 of South Africa and Zimbabwe keep captive flamingos for the purpose of harvesting this milk. This practice is rarely seen today.
Classification Confusion: The identity of the closest relatives of the flamingos has long been somewhat mysterious. Traditionally, the long-legged waders of the Ciconiiformes, a most likely paraphyletic assemblage, have been considered the flamingo's closest relatives and the family was included in the order.
Usually the spoonbills and ibises of the Threskiornithidae were considered their closest relatives within this order. Nevertheless, relationships to the Anseriformes were considered
To reflect the uncertainty about this matter, flamingos began to be placed in their own order later on.
Some scientists proposed flamingos as waders most closely related to the stilts and avocets, Recurvirostridae.
Good Grebes: In recent years, DNA-studies have had unsuspected results: Sibley & Monroe placed flamingos within their huge Ciconiiformes. More recently, however, time and time again it has been the grebes Podicipedidae rather then long-legged waders, ducks or stilts that were indicated as the closest relatives of flamingos in DNA-studies. Whether the two families will be placed in a order together or retained as different orders is uncertain at the moment,however.
Clarity at Last? In a 2005 study that is likely to turn avian systematics upside down once again, the Neoaves, consisting of all living birds except the ratites, tinamous, waterfowl and Galliformes, were shown to be divided into two subgroups of uneven size. The first and smallest, Metaves contains flamingos and grebes,alongside the hoatzin, pigeons, sand grouse, the paraphyletic Caprimulgiformes, the Apodiformes, tropic birds, mesites, sunbittern and kagu. Interestingly, most of these groups have traditionally been difficult to place on the family tree of birds. According to this study, all other birds belong to the second subgroup of Neoaves, the Coronaves.
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