161
1. Introduction
In the lagoon of Venice (Italy), Greater Flamingos 
Phoenicopterus roseus were observed irregularly 
until the end of the 80s, mostly during late summer 
and autumn (Bon et al. 2004). Eventually they 
became more common, but it is only since 2007 
that they began to be found regularly during 
Acrocephalus 38 (174/175): 161–169, 2017
10.1515/acro-2017-0010
mid-January IWC counts showing an almost 
regular increase until January 2016, when 7,000 
birds were counted (Bon & Scarton 2012, Basso 
& Bon 2016). Given that, during the 2014–2016 
winter, the Po delta hosted on average about 3,000 
birds (Associazione Sagittaria pers. comm.) 
and the Friuli-Venezia Giulia wetlands about 500 
birds (Regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia & Astore 
Environmental characteristics of shallow bottoms used by Greater Flamingo 
Phoenicopterus roseus in a northern Adriatic lagoon
Okoljske značilnosti plitvin, ki jih uporablja plamenec Phoenicopterus roseus v 
severnojadranski laguni
Francesco Scarton
SELC soc. coop., Via dell’Elettricità 3/d, IT–30175 Marghera (Ve), Italy, e–mail: scarton@selc.it
Since the beginning of this century, Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus 
roseus flocks have been observed regularly when feeding in the large 
extensions of shallow bottoms in the Lagoon of Venice (NE Italy), 
the largest lagoon along the Mediterranean. Nowadays thousands of 
flamingos are present throughout the year. Between 2013 and 2017 I 
collected data on the environmental features of the shallow bottoms used 
by feeding flocks, along with measurements of flight initiation distance 
(FID) of Greater Flamingo in response to the approach of boats and 
pedestrians. Shallow bottoms were shown to be used when covered with 
approximately 10 to 60 cm of water. All the feeding sites were in open 
landscapes, with low occurrence of saltmarshes in a radius of 500 m. The 
bottoms were barely covered with seagrasses (<4% of the surface around 
the survey points) and were mostly silty. Feeding flocks were on average 
1.2 km far from the nearest road or dyke, while the mean distance from 
channels that could be used by boats was about 420 m. The mean FID 
caused by boats or pedestrians was 241 m ± 117 m (N = 31, ± 1 SD) 
without significant differences between those for the two disturbance 
sources. The use of shallow bottoms by the Greater Flamingo appears 
governed primarily by the tidal cycle, but boat disturbance probably 
modifies this effect. According to FID values, a set-back distance of 
465  m is suggested to reduce the disturbance caused by boats and 
pedestrians to the flamingo feeding flocks.
Key words: buffer zone, flight initiation distance, Lagoon of Venice, 
tidal flats, waterbirds 
Ključne besede: zaščitni pas, ubežna razdalja, Beneška laguna, plitvine, 
vodne ptice
162
unpubl.), the Lagoon of Venice is nowadays the 
most important wintering site along the Adriatic 
coast north of the Po river. 
In the Lagoon of Venice, the Greater Flamingo 
exploits both the fish farms surrounding the 
lagoon and the large extensions of tidal flats and 
shallow bottoms occurring outside the fish farms. 
The Greater Flamingo has been referred to as an 
ecosystem engineer (Gayet et al. 2012) since, 
due to its feeding behaviour, it mobilises large 
quantities of surficial sediments, due to both 
trampling and active filtering. The species feeds 
mostly on aquatic invertebrates, such as insects, 
crustaceans, molluscs, annelids, microalgae and 
plant material (Rodríguez-Pérez et al. 2007). 
Despite its major feeding habitats being salt ponds 
and other hypersaline environments, tidal flats, 
freshwater wetlands and periodic wetlands are also 
exploited regularly (Yohannes et al. 2014). The 
use of feeding habitats by the Greater Flamingo 
has been studied in detail at several Mediterranean 
wetlands (Tourenq et al. 2001, Amat et al. 2005, 
Béchet et al. 2009, Hamza et al. 2014, Yohannes 
et al. 2014, Hamza & Selmi 2015), while data for 
the Adriatic wetlands are lacking completely.
