This huge pink bird is beautiful in flight, and picturesque with the flocks standing knee-deep in salt marshes. Up close, though, the head and beak seem too heavy for the long, graceful neck. Flying, it looks like a stick with wings.
The flamingo appears all-over pale pink while standing. It's a lot more colorful when it take off, though; the wings are black along the outer and trailing edges, and dark pink forward.
The thick, curved beak is practical, designed to sieve animal and vegetable food from shallow water. In flight, the neck and feet stretch far out before and behind the slender body and flapping wings, and the curved beak help distinugish the flamingo from storks or geese. The flamingo's loud honking in flight is very similar to the sound of a goose.
Habitat
This pink flamingo likes any shallow-water lakes, ponds or protected inlets of the Mediterranean, and can often be found along the coast of Spain and southwestern France. It can be most readily seen in the Camargue
(map), the only place in France where it nests.
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Photo gallery of 5 photos for Flamingo
