Flamingo Specialist Group

The Flamingo Specialist Group (FSG) began in 1978 at Tour du Valat in France, under the leadership of Dr Alan Johnson. Today, the group is coordinated from the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) at Slimbridge, UK, as part of the IUCN Species Survival Commission / Wetlands International Waterbird Network. See our IUCN profile here. The current chairs of the FSG are Dr Paul Rose (WWT / University of Exeter) and Cathy King (Weltvogelpark Walsrode).

Description and aims

The FSG is a global network of flamingo specialists (both scientists and non-scientists) concerned with the study, monitoring, management and conservation of the world’s six flamingo species populations. The FSG’s role is to actively promote flamingo research and conservation worldwide by developing conservation Action Plans for the most threatened species and by encouraging information exchange and cooperation amongst these specialists, and with other relevant organisations, particularly the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC), Wetlands International, Ramsar Convention, WWF International and BirdLife International. For more information about the activities of the Flamingo Specialist Group, check out our website.

Membership

FSG membership is open without charge to flamingo specialists worldwide. Members include experts in both in situ (wild) and ex situ (captive) flamingo conservation, as well as in fields ranging from population surveys to breeding biology, diseases, tracking movements and data management. There are currently >235 members from 57 countries around the world, from India to Chile, and from France to South Africa.

Members are encouraged to participate in FSG activities, including the development of conservation Action Plans, for species in which they have special expertise, workshops and other international meetings. FSG members are automatically enrolled in the FSG list serve and become members of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.

Join the Flamingo Specialist Group

If you wish to join the FSG please email your name, address, contact details, and areas of special interest (species and geographic regions) to Dr Paul Rose. We look forward to hearing from you.

Flamingo, the FSG’s annual scientific journal

Flamingo, formerly the FSG Newsletter, was relaunched in 2018 and publishes articles on the world’s six species of flamingo. Reports on the status, movements, breeding and biology of species in the wild or in captivity on a regional or local scale are suitable. We also welcome short papers with original data, progress reports of in situ conservation projects, ringing reports, news items and similar flamingo-focussed articles.

You can find more details on Flamingo on the FSG’s website. To submit articles for publication in Flamingo, please email Dr Paul Rose. Please see the relevant section of the FSG website for author guidelines in English, Spanish and French.

Below you will find our latest edition of Flamingo to download as well as previous editions. For the Newsletters 1-9, go to the Greater Flamingo Interactive Atlas.

Publications

Social media

You can follow the FSG on Facebook and on Twitter (search for ‘Flamingo Specialist Group’, @flamingospecgrp). We regularly post on our social media platforms, and we welcome all suitable content (photos, videos, publication links) that we can share with our followers from around the world.

Contact us

We have a contact form on our web page that can be used for genuine flamingo-based queries