Three flamingo chicks have hatched at the Cotswold Wildlife Park after two barren years.

Renovation work on their lake disturbed the birds at the park near Burford and put them off breeding.

But the newest arrival struggled into the world on Monday, allowing the previous youngest - an eight-day-old chick and a three-week-old born to different parents - to move up the pecking order.

Section head keeper Steve Nasir said of the eight-day-old's mum and dad: "They're superb as parents and they look after the chicks really well, to the point where they have a go at the keepers if they get too close.

"The chicks are totally different from the parents. They have straight beaks and at the moment they're just a ball of white fluff."

Chick number three means there are now 43 flamingoes at the park.

Meanwhile, a baby zebra was born on Sunday after leaving keepers in suspense for a week. The female had been expected days earlier.

FASCINATING FLAMINGO FACTS

*Flamingoes have specialised beaks equipped with a filter-feeding system which has evolved to skim tiny algae from the water's surface.

*The birds swing their heads upside down from side to side or swish water with their tongues to siphon it through their filters and trap algae.

*Flamingoes can filter as many as 20 beakfuls of water every second. This unique system means they do not have to compete with any other animals for food.

*The distinctive-coloured birds have no firm mating season. The parents build a mud-cone nest that holds one egg, which males and females take turns incubating.

*Flamingo chicks take between 28 and 30 days to hatch and only one egg is laid at a time. *The word flamingo is associated with fire - it derives from 'flamenco', a Spanish word that has its root in 'flaming', describing the birds' vivid colour.

*A blue-green algae found in lake water makes up the lesser flamingoes' diet. Although it is called blue-green, the algae provides the red pigment for flamingoes' feathers. Lesser flamingoes, which survive solely on the algae, have a more intense colour than greater flamingoes, which get the algae by eating creatures which have already digested it.

*In captivity, flamingoes are fed a carotene-rich diet of shrimps, prawns and crustaceans to give them their pink colour.

*The birds live to more than 50 years. The current average age of flamingoes at the Cotswold Wildlife Park is 30.

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