When feeding on large tidal flats, which are 
used also by clam harvesters and by fishermen, 
and are adjacent to deeper channels regularly 
used by commercial and leisure boats, in the 
Lagoon of Venice the Greater Flamingo is 
exposed to disturbance by Man. The possible 
effects of disturbance are disruption of regular 
behaviour of birds, causing the temporary or 
permanent abandonment of feeding, resting and 
nesting sites (Fitzpatrick & Bouchez 1998, 
West et al. 2002, Beale & Monaghan 2004). 
In the Lagoon of Venice, it has recently been 
estimated that at least 40,000 boats circulate 
each year, used for professional fishing, goods and 
tourist transportation and for leisure activities 
(Ministero delle Infrastutture e dei 
Trasporti 2017). About 600 of these boats are 
devoted to the professional harvest of the Manila 
Clam Ruditapes philippinarum. Due to their small 
size and low draft, these boats navigate for most of 
the year not only along channels but also on shallow 
bottoms, close to the tidal flats used by Greater 
Flamingos for resting or feeding. Moreover, an 
increasing number of wildlife watching boat tours 
are operating, and, for these boat tours, the Greater 
Flamingo flocks are clearly a sought-after target. 
The flight initiation distance (FID), i.e. the 
point at which the bird flushes or otherwise moves 
away from the approaching disturbance source, is 
a well-known metric used to measure disturbance 
effects (Whitfield et al. 2008). The use of set-
back distances and buffer zones, calculated on 
the base of FIDs, is often suggested as a mean of 
reducing disturbance of birds caused by human 
activities (Chatwin et al. 2013, Whitfield & Rae 
2014, Koch & Paton 2014). Despite the Greater 
Flamingo being considered as a species highly 
sensitive to disturbance by Man, no measurements 
of FID have so far been available for Mediterranean 
wetlands. 
The aims of this paper are the following: 1) 
a preliminary analysis of several morphological 
and biological characteristics of the tidal flats and 
shallow bottoms used by the Greater Flamingo 
in the Lagoon of Venice; 2) the proposition of 
set-back distances for this species, based on FID 
measurements made in 2013–2017, as a possible 
way to reduce disturbance caused by boats and 
pedestrians to the flamingo flocks. 
2. Study area and methods
The Lagoon of Venice is the largest coastal lagoon 
in the Mediterranean; it covers an area of 55,000 ha 
along the Adriatic Sea, with its centre at 45°26́  
N, 12°19´ E. A large part of the lagoon consists 
of an open water body about 37,000 ha in size, of 
which 5,000 ha are tidal flats less than 0.5 m deep 
and exposed regularly during low tides. 26,000 ha 
of these are shallow bottoms (0.5–1  m deep) and 
6,000  ha are deeper channels (Solidoro et al. 
2010). Saltmarshes, 3,800  ha in size, and dredge 
islands (artificial intertidal sites made with dredged 
sediments: Scarton & Montanari 2015) of 
1,300 ha comprise the remaining area, along with 
small islands and the historical towns of Venice, 
Burano and Murano. Fish farms, completely 
surrounded by dykes and where tidal influx is 
regulated by the owners, occupy 9,000  ha along 
the lagoon borders. The climate is temperate, with 
a mean annual value of 14.5°C and a mean rainfall 
of 800  mm per year; the excursion during spring 
tide is about 1 m, one of the highest values in the 
F. Scarton: Environmental characteristics of shallow bottoms used by Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus in a northern Adriatic lagoon
163
whole Mediterranean (Solidoro et al. 2010). For 
its ornithological value, being probably the most 
important waterbird wintering site in the Medi-
terranean and one of the most important breeding 
sites in Italy, the whole lagoon was declared a 
Special Protection Area (IT 3250046 Laguna di 
Venezia) in 2007 according to the Birds Directive 
2009/147/EC.
