Phoenicopterus is a genus of birds in the flamingo family Phoenicopteridae.
Taxonomy
The
genus Phoenicopterus was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist
Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his
Systema Naturae to accommodate a single species, the American flamingo
Phoenicopterus ruber.
The genus name comes from
Ancient Greek (
phoînix), meaning "crimson", and (
pterón), meaning "feather".
"Leguat's giant"
A large bird described from
Mauritius and
Rodrigues and illustrated by the traveller
Francois Leguat in 1708 was speculated to represent a large rail by
Hermann Schlegel in 1857 and named
Leguatia gigantea, "Leguat's giant", but later research indicates that it was probably based on sightings of
Phoenicopterus flamingos that are known to have lived there, possibly the
greater flamingo.
Species
The genus contains three
extant taxon species:
