THE PINK FLAMINGO DANCE

June 16, 2009 10:36 AM EDT (Updated: June 17, 2009 09:10 AM EDT)

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This one is for the kids. Please share with them. (Words & Photos by Robert B.)

Dance of the Pink Flamingo

(a Kids' Zoo page)

Last night I dreamed of a Pink Flamingo

With a long, long neck and skinny legs

I asked her where she had come from

She looked at me and said 'The Everglades"

She told me that her name was 'Hilda'

And she could only stay a little while

She wanted to say hi to all the children

And see if she could make them smile

She brought with her, her cousin Michael

Sister Lulu and old Brother Tom

In fact she brought many more Flamingoes

And they all danced across my lawn

You can dance like a Pink Flamingo

Just stand on one leg and shake your head

Flap your arms like they were feathers

And at night fly off to bed.

The Flamingo:

Have you ever seen a flamingo?

If you haven't seen a real one you may have seen a fake plastic one. A lot of people like to keep plastic flamingoes as lawn ornaments. There are five species of flamingoes: Andean, Chilean, James, Greater Flamingo and Lesser Flamingo.

The most common flamingo is the 'Lesser Flamingo' of Africa and Asia and grows to be about 2 ½ feet high and weighs about 5 pounds. The flamingos of Florida, Mexico, and Latin America are called the 'Greater Flamingo' or 'Caribbean Flamingo'. The Greater Flamingo can grow as tall as 4 ½ feet and weigh up to 8 pounds. The Greater Flamingo is the only flamingo found naturally in the United States with most of them living in South Florida. Finally, the Chilean, Andean and James Flamingoes live high up in the mountains of South America near saltwater lakes.

Flamingoes are unique because they like to live in salty water that is found in marshes and swamps because that is where they find the shrimp and other small aquatic animals that they eat but they cannot drink the salty water so they have to travel to nearby freshwater everyday. They use their beaks to catch their food and to filter out any saltwater before eating. It is the flamingo's diet that makes its feathers pink. The color comes from natural dyes, called pigments, in the food that they eat. Scientists discovered this curious fact after flamingoes in a zoo were given a different diet then what they normally eat and their feathers turned white!

Flamingoes are often seen in flocks of 1000 or more birds, standing on one leg and preening themselves by using their long necks and beaks. But they do fly. The Greater Flamingo's wingspan is almost 5 1/2 feet. They can fly approximately 370 miles non-stop at an average speed of 37 miles per hour. They prefer to fly during the day, in cloudless skies and at very high distances above the earth. Flamingoes fly like this because they are not very agile flyers. They cannot dip and turn suddenly like smaller birds so if they didn't fly high or if they flew at night, they would make easy targets for birds of prey.

There are many flamingoes in zoos and in the wild. They are not endangered and should be around for our enjoyment for a very long time.

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Tags: zoo books, animals, birds, flamingo, poetry, childrens book, save the creatures, wildlife photography, outdoor photography, florida, nc zoo, zoos, journal entry