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JaneyZee's Flamingo Pages
The Real Thing
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There are many sites on the Internet dedicated to the flamingo, not just the collectible ones, but the real live ones out in nature. You can find them in zoos, out in the wild, and even near the French Riviera!
Some great information can be found on the Planet Flamingo pages, along with some very interesting and unusual pictures. On that page, I learned that the coloration and the brightness of their feathers is due to their diet. Silly me, I always thought they were pink just because they were! More flamingo information can be found at BigZoo.com. Speaking of zoos, whenever I visit a zoo or any park where there are flamingos, I just have to take pictures. They are always so pretty, standing side by side, in various poses, that I can't resist capturing them on film.
The best thing about loving flamingos is that I'm not alone! I have met a wonderful bunch of ladies on Flamingo Fanny's Forum and, in October of 2002, eleven of us met in Venice, Florida, for a wild "pink" weekend. We wore our boa feathers to the Sarasota Jungle Gardens and visited with the real birds. I got to feed one which was the highlight of the day for me.
Of course we had to take a few shots of our mascots with the real birds, and pictures of each of us in front of the flock, plus lots of other great shots. Several of the girls posted their pictures in their Webshots for the whole group to see. Cindy took a few that are picture postcard quality. Carol took some great ones too, and I especially liked one of the close-ups. It's so good I feel I could reach out and touch the fluffy feathers.
We visited Busch Gardens in September, 2001, and saw two separate groups of flamingos. The first could be seen hiding behind the bushes as we bounced along the trails of the Rhino Rally ride. The next group we encountered was at the end of the day as we relaxed in front of the Caribbean flamingo exhibit. We enjoyed watching these fascinating creatures as they fed, strutted, socialized and even chased each other around the grounds. Below are several of the pictures showing how entertaining these birds can be by just being themselves.
Above are just a few of the poses we saw while watching the flamingos.
There were a few ruffled feathers on the birds seen in the picture on the left, above,and we heard quite a bit of "honking" going on in this group. I guess it must have been gossip hour!
I think my favorite scene is the one where those two flamingos above decided to chase each other across the lawn. I'm not sure what prompted this activity but we sure enjoyed watching the race. It was so entertaining watching them that I hated to leave, but the gates were going to close so we said good-bye to this beautiful bunch of birds.
I made one of my Busch Gardens pictures into a jigsaw puzzle on the JigZone site so if you want a challenge, zip on over there and put the pink birds back together.
Another flamingo encounter was during our 10th anniversary trip to Las Vegas in 2000 when we went to the Flamingo Hotel on the strip to view the flock of Chilean flamingos in their wildlife habitat. It was dusk when we arrived so the pictures came out a little hazy but you can still see the colorful gathering of birds. The flamingo on the top left posed just like a certain pink plastic flamingo who resides in my backyard and the one on the right was strutting thru the crowd. There were lots of other birds in the habitat plus a penguin exhibit. Quite a mixture of feathered creatures!
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This is a shot taken at the San Diego Zoo in 1990, while we were on our honeymoon.
I've also run into these birds at Sea World in Orlando. The ones on the left are the real ones and the ones on the right (with the exception of me, the silly human, in similar sneakers and sunglasses) are plastic!
PARROT JUNGLE in MIAMI
The original Parrot Jungle in Miami was a wonderful place to see many types of birds, not just flamingos. They had a very nice area called Flamingo Lake where a flock of Caribbean flamingos roamed free. They closed down that park in November of 2002 and are now reopened as Parrot Jungle Island. While visiting their new location on Watson Island, if you get hungry after visiting all the birds, you can dine while watching the flock of flamingos. Any meal would be great in the company of those gorgeous pink birds.
The two pictures below show some flamingos strutting and preening in various poses (on the left) and another part of the flock fast asleep, heads tucked under (on the right).
My northern friends were inspired to put some pink flamingos in their backyard among their garden greenery (picture on the right). They are affectionately known as Ozzie and Harriet and my friend Lynne can see them through the window while she is in her kitchen. Her husband Tony moved them to the front of the house but Lynne missed seeing them while doing dishes so he moved them back. On a recent visit to the Akron Zoological Park they saw Ozzie and Harriet's "cousins" on exhibit. In the picture on the left you can see that one of them was a little lazy, he was sitting down on the job! I thought that picture was priceless.
Here are two from the Cleveland Zoo, taken many years ago, probably in the early 80's. One shows that flamingos make friends easily with all winged creatures, even penguins, another one of my favorite birds. The other is a group shot, taken from afar.
please feel free to visit all of my other flamingo pages:
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