By Richard Kipngeno, Sam Guchu and Fleur Ng’weno
On Saturday 18 July 2026, teams from the Kenya Wildlife Service, National Museums of Kenya, and Nature Kenya fanned out across six Kenyan lakes to count Lesser Flamingos. From first light, they moved between shorelines and high vantage points, tracking thousands of birds across the Rift Valley lakes Logipi, Elmenteita, Nakuru, Bogoria, Magadi and the wetlands of Amboseli.
The work wasn’t easy. In Amboseli, drying, muddy conditions made vehicle access impossible. Teams stationed themselves at distant high points and watched in awe as enormous flocks of flamingos clustered on the last remnants of water in seasonal Lake Amboseli, painting the landscape rose-pink against Mount Kilimanjaro’s silhouette.
In the famous “flamingo lakes” of Nakuru, Elmenteita and Bogoria, water levels have risen, flooding the adjacent landscape, and making the water so fresh that it cannot support enough flamingo food. Lake Magadi told a different story. Much of the eastern and southern sections were extremely dry, with only scattered flamingos in the shallow waters that remained.
It was at Lake Logipi in the remote and rocky Suguta Valley of northern Kenya that the survey team found the entire lake had transformed into a shimmering mass of birds, their pink forms spread across the water.
Living on the Edge
Lesser Flamingos are unlike most birds. They live exclusively on alkaline and saline lakes, feeding on microscopic cyanobacteria that thrive in harsh conditions where few other creatures can survive. They are entirely dependent on these specialised wetlands. When water levels rise or drop or the chemistry changes, thousands of birds may concentrate on whatever suitable water remains, or seek alternative feeding sites.
This dependency makes them vulnerable. Globally, Lesser Flamingos face growing threats from water extraction, pollution, land-use changes, shifting rainfall patterns linked to climate change, and perhaps tectonic movements The birds cannot simply move to other wetlands. They need alkaline lakes to survive.
Beyond their ecological importance, Lesser Flamingos are a major tourist attraction in Kenya, drawing visitors to the country’s lakes and generating income for local communities and the wider economy. Conserving them means safeguarding not only the birds themselves but also their wetland ecosystems, tourism revenues, and livelihoods for hundreds of communities across the country.
Data for Decision-Making
The census gathered vital data to update population estimates and assess wetland health across Kenya. This information will feed into a single-species action plan for Lesser Flamingo conservation, helping guide protection efforts and policy decisions.
Some unexpected data emerged from the survey. While water levels have been rising in most Rift Valley lakes in Kenya and Tanzania, Lake Magadi appears to be drying. Although the water was alkaline enough, Magadi hosted only a few thousand Lesser Flamingos. In Amboseli, flamingos are usually found near Ol Tukai lodge; this time, they were in seasonal Lake Amboseli in large numbers. Lake Logipi is now the newly discovered Home of the Flamingos in Kenya, but it’s seasonal, and may change drastically with a severe drought or the predicted El Niño rains.
Field teams also identified what’s needed to improve future monitoring: better coordination with national birdwatching programmes, longer-range binoculars or telescopes for teams working across vast areas, drone or other aerial surveys for locations too difficult to access on foot, and expanding citizen-science to involve more local observers in tracking these remarkable birds.
Despite logistical challenges, coordination among government agencies, research institutions, and conservation organisations demonstrated the power of collaboration. Seeing thousands of flamingos crowded onto newly recorded sites was a stark reminder of the wonder of Kenya’s wetlands and the urgency of protecting them.