THE FLAMINGOS OF CELESTUN AND RIO LAGARTOS BIOSPHERE RESERVES

Few wildlife spectacles can rival in color and sound the sight of a flock of several thousands flamingos taking off. Ria Celestun Biosphere Reserve and National Park offers a superb feeding spot for these extravagant birds, while the adjacent Rio Lagartos Biospere Reserve and National Park is a preferred nesting area. Flamingos wade calmly the shallow, hyper-saline lagoons of Ria Celestun, filtering the waters with their specially adapted bills, feeding on the small crustaceans, larvae and algae, rich in nutrients and pigments that provide the birds with their extraordinary color. During the nesting season, April to June, many of them choose Rio Lagartos to build a mud nest where they raise a single chick, fed with a kind of a bright red blood-like milk. The reserves host many other bird species, up to a third of the total in Mexico, and they protect one of the remnant mangroves of these coasts. And all this within a two-hour distance from Merida!