Why flamingo populations in Kenya are on the decline

NAIROBI, KENYA - JANUARY 20: Despite numbering in the millions in lakes located in the Great Rift Valley, flamingoes in Kenya are fast declining in population. Ecologists say the population of the pink-feathered birds in feeding grounds in Kenya and breeding sites in neighboring Tanzania is on a sharp decline. Dead flamingoes have been found in the hundreds around the lake, mostly stuck in thorny bushes as water levels continue to rise steadily. Oblivious to the birds as they fly low in search of food in what used to be a lake clear of the evergreen thorny mathenge trees, is that the rising lakes have displaced thousands of residents and submerged houses and nearby forests. Once the wading birds land on the water, they are prickled from beneath or stuck in the thorny trees that now resemble bushes. As of 2015, flamingoes in Kenya, which could be seen in the hundreds of thousands in Lake Nakuru, have ditched the lake for others on the floor of the Rift Valley, which has blue-green algae -- their main source of food. Kenya’s Standard Newspaper cited ecological reports that said the birds have completely abandoned ecosystems where they used to be found in great numbers. ”In January 2021, figures indicated that there were 6,000 flamingos in Lake Nakuru. 4,000 birds were recorded within sewerage treatment ponds nearby and another 2,000 in the lake - a sharp decline from an estimate of 850,000 in the year 2000,” it said. “In 2018, the lake, located in northern Tanzania, hosted 760,000 lesser flamingos and 120,000 chicks. A decline of 250 flamingos and 35 chicks was registered in 2020. 1,900 were recorded in 2021.” The overall population of flamingos in Kenya is not known but figures from ecologists and bird watchers show a decline in flamingo flocks across all lakes in the Rift Valley.(Footage by Andrew Wasike/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)