In the greater flamingo (Phœnicopterus roseus), both males and females have an incubator plate that allows them to incubate their single egg in turn for 29 days. It consists of an area of ventral skin that loses its feathers and whose capillary blood network is activated when nesting. The egg is thus directly in contact with the parental heat in the shelter of its cylindrical nest of mud, clay, and sand, which forms an 11.8 to 15.7 in (30 to 40 cm) high rampart surrounded by a ditch.