Algerian Greater Flamingo at Oued Martil, Morocco

A Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) with a yellow PVC ring coded B1/3D was observed at the wetland of Oued Martil, northern Morocco on 16 October 2011.

The colour-ring code in this picture shows that this bird was ringed in Algeria. It could have been born and ringed either at Garaet Ezzemoul in the Hauts Plateaux or El Goléa in the Algerian Sahara. It could have been ringed at other wetlands, we don't know yet. The first site holds one of the most important colonies in the Western Palearctic.

Algerian Greater Flamingo at Oued Martil, northern Morocco, 16 October 2011 (Rachid El Khamlichi).

 

Update: This Greater Flamingo was ringd as a chick at Garaet Ezzemoul, Oum el Bouaghi on 30 July 2011. Other than Oued Martil, it was also observed at Isla Mayor, Sevilla, southern Spain on 17 January 2013. Thanks to Prof Boudjéma Samraoui for providing the life history of the bird.

This bird is a special visitor here in northern Morocco, because we generally record many ringed birds from Europe like this 20-year-old Eurasian Spoonbill from the Netherlands, but we have never recorded a species ringed in Algeria. 

According to Boucheker et al. (2011), 12 Greater Flamingos ringed as chicks in Algeria were resighted in Morocco between August 2006 and September 2010.

It’s worth presenting here an overview of the status of the species in Algeria, with a few references at the end for further reading. Greater Flamingo has successfully bred for the first time in Algeria at Garaet Ezzemoul, Hauts Plateaux in 2005 (Samraoui et al. 2006), after two failed breeding attempts in the previous two seasons at the same site (Saheb et al. 2006).

Since then, the species has expanded and attempted to breed at a number of Algerian wetlands, with varying degree of success. The breeding colony of El Goléa (in the northern part of the Algerian Sahara) was discovered in 2009 (Bouzid et al. 2009). Another breeding colony in northern Sahara at Sebkhet Safioune was discovered in 2010/2011 (Mesbah et al. 2011).

References:

Boucheker, A., Samraoui, B., Prodon, R., Amat, J. A., Rendón-Martos, M., Baccetti, N., Vidal i Esquerre, F., Nissardi, S., Balkız, Ö., Germain, C., Boulkhssaim, M. & Béchet, A. (2011). Connectivity between the Algerian population of Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus and those of the Mediterranean basin. Ostrich 82: 167-174.

Bouzid, A., Yousfi, J., Boulkhssaïm, M., & Samraoui, B. (2009). Première nidification réussie du Flamant rose Phoenicopterus roseus dans le Sahara algérien. Alauda 77: 139–143.

Mesbah, A., Samraoui, F., Youcefi, A., Djelailia, A., Bouzid, A., Ouldjaoui, A., Baaziz, N., Samraoui, B. & Boucheker, A. (2011). Safioune: un nouveau site de reproduction du Flamant rose Phoenicopterus roseus au Sahara algérien. Alauda 79: 321–324.

Saheb, M., Boulkhssaïm, M., Ouldjaoui, A., Houhamdi, M., & Samraoui, B. (2006). Sur la nidification du Flamant rose Phoenicopterus roseus en 2003 et 2004 en Algérie. Alauda 74: 368–371.

Samraoui, B., Ouldjaoui, A., Boulkhssaïm, M., Houhamdi, M., Saheb, M., & Béchet, A. (2006). The first recorded reproduction of the Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus in Algeria: behavioural and ecological aspects. Ostrich 77: 153–159.