As of today, peak season now, through ~August 15. Earth Exhibit tracks the live conditions and flags it the moment it is on.
On the salt-rimmed islands of Lake Tengiz, deep in the Kazakh steppe southwest of Astana, sits the most northerly breeding colony of greater flamingos in the world.
Each spring the birds arrive across thousands of kilometres to gather on this shallow, hypersaline lake within the Korgalzhyn Nature Reserve, part of the UNESCO-listed Saryarka wetlands.
By summer the mud islands carry a shifting mass of pink and white, with numbers reaching tens of thousands of individuals and, in strong years, many thousands of breeding pairs raising chicks on the salt flats.
That flamingos nest this far north at all is a quiet marvel: their brine-shrimp diet and the lake's extreme salinity create a productive, predator-poor refuge on an otherwise austere grassland sea.
The colony shares the reserve with pelicans, saiga antelope and great clouds of migrating waterbirds.
Because the breeding islands are remote and protected, viewing is typically distant, through scopes and binoculars from the lake's edges, which keeps the colony undisturbed.
Where to see it
A taste of where to see it. The full map, exact coordinates and the best timing for each spot live in the app.
| Viewing spots |
|---|
| Lake Tengiz Flamingo Islands (Korgalzhyn Reserve) |
This is the short version
This page shows a taste. The app has the full list of where to see this, the exact timing, and live conditions for 1,000+ natural phenomena worldwide, so you know the moment one is genuinely worth the trip.