A GROUP of flamingo chicks have hatched at a Borders conservation centre.

News of the arrival of the Chilean flamingo flock was confirmed by Bird Gardens Scotland.

The newborns will form part of a new visitor attraction in Oxton, near Lauder.

The chicks hatched from eggs laid by the established Chilean flamingo flock at Chester Zoo.

The flock at Chester had a breeding success earlier in the summer, leading to a number of surplus eggs.

The eggs in question were incubated by the Bird Section in Chester prior to being carefully transported to Bird Gardens Scotland in Oxton, to hatch.

Its not been confirmed how many chicks there are.

Following on from hatching, the eggs will take 30 days to develop into healthy flamingo chicks, also known as flaminglings.

Mark Haillay of Bird Gardens Scotland said: “It’s an incredible moment when you first hear a flamingo egg grunt at you and you know that within 48 hours there will be a chick asleep, resting after its epic journey from inside the egg out into the world.”

Like many other types of bird, flaminglings have an egg-tooth on the tip of their beak which they use to gradually scratch and chip away at the shell creating an opening large enough for them to wriggle free of the shell and out into the world.

The flaminglings will be hand reared in Oxton, fed every two hours round the clock with a specialist liquidised diet fed through a syringe.

This mimics the beak-to-beak feeding which would occur in parent reared birds; parent flamingos produce a rich saliva (which is also pink) and dribble this into the chick’s beak providing all the water, nutrients and energy they need to grow and stay healthy.

Mark added: “It’s incredibly exciting to think these little balls of grey fluff will grow to be majestic flamingos. Rearing flaminglings is hard work - it takes the energy of both parent flamingos to rear just one chick. We’re hoping to rear more than ten chicks each year from surplus eggs.”

Bird Gardens Scotland was established in 2017 and is developing into a unique visitor attraction outside Oxton.

Planning Permission was granted earlier this year to create a Visitor Centre which will welcome visitors, provide an opportunity for people to learn about the birds we work with and enjoy coffee and cake at the attraction.