The word Flamingo is derived from the Portugese / Spanish word Flamengo - meaning flame colored. These tall pink colored birds travel a lot through their lives, and wherever they go, they are a popular targets for photographers.

They are frequently found in the Indian west coast, African east coast and the south Americas. In the Bahamas, they are considered the national birds. 

Six types of Flamingos that are still around. 
1. Greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus): Parts of Africa, S. Europe and S. and SW Asia (most widespread flamingo).
2. Lesser flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor): Africa (e.g. Great Rift Valley) to NW India (most numerous flamingo).
3. Chilean flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis): Temperate S. South America.
4. James's flamingo (Phoenicoparrus jamesi): High Andes in Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina.
5. Andean flamingo (Phoenicoparrus andinus): High Andes in Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina.
6. American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber): Caribbean islands, Caribbean Mexico, Belize, Venezuela, and Galápagos Islands.

Flamingos usually stand on one leg while the other is tucked beneath their bodies. The reason for this behaviour is not fully understood. 

Young flamingos hatch with greyish-red plumage, but adults range from light pink to bright red due to aqueous bacteria and beta-carotene obtained from their food supply. A well-fed, healthy flamingo is more vibrantly colored, thus a more desirable mate; a white or pale flamingo, however, is usually unhealthy or malnourished. Captive flamingos are a notable exception; they may turn a pale pink if they are not fed carotene at levels comparable to the wild.[20]

Flamingos filter-feed on brine shrimp and blue-green algae as well as larva, small insects, mollusks and crustaceans making them omnivores. Their bills are specially adapted to separate mud and silt from the food they eat, and are uniquely used upside-down. The filtering of food items is assisted by hairy structures called lamellae, which line the mandibles, and the large, rough-surfaced tongue. The pink or reddish color of flamingos comes from carotenoids in their diet of animal and plant plankton. American flamingos are a brighter red color because of the beta carotene availability in their food while the lesser flamingos are a paler pink due to ingesting a smaller amount of this pigment. These carotenoids are broken down into pigments by liver enzymes. The source of this varies by species, and affects the saturation of color. Flamingos whose sole diet is blue-green algae are darker in color compared to those which get it second-hand (e.g. from animals that have digested blue-green algae).

Flamingos are very social birds; they live in colonies whose population can number in the thousands. These large colonies are believed to serve three purposes for the flamingos: avoiding predators, maximizing food intake, and using scarcely suitable nesting sites more efficiently.[24] Before breeding, flamingo colonies split into breeding groups of about 15 to 50 birds. Both males and females in these groups perform synchronized ritual displays. The members of a group stand together and display to each other by stretching their necks upwards, then uttering calls while head-flagging, and then flapping their wings. The displays do not seem to be directed towards an individual, but instead occur randomly. These displays stimulate "synchronous nesting" and help pair up those birds that do not already have mates.

Flamingos form strong pair bonds, although in larger colonies, flamingos sometimes change mates, presumably because more mates are available to choose. Flamingo pairs establish and defend nesting territories. They locate a suitable spot on the mudflat to build a nest (the female usually selects the place). Copulation usually occurs during nest building, which is sometimes interrupted by another flamingo pair trying to commandeer the nesting site for their use. Flamingos aggressively defend their nesting sites. Both the male and the female contribute to building the nest, and to protecting the nest and egg.[28] Same-sex pairs have been reported.

After the chicks hatch, the only parental expense is feeding. Both the male and the female feed their chicks with a kind of crop milk, produced in glands lining the whole of the upper digestive tract (not just the crop). The hormone prolactin stimulates production. The milk contains fat, protein, and red and white blood cells. (Pigeons and doves—Columbidae—also produce crop milk (just in the glands lining the crop), which contains less fat and more protein than flamingo crop milk.)

For the first six days after the chicks hatch, the adults and chicks stay in the nesting sites. At around 7–12 days old, the chicks begin to move out of their nests and explore their surroundings. When they are two weeks old, the chicks congregate in groups, called "microcrèches," and their parents leave them alone. After a while, the microcrèches merge into "crèches" containing thousands of chicks. Chicks that do not stay in their crèches are vulnerable to predators.

Inspite of their apparent numbers, Flamingos are classified as near threatened - because of rapid human encroachment on their breeding grounds. As human activity grows in the coastal areas, the marshlands are destroyed rather fast. In the past couple of years, there has been a significant variation in the migration cycles of these flamingos. This is rapidly leading to what we we all want to prevent.