I couldn't tell you exactly how many flamingos winter now in Morocco but in the early 2000s, the local census found a wintering population of around 8000 individuals (might be a bit less than the actual number as a they did not prospect every water body of the country obviously). As for breeding, Greater flamingo is listed as an extirpated breeder here, though I do not know when it last bred in Morocco nor where (but if I had to guess it would probably be in Northern Morocco).
Thank you for answer. I was hoping that there would be some little known colony.
Regarding past breeding in Morocco, I found this piece which looks like mangled French text.
"La dcou- verte dun site de nidification au Maroc dans la dpression de lIriki (PANOUSE, 1958) o la repro- duction eut lieu plusieurs reprises (ROBIN, 1966, 1968) prit fin suite la construction dun barrage sur loued Draa qui alimentait la dpression."
@Jana Thanks for the research, that's some interesting information!
Yes indeed, it is mangled French but it basically says that a nidification site was found in the Iriki depression where reproduction happened multiple times before a dam was built on Oued Draa and all reproduction stopped as Oued Draa was the water source of said depression.
A true shame but not the first time that constructing a dam affects Moroccan wildlife negatively sadly. Very interesting that of all places in Morocco, flamingos chose Iriki (a very dry region with only seasonal lakes now) to breed!
@Jana Great news as Greater flamingos have restarted breeding in Morocco for the first time in 52 years! And even more fittingly, the location where they are breeding now is the Khnifiss lagoon, which is where I took this picture.
