By Malaka Rodrigo
A flamingo colony of about 5,000 has become an attraction in Mannar these days.
Mannar’s arid landscape sometimes is an eyesore, but many of its coastal areas and lagoons have come alive with shades of pink and white from a flock of flamingos. During the long weekend last week, last-minute travelers could not find accommodation as bird enthusiasts flocked to Mannar.
Mannar causeway, Vankalai Sanctuary, saltern, and coastal area near the airstrip, are some of the spots where the birds can be seen. The colony sometimes visits areas nearer the main road and busloads of people stop by.
“Usually, the average number of a large flamingo flock consists of about 2,000, but the flamingo colony in Mannar these days has about 5,000, and this is the largest flock I’ve seen in Sri Lanka,” said Prof. Sampath Senevirathne, an ornithologist of the University of Colombo. He visits Mannar for field work.
The flamingos are a migratory species that usually arrives in November and stays in Sri Lanka until about March.
Prof. Seneviratne says this flock arrived in Mannar in the first week of January and could be the birds that breed in India’s Gujarat region.
In the past two years, the birds have been missing from Mannar. In 2019, a large number of flamingos together with many other migratory birds were found dead in India following a storm.
“About 70% of the birds in the Mannar’s flamingo flock consist of sub-adult birds that are pale in color, so this could be the same flock with its members that are growing after successful breeding during the past two years,” Prof Seneviratne told the SundayTimes.
The Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) is probably the most notable migratory bird species due to their beauty. According to National Geographic, this tall bird has long, lean, curved necks and pinkish legs. The flamingo’s pink beak has a black tip, and the bird uses its downward bent bill to filter-feed tiny organisms like plankton, tiny fish, and larvae in mud flats or shallow waters. Shrimp-like crustaceans provide the nutrition that helps to maintain the pink in their body, National Geographic says.
In Sri Lanka, the lagoons, mudflats, and shallow coastal waters in Jaffna and Mannar are the most popular locations for the flamingos. Until late ’90s, large flocks could be seen in Bundala Wetland in the south, but no longer.
“The reason for Bundala losing its flamingos is a result of diversion of a large amount of irrigated freshwater to the Bundala Lagoon,” says Prof. Sarath Kotagama, an eminent ornithologist.
The flamingo filter feeds tiny organisms, but they need brackish water. When there is a lot of freshwater, the salinity of the Bundala lagoon changes, killing the organisms that the flamingo feed on. So the flamingos left Bundala looking for new feeding grounds, he said. “If the irrigated freshwater could be diverted elsewhere, the flamingos could start visiting the Bundala Lagoon again,” he said.
Pix by Mevan Piyasena
