Greater Flamingo at Varthur Lake, Bangalore
The first weekend of August 2025 had a wonderful surprise for all the bird lovers of the garden city. The Greater Flamingo graced the city with its presence at Varthur Lake.
The graceful beauty dotting a “coat hanger” neck is not a common sight in Bengaluru, they are occasional visitors recorded sporadically at few lakes on city’s outskirts. The last couple of sightings are from Hoskote Lake (a prominent spot for bird watching in the city) in 2019 and in Kanaka Sarovar Lake in 2023.
Characteristics of Greater Flamingo
Size: 110cm - 150cm, typically 2kg - 4kg in weight
Wingspan: 140cm -165cm
Plumage: Chicks are grey and fluffy, juveniles/sub-adults are grey-brown while adults are mostly pinkish-white with salmon wing coverts and black primary/secondary flight feathers; legs are entirely pink; bill is pink with a black tip.
Behaviour: Highly social, forms large colonies for feeding and nesting
Status: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List
Usually these are seen in large flocks, but there was only one individual in the entire lake. The lake is over 180 hectares, which made it a bit difficult to spot it at first and I could only catch a glimpse after a solid 2 km walk. There were a couple of Spot Billed Pelicans as well, which on a normal day would grab my attention but this was a day solely for admiring the beautiful pink colours of the Flamingo.