In the Lagoon of Venice, the Greater Flamingo 
regularly uses fish farms and tidal flats for feeding 
and resting; it is quite common to see flocks of 
flamingos commuting between fish farms and the 
lagoon shallow bottoms outside them. In order 
to characterise lagoon bottoms used by Greater 
Flamingos, between January 2014 and June 
2017 I recorded from boats, or vantage points 
along the lagoon borders, the position of Greater 
Flamingo flocks (N = 21; Figure 1) occurring on 
shallow bottoms. Only feeding groups of at least 
ten birds were considered. In a radius of 500  m 
around the estimated position of the flamingos, 
the following biological and morphological data 
were assessed by a geographic information system 
(GIS) platform (Arc-GIS 9.x, ESRI, Redlands, CA) 
and, using recent thematic maps freely available for 
downloading (www.atlantedellalaguna.it): 
 – bathymetry, expressed on the Venice local 
datum; 
 – percentage of area covered with saltmarshes; 
the percentage of area covered with submerged 
aquatic vegetation (Ruppia sp. and Zostera 
noltei) (updated in spring-summer 2017); 
 – mean yearly water salinity; grain size of surface 
sediment, expressed as percentage of sand, silt 
and clay; 
 – distance of the flock from the closest possible 
source of disturbance such as roads, bridges and 
dykes; 
 – distance from the closest navigable channel, i.e. 
deeper than 1 m. 
Hourly tidal levels for the 2016, chosen as a 
reference year for the whole period and measured 
at Venice town tidal gauge, were downloaded from 
the Venice Municipality web site (www.comune.
venezia.it). 
I also collected 31  measurements of FID 
between May 2013 and June 2017 by approaching 
Greater Flamingos, either on foot (N = 10) or by 
boat (N = 21). In the first case, I walked slowly 
at a constant speed through saltmarshes, dredge 
islands and exposed tidal flats towards the birds. 
I then measured the distance between me and the 
birds, as soon as they began to move away; care was 
taken not to cause flamingos to flyaway by ending 
the approach to avoid unnecessary disturbance. 
Distances were estimated using a rangefinder 
Leica Rangemaster LAF 900 (accuracy ± 1  m); 
no observation was made if there were other boats 
or people within 500  m of the targeted birds. 
In the second case, a 7  m fiberglass boat with a 
140-horsepower outboard motor was used; two 
people were always aboard, a driver and the author. 
The boat approached the birds at a speed between 
about 4 and 5  knots, until they began to move 
away. The noise emission from the engine was about 
85 dB(A). The boat used was of the same type as 
that owned by many professional shell fishermen. 
Distance from the birds was measured with the 
rangefinder. Observations always took place 
between 07:00 and 15:00 hours, avoiding foggy or 
rainy days. I visited multiple sites throughout the 
lagoon to avoid problems of bias, habituation and 
autocorrelation in the response of birds (Rodgers 
& Schwikert 2002). Data were not normally 
distributed, nor could they be normalised using 
standard methods. Non-parametric tests were used, 
such as Spearman rank correlation (rs) and Mann-
Whitney tests. Means ± SD are reported for ease of 
interpretation; for the same reason, the regression 
line is shown in the scatterplot. Numerical and 
statistical analyses were performed using the 
software Statistica vers. 7.2. Following Laursen et 
al. (2005), the mean FID plus 2 SD was used as a 
conservative set-back distance. 
3. Results
Statistics for the 21 sites where Greater Flamingos 
were observed are shown in Table 1. The mean depth 
of the feeding sites, not including channels >1 m in 
depth, was about 60 cm below mean sea level; the 
feeding sites thus expand from truly intertidal tidal 
flats to the upper subtidal bottoms. During field 
observations, flamingos were never observed feeding 
on completely emerged tidal flats while, on several 
occasions, the birds were feeding with water at breast 
height. It is estimated that 10 to 60 cm of water 
above the bottom is the preferred range. 
Acrocephalus 38 (174/175):161–169, 2017
164
Considering the mean depth of feeding sites 
in Table 1, the water column range and the tidal 
observations for the year 2016, the potentially 
suitable bottoms are not available (i.e., because 
water is too high or too low) for at least 57% of the 
whole year. 
The feeding sites were all located along the 
western and northern sectors of the Lagoon of 
Venice; lagoon bottoms in the eastern and southern 
sectors are usually deeper, being between −1 m and 
−2 m, thus completely unsuitable for the flamingos 
to feed (Figure 1). Nevertheless, the flamingos 
appeared to use only a part of the whole potentially 
suitable area of shallow bottoms (dark grey in 
Figure 1). 
