Flamingos are such stunning, elegant, and unusual birds. I have seen them at zoos and in the wild and am fascinated by their exotic beauty and stunning colors, orange feathers and clashing pink feet, as if they had been dressed by Queer Eye for the Gay Guy.
It wasn't until recently during our last trip to Florida that I realized that full grown flamingos are actually quite large. They are as tall as me and I stand 5'5"! If they come up close to you, as this one did, they can look you right in the eye. I was standing on the sidewalk and this fellow below came up behind me and as I turned instinctively, I saw a determined prance as he continued to walk right up to me, face to face, expecting a handout of food. He clearly had been panhandling a long time and was not shy. This was somewhat intimidating to me even though they are gentle old souls when they caress your palm with their bill and they seem to have that exotic Avatar eye thing going on. Click on the photo if you are brave enough and pass me that bag of bird food.
I didn't know they got that tall either. Nice pictures.
ReplyDeletethey are beautiful...yet another thing i miss about florida. we used to get all the long legged birds walking through our yard...
ReplyDeleteWow, wouldn't I love to add some of those birds to my flock!
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of pushy birds. The nerve.
ReplyDeleteI've seen them in the wild once (in Cuba) but not anywhere near as close as this. Fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea! They are stunning just the same.
ReplyDeleteOh how beautiful. I had no idea that they were this tall either. I'd love to see one eye to eye.. and I'd be happy to give him a handout. :)
ReplyDeleteOnly ones I have seen were in a zoo and they didn't look like they were nearly this tall.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, they are stunning, and that last image could be the take-off point for a painting, a sculpture, a poem... so many things. A fine post, indeed. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWhat amazing creatures - obviously straight out of Someone's imagination.
ReplyDeleteLovely glamourous birds who seem proud of their beauty. I had a wonderful peacock that come visiting for three days to my garden last year, such colours! - your photos are just suberb - I enjoyed looking closely at this very fine specimen with the piercing eyes thank you. A wonderful post!
ReplyDeleteoooh pretty even though they do scare me a little.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, charming, thanks for the introduction!
ReplyDeleteFlamingos are such amazing caricatures of birds. Especially to those of us here in the north who do not know them intimately. I wonder if they know and feel how brilliant they look. Does it give them the confidence for that 'determined prance'?
ReplyDeletewhat a beautiful bird...don't think i've ever seen one this close up! i was surprised to hear you talk about how gentle they were...made me think of how brave you were to let one of them come up on you like you did!! i have to tell you that i'm going to look at them differently when i'm at the zoo, especially after reading this...thanks!
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