Same-sex foster parents raise a flamingo chick at the San Diego Zoo

Two male flamingos are now first-time fathers after hatching together at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

The pair were living in a fake egg earlier this year, and after demonstrating their parenting skills with the fake egg, care professionals decided to give them a real egg, according to the zoo. The chick, born late last month, is now “thriving.”

“The two fulfilled their fatherly duties by exchanging responsibilities,” the zoo wrote on social media.

Flamingo fathers

The two fathers are in their 40s, according to the zoo. Both are lesser flamingos, a species found in sub-Saharan Africa and western India. The chick is also a small flamingo.

Little flamingos grow to be 2.6-2.9 feet tall and grow to weigh 3.3 to 4.4 pounds, according to the zoo. When hatched, the chick is about the size of a tennis ball and has gray down feathers instead of the distinctive pink color.

The flamingo’s foster parents who are raising the chick were in the nest earlier this year, according to the zoo. Care professionals gave them a fake egg as a way to keep them busy and prevent them from disturbing other nests. Flamingos do such a good job of taking care of their fake egg that wildlife experts decided to give them a real, fertilized egg.

Rearing fathers have been feeding the brood of chicks “milk,” which comes from the parents’ upper alimentary tract.

“Both males and females can feed the chick this way, even non-parent flamingos can feed the chick,” according to the zoo. “The pleading of a hungry chick is believed to stimulate milk flow.”

Feeding the chicks can actually affect the color of the parents’ feathers. Feeding can decolorize and their feathers will appear pale pink or white until the chick becomes independent and feeds on its own.

The fathers who raise the chick will start weaning the chick when it is two months old.

Birds and their children

Flamingos are not the first to care for fake eggs. An eagle at a bird sanctuary in Missouri got the virus behind him he tried to hatch a rock. Vulture fathers I hatched eggs together like that penguin dad.

Earlier this year, two male flamingos at a UK zoo—named Curtis and Arthur—hatched a chick. At the time, the zoo said it was not sure how the flamingos got the chick.

“As for same-sex breeding, we’re not sure how this happened, although it’s a known phenomenon in Chilean flamingos and other flocks of birds,” said Paignton Zoo Curator of Birds Pete Smallbones. “The most likely scenario is that the egg was left by another couple, so these two ‘adopted’ it.”