All 21 feeding sites were in open landscapes, 
with low occurrence of saltmarshes in a radius 
of 500  m; the bottoms were barely covered with 
seagrasses and mostly silty. The flocks were, on 
average 1.2  km from the nearest road, bridge or 
dyke, while the mean distance from channels that 
could be used by boats was about 420  m, with a 
minimum of 150 m. Mean annual water salinity in 
the feeding sites was that of brackish waters, as in 
most of the Lagoon of Venice. 
The mean FID measured was 242 m ± 117 m 
(N = 31, ± 1 SD), with a minimum of 85  m and 
a maximum of 570 m. Birds moved away earlier if 
a boat was approaching (260 m ± 100 m, N = 21) 
instead of a pedestrian (204 m ± 144 m, N = 10), 
but these differences were at the threshold of 
significance (P = 0.07). Larger flocks moved earlier 
than smaller ones, with a highly significant increase 
in FID (Spearman r = 0.68, P < 0.001; Figure 2). 
No correlation was observed between FID values 
and date, expressed as days from 1 Jan (Spearman r 
= 0.25, P >0.05). Using the values of mean FID and 
SD reported above, the resulting set-back distance 
is 465 m. 
4. Discussion 
For a few years, Greater Flamingos have been 
observed regularly in the Lagoon of Venice, 
feeding or resting in the large extensions of shallow 
bottoms. The presence of thousands of Greater 
Flamingos should promote studies dealing with the 
possible effects of intertidal sediment properties 
and biological characteristics on Greater Flamingo 
activity (see for a review Gayet et al. 2012 and 
Gihwala et al. 2017), as well as conservation 
actions aimed at reducing disturbance to the flocks 
occurring in this highly anthropised lagoon. 
The preliminary results presented in this work 
show that the flocks did not use lagoon bottoms 
that emerged during the low tides. Instead, they 
Table 1: Statistics for selected environmental variables of lagoon sites (radius of 500 m; N = 21) used by feeding 
Greater Flamingos Phoenicopterus roseus. SAV – submerged aquatic vegetation.
Tabela 1: Statistika izbranih okoljskih spremenljivk za posamezne lokacije v laguni (polmer 500 m; N = 21), kjer so 
se prehranjevali plamenci Phoenicopterus roseus. SAV – potopljeno vodno rastlinje
 
Depth 
below 
sea level/ 
Globina 
pod 
morsko 
gladino
Saltmarsh 
area / 
Površina 
slanih 
travnikov SAV
Sand/ 
Pesek
Clay/ 
Ilovica
Silt/ 
Mulj
Salinity/
Slanost
Distance 
from 
roads and 
bridges/ 
Razdalja 
do cest in 
mostov 
(m)
Distance 
from 
channel 
>1 m 
deep (m)/ 
Razdalja 
do kanalov, 
globljih od 
1 m (m) % % % % % ppt
Mean -0.64 13.9 3.8 12.3 21.1 66.5 28.7 1156 416
Min -1.12 0 0 2 10.4 34.1 23.5 150 170
Max -0.41 46.3 50 55.4 33.8 76.1 32.4 2600 1200
SD 0.18 14.6 12.4 12.1 4.6 9.8 2.1 744 230
F. Scarton: Environmental characteristics of shallow bottoms used by Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus in a northern Adriatic lagoon
165
used the still submerged sites, with an estimated 
water column of between 10 and 60 cm. This range 
agrees with results from other Mediterranean 
wetlands, as in southern Tunisia (Boukhriss et al. 
2007). 
During the frequent field surveys I have made 
over the last years, I observed flamingos leaving the 
intertidal sites when water became too high, due to 
the incoming tide, or when it was too low, due to 
the receding tides. Birds were then flying towards 
the privately-owned fish farms, where water levels 
are strictly regulated by the owners and are far 
less variable than those outside. In the Lagoon of 
Venice, fish farms host the majority, about 80%, of 
wintering birds, at least during daytime when IWC 
counts are carried out (Scarton & Bon 2009). 
These anthropogenic wetlands also hosted a similar 
percentage of the breeding population estimated in 
the whole lagoon in 2012–2014, for 26 waterbird 
species (Scarton 2017). Fish farms along the NW 
Adriatic coasts are used intensively for hunting, 
during a few days per week; outside the hunting 
season (August–January) the overall disturbance 
is low. As observed elsewhere for other man-made 
wetlands (Fasola & Ruiz 1996, Ramírez et al. 
