The pink flamingo is the emblem of the Camargue, and the delta is the one place in France where it breeds in numbers — thousands of pairs nesting on the salt lagoons each spring. There is nowhere easier to see them up close than the Parc ornithologique du Pont de Gau, a reserve of marsh and path just north of Saintes-Maries.
I. The bird reserve
The Parc ornithologique lays paths and hides across sixty hectares of the marshes, and the flamingos stand a few metres off — feeding head-down, squabbling, lifting off in pink and black when something startles them. Herons, egrets and ducks share the water; in spring and autumn the migration brings far more besides. Go at opening, before the warmth and the crowds.
“A thousand flamingos lifting at once, pink and black against a flat grey dawn.”
II. Why they are pink
The flamingo is born grey and turns pink on its food — the tiny brine shrimp and algae of the salt lagoons, rich in the pigments that colour the feathers. The saltier and shallower the water, the better they feed, which is why the delta’s salt pans and lagoons suit them so exactly. The colour is, quite literally, the taste of the Camargue.
III. Beyond the reserve
The wild colonies are out on the closed lagoons of the central delta, where the birds are left in peace; the reserve is how you see them without disturbing them. Pair it with the Digue à la mer sea wall and the lagoons along the coast road, and you have the whole bird life of the delta in a morning.
