italy · flamingos · winter geese, swans and ducks · Italy in February · Italy in March · Italy in April