Whatever happened to the row of yards filled with unseemly plastic pink flamingos or as extremely smart people call them phoenicopterus plasticus (I didn't make that up)? Even as a child, I thought why, what's the motivation for putting fabricated pink birds on one's front lawn?
I decided to find the culprit who invented these eyesores, Don Featherstone (should his name be featherplastic) invented the bird in the 50's and currently, production persists.
Wikipedia states that sales are increasing, which insinuates that actual human beings on perceiving them in a store, generated a conscious decision to purchase the said items and import the birds home to their final resting place.
Consequently, these tawdry beauties might ultimately adorn the lawns of Mars in the distant future.
The number of birds that appear pink can be counted on one hand (plus one finger from the other hand--six in all). Most of these breeds exhibit a patch of pink, nestled among more prominent colors.
Flamingos are unique in almost their entire appearance presents pink. The non-pink parts display their gray legs with pink patches that appear as tiny knee guards (if flamingos had knees) and a cute black beak. The old overused saying, "you are what you eat" appears apt for the flamingos as their diet (they eat assorted algae) contributes to the color of their feathers.
Both of the parents affirm how nurturing and loving birds appear as they provide excellent care of their little one (they always lay one egg at a time). Flamingos love to watch their eggs hatch, even when the chick gets older one of the parent's heads appears at eye level with their loved one.
Birds are strange, as some love their chicks, and some abandon them at birth, and some defer the burden of raising their young laying their eggs in unknown bird nests.
As a parent, I feel the most regard for birds that contain the human quality of nurturing their young, but there isn't a right or wrong way in the bird world, it 's just the nature of the beast.
Factsorama:
1. They feel at home over two miles above or right at sea level.
2. They stand on one leg to keep their body heat from escaping.
3.In Spanish, they're called Flamenco Chileno.
4.Even though they filter food from seawater through their beaks, they must have fresh water to drink.
5. They can live up to fifty years.
6. Both parents feed their young regurgitated milk, which quality appears similar to the milk of a mammal.
7. At one time, they were killed for their tongues, allowing people to show off their riches by providing this delicacy at their dinner tables.
8. Flamingos have endured our earth for fifty million years--humans have existed for two hundred thousand years.
9. The Chilean Flamingo is nearly threatened, which means that trouble looms ahead in the form of extinction, in the near future. An organization that wants to preserve these birds and make sure they don't become endangered appears at the end of this article.
10. Number ten doesn't exist, but my OCD will cause anxiety if I leave it at nine.
http://www.zcog.org/#!chilean-flamingo/c24ny
This first video isn't about Chilean Flamingos, but it shows the love of the parents.
