Chilean flamingos in Torres Del Paine National Park, Chile

© Ben Hall/Minden Picture

The Year of the Bird. Flamingos of the Chilean desert

Chilean flamingos fly past the Paine massif, an eastern outcropping of the Andes Mountains in Torres Del Paine National Park. Below the towering peaks is the western edge of the Patagonian Desert in Chile. Despite the ‘desert’ designation, the Chilean portion is a large drainage basin for numerous glacier-fed lakes and rivers. These shallow waters are an ideal habitat for Chilean flamingos—they dip their comb-like bills into the shallow water to filter out tasty plankton and algae.