James Flamingo foraging behavior in Argentina

James Flamingo (Phoenicoparruss jamesi) is restricted to South American altiplano salt lakes 3,600 to 4,500 m about: sea level. Little is know about the basic biology or foraging behavior of this species. This work reports on foraging behavior of James Flamingo in Laguna de Pozuelos, at 3,600 m above sea level in the northwest of Argentina. James Flamingo showed statistically significant preferences for the use of the two-cm deep foraging microhabitat. Twenty-four diatom species were identified in gizzard contents. All diatom sizes available in the lake could bt filtered by James Flamingo, yet prey smaller than 20 mu m, the most abundant in the lake, were not found in the same proportion in the diet as in the water. This would indicate a fixed preference for a certain diatom size, regardless of their availability Prey 21-80 mu m were retained in a proportion larger than that found in the lake, and those least available, 81-121, mu m were filtered according to their relative abundance.