The American Flamingo is the only flamingo distributed through the Caribbean Sea, the northern coasts of South America, and on the Galapagos. It was formerly considered conspecific with the Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) of the Old World. Like other flamingos, it feeds in saline and brackish lagoons by straining water through the lamellae on its unique bill and swallowing the invertebrate organisms trapped inside. The American tends to feed somewhat deeper than other flamingos, with the head and often much of the neck submerged. While most populations build mud nests in large colonies on mudflats or islands, the birds on the Galapagos nest on piles of stones and debris in small clusters on bare, rocky islands.