Figure 1: Location of sites where Greater Flamingo 
Phoenicopterus roseus feeding flocks were recorded 
(white dots): in dark grey the area of shallow bottoms 
between 0 and –1 m below sea level 
Slika 1: Lokacije, kjer so bile zabeležene jate plamencev 
Phoenicopterus roseus med prehranjevanjem (bele pike). 
S temno sivo so označene plitvine med 0 in 1 m pod 
morsko gladino
Figure 2: Flight initiation distance (m) versus flock size: response to disturbance caused by a pedestrian (square) or 
a boat (circle)
Slika 2: Ubežna razdalja (m) glede na velikost jat: motnja s strani pešca (kvadrat) ali plovila (krog)
Fl
ig
ht
 in
iti
at
io
n 
di
st
an
ce
 / 
U
be
žn
a 
ra
zd
al
ja
 (m
)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
No. of birds / Št. ptic
Acrocephalus 38 (174/175): 161–169, 2017
166
2012), the NW Adriatic fish farms probably play an 
important role as alternative feeding, resting and 
nesting habitats for waterbirds; nevertheless, more 
detailed studies are needed to elucidate this topic. 
The sites used by the Greater Flamingos had 
scarce seagrass coverage, as for most tidal flats and 
part of the shallow bottoms occurring in the Lagoon 
of Venice. Here, the denser and larger seagrass beds 
can be found either in deeper bottoms or along 
channels, on the margin between the channels and 
the adjacent tidal flats. The former is not suitable for 
Greater Flamingos due to its excessive depth, while 
the second is probably too close to the navigation 
channels, that are frequently used by boats. It 
is likely that Greater Flamingos avoid shallow 
bottoms close to the channels for this reason, 
although these bottoms are in principle suitable 
as feeding habitats. Disentangling the effects of 
tides from those of man-made disturbance is thus 
another topic for study. Moreover, other landscape 
characteristics are known to affect the occurrence 
of feeding Greater Flamingos, such as openness of 
the site, presence of wooded margins and distance 
to natural marshes (Tourenq et al. 2011) and 
should be investigated for a better understanding 
of the ecology of this species in the North Adriatic. 
Disturbance to waterbirds, including flamingos, 
due to boats used for birdwatching tours has been 
studied in Spain, South Africa, and South America 
(Galicia & Baldassare 1997, McFadden et al. 
2017, De Blocq Van Scheltinga 2017). All the 
studies found negative effects, i.e. displacement of 
birds occurring near the channels used by boats. 
As reported in Galicia & Baldassarre (1997), 
the Greater Flamingo has a feeding time exceeding 
50% of the whole day; thus, disturbance made from 
boats could reduce its feeding time in tidal flats, 
forcing birds to leave what are otherwise suitable 
feeding habitats. The impact of boat traffic on 
Greater Flamingos and on other waterbirds that 
use tidal flats is virtually unknown in northern 
Adriatic wetlands; the first data about FID in 
six species of non-breeding waders presented in a 
recent study failed to observe differences between 
boat and pedestrian disturbance (own data).
The possible impact of clam harvesting on 
Greater Flamingo feeding also deserves attention. 
It must be noted that, at other coastal sites, the 
species did not appear to be disturbed by clam 
collectors walking on tidal flats, as was reported 
by Hamza & Selmi (2015) for the Gulf of Gabes, 
Tunisia, or by Khaleghizadeh (2010) for the 
Bandar Abbas coast, Iran, where flamingos allowed 
people to approach to about 50  m. Nevertheless, 
in the Lagoon of Venice the professional clam 
harvesting is carried out mostly using boats, which 
navigate not only through the deep channels but in 
the large shallow bottoms as well. Given the high 
gregariousness of the species and the population 
size of flamingos in the Lagoon of Venice, even a 
single event of disturbance can force a significant 
proportion of the birds present in the whole lagoon 
to abandon their feeding sites.
Disturbance to waterbirds caused by roads 
and other man-made structures have been studied 
elsewhere (Burton et al. 2002, Godinho et al. 
