Greater flamingos as winged flagship species at the boundaries of Circeo Man and Biosphere Reserve
The greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus, Pallas 1811) is a typical migratory Mediterranean species, even if considered nesting in the area only from few years to date, with a first documentation of a nesting event in Italy in 1993 (Schenk et al., 1995; Béchet et al., 2009). The typical coloring pattern due to the feeding strategy adopted by these migrating birds make the species particularly interesting from the wider audience. It is what was observed in the nearby of the transitional ecosystems associated to the brackish water of Caprolace Lake. This place is not so crowded normally, but due to the presence of many photographers and curious observers the presence of the pinkish colony turned rapidly the lake shores into a meeting point for many curious eyes attracted from this natural astonishing event. On 2nd February is normally celebrated the World Wetland Day and this contribution is published accordingly, in order to celebrate somehow these field observations occurred in the nearby of this important date, considered as the anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, signed in Ramsar on 2 February 1971.
