The flamingo stands straight and tall,
A pretty bird well known to all.
Fiery red or subtle pink,
This colour to it’s food does link.
Pigments from plankton, algae and brine shrimp,
Help this bird it’s feathers primp.
Flamingos without this are grey or white,
The colour fades, yes very light.
Six species there are including the Greater,
Each species to their own needs do cater.
The feathers under their wings are black,
You’ll see this in flight or when their wings are back.
The flamingo as an omnivore eats,
Anything it finds as it’s treats.
It holds it’s head upside down,
And sieves through water sometimes brown.
The lamellae on it’s curved beak,
Catches all the food that he could seek.
The flamingo chick gets fed crop milk,
It’s fluffy down as soft as silk.
Both mum and dad the baby feed,
And help him with his every need.
A flamingo pair will be for life,
Just as though husband and wife.
A nest they build, each year a single egg lay,
Both will sit and here will stay.
Until the chick does hatch and grow,
They ways of life him they will show.
He will be grey for a couple of years,
But soon enough that pink now peers,
His straight beak will curve as he ages,
These changes happen in small stages.
Flamingo’s live in colonies or flocks,
In lagoons, swamps, flats or by the docks.
In larger numbers they will thrive.
In height they grow three feet or five.
They weigh five pounds but up to eight,
They stand up tall, so very straight.
On just one leg they can have a sleep,
By swapping legs their warmth they keep.
It look as though backwards his knee does bend,
But that’s his ankle, his knees ascend.
Their out of sight, on the leg up higher.
You cannot see the leg entire.
Flamingos can live for a very long time,
Thirty years is still their prime.
These birds are beautiful, to be admired,
Yet sometimes protection is required.
Some humans steal their eggs or hunt,
Or of a natural disaster they’ll bear the brunt.
This does their numbers drop quite low,
To rebuild the colony can be quite slow.
Do what you can to help preserve
Their natural habitat and reserve.
Poem by Sourcherry
Photographs from Pixabay