2017), but there appears to be nothing specific to 
Greater Flamingo, apart from a paper by Yosef 
(2000), who showed that birds were disturbed 
more by all-terrain vehicles than by joggers. The 
observations of flocks presented here, from two long 
bridges with intensive traffic that crosses the lagoon, 
were always at a distance of at least 150 m, despite 
the shallow bottoms having similar morphological 
characteristics closer to the bridges. It is thus likely 
that, in my study site, Greater Flamingo did not 
feed at less than 150 from car traffic. 
Overall, the FID measurements made in this 
study indicate that about 250 m is the distance at 
which birds begin to react, by moving away, to the 
occurrence of boats or pedestrians. The finding that 
larger flocks have larger FIDs than smaller groups 
or than single birds is certainly not a novelty, 
explained with the effects of many eyes scanning 
for predators (Møller 2015); moreover, large 
flamingo flocks are more likely made by a greater 
proportion of adults, which are more vigilant than 
young (Boukriss et al. 2007). The increase in FID 
observed here may have important consequences 
for conservation measures, indicating that large 
flocks should be regarded as particularly prone to 
disturbance. Few data on FID are available in the 
literature. Only for related flamingo species did 
Coetzer & Bouwman (2017) report a mean FID 
of 157 m for the Lesser Flamingo P. minor, while 
Galicia & Baldassare (1997) reported American 
Flamingos P. ruber ruber (now P. ruber) flying in 
response to boat disturbance of between 50 and 
F. Scarton: Environmental characteristics of shallow bottoms used by Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus in a northern Adriatic lagoon
167
100  m. Both these values are much smaller than 
those observed in the Lagoon of Venice, which may 
indicate lower habituation to human disturbance 
in the latter site. 
The adoption of new rules, that include the 
duty to maintain a distance of at least 400  m 
from flamingo flocks, is thus recommended in 
the Lagoon of Venice and, probably, at other 
northern Adriatic wetlands. At the same time, an 
information campaign among the many people 
who use boats for leisure (anglers, hunters) or work 
(tourist and goods transport boat pilots) should 
also be launched to increase awareness about the 
possible direct and indirect effects of the boat traffic 
on the Greater Flamingo and other waterbirds. 
Acknowledgments
The Associazione Sagittaria kindly provided 
unpublished data for the Po Delta, as did the 
Regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Associazione 
Astore for the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. The 
colleagues, E. Checchin, D. Longo and A. Pierini, 
helped in the fieldwork or with data analysis. 
An anonymous referee greatly improved the 
manuscript.
Povzetek
Od začetka tega stoletja se jate plamencev 
Phoenicopterus roseus redno prehranjujejo v 
plitvinah Beneške lagune (SV Italija), največje 
sredozemske lagune. Tisoči osebkov se tam 
zadržujejo vse leto. Med letoma 2013 in 2017 sem 
zbiral podatke o okoljskih značilnostih plitvin, kjer 
se jate prehranjujejo in meril ubežne razdalje jat 
pred pešci in plovili. Plamenci so se prehranjevali 
v plitvinah, kjer je bila višina vode 10–60 cm. Vsa 
prehranjevališča so bila v odprti krajini z majhnim 
deležem slanih travnikov v polmeru 500  m; dno 
je bilo večinoma muljasto, z majhnim deležem 
pokritosti z algami (< 4 % površin). Jate so bile 
v povprečju 1,2  km oddaljene od najbližje ceste 
oziroma nasipa, povprečna razdalja od plovnih 
kanalov pa je bila 420  m. Povprečna ubežna 
razdalja pred ladjami ali plovili je bila 241 ± 117 m 
(N = 31, ± 1 SD), brez pomembnih razlik med 
obema viroma motenj. Na prisotnost plamencev 
vpliva predvsem bibavica, verjetno pa so motnje s 
strani plovil dodaten dejavnik. Glede na izmerjene 
ubežne razdalje svetujem določitev razdalje 465 m 
kot prag za zmanjševanje motenj s strani pešcev in 
plovil.
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Prispelo / Arrived: 6. 11. 2017
Sprejeto / Accepted: 2. 12. 2017
Acrocephalus 38 (174/175): 161–169, 2017