Sunday, July 24, 2005
Everything You Need to Know...
...and more
Here's an interesting article from the Ogden (UT) Standard Examiner that Bird highly recommends as a primer on his favorite subject.
Those flashy flamingos, after losing favor in the '60s and '70s, are back
Nothing like a flamingo to put us in the pink.
They're the icon of summer, these stately birds of bright color and stilty legs. And no one will dispute their decades-long reign as kings and queens of American lawn art.
A classic? Oh yes, some would say. Tacky and tasteless? Ohhh yes, others argue.
Yet there's a fascination to flamingos, be they molded of plastic or fashioned into authentic living birds.
Utah -- a land far removed from ocean waves, sandy beaches and tropical plants -- even boasts a famous flamingo all its own.
Pink Floyd is his name, the Great Salt Lake his claim to fame. Floyd's been hanging out along the lake's salty shores every winter since 1988 when he escaped from Tracy Aviary. Today, in the prime of summer, we pay tribute to this season's quintessential symbol. Time to learn more about this shrimp-eatin', wing-flappin', foot-stompin' bird.
What's in a name?
The greater flamingo is known to scientists as Phoenicopterus ruber roseus. The fake birds are commonly called "Phoenicopteris ruber plasticus," a label bestowed by inventor Don Featherstone.
Who's who?
Real flamingos are the ones with rosy black-tipped feathers, yellow eyes and legs longer than their bodies. There are five species.
Our lawn-loving friends are distinguished by rigid pink wings molded tight against their plastic bodies. Also look for metal legs -- the better to stick the birds into the ground -- and sometimes the authentic signature of the creator stamped on the rump.
Where do flamingos come from?
Living ones come from eggs, like all good birds. Flamingos lay a single egg atop a cone-shaped mound; both parents care for the egg for 30 days until it hatches.
The plastic flamingo was born at Union Products, Inc., of Massachusetts, during the 1950s. Young designer Featherstone -- was that name an omen? -- used National Geographic photos to create a clay flamingo sculpture and then a plaster cast for the lawn ornament.
Where do they hang out?
In the wild, flamingos prefer salty or alkaline lakes and lagoons with plenty of mud and water. They may live inland or near the ocean and are found in the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, India and South America. Utah has a new flock of Chilean flamingos at Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City, part of the recently opened Destination Argentina! exhibit.
As for the faux birds, you'll see them strutting across lawns or through gardens all over the Top of Utah, including Diane Belvedere's front yard in Riverdale.
"They're just different," says Belvedere, who has six long-legged birds posed among her petunias and marigolds. "People know where I live; it's the house with the flamingos."
What color are flamingos?
Pink, pinker and very pink. Caribbean flamingos are the brightest; Chilean birds are pale in color.
The hallmark lawn flamingo is hot pink as well, although some birds fade after too much fun in the sun. Other plastic colors are available, including blue or white, known as a "snomingo."
Why pink?
Real flamingos eat foods high in carotene, which make their feathers turn pink. On the menu are mollusks, algae and brine shrimp.
At Tracy Aviary, the flamingos get special pellets with carotene-like additives, says Jennifer Evans, aviculturist and intern coordinator. Zoos learned the hard way -- when captive birds turned white -- about flamingos' dietary needs, Evans says.
It was only natural that man-made flamingos would copy the color of real birds, but the new-fangled plastics of the 1950s also lent themselves to bold, bright colors such as vivid green.
Why do flamingos stand on one leg?
Sometimes, they just want to keep their leg and foot warm by pulling it up under their feathers, says Evans. Or it's also a way for the birds to rest their legs, she says, a benefit since standing up is always safer for wild critters than lying down.
As for those plastic flamingos, standing on one foot is all part of the attitude.
How big are flamingos?
From 2 1/2 feet to nearly 5 feet tall, depending on the species. The largest ones have wingspans of 55 to 65 inches. Yet these big birds weigh only 6 to 8 pounds due to all of those hollow bones and feathers.
Our plastic pals generally stand 2 to 3 feet tall, although you may see some baby birds under 12 inches high skittering about.
Why do their "knees" bend backward?
That visible joint on the flamingo's leg is actually an ankle, says Evans, and it's supposed to bend that way. Most of the time, the birds are actually walking on tiptoe; when they bend their ankle, or hock, they are standing on their whole foot instead of the toes.
Flamingos do have knees, Evans says, but you can't see them because they are high up the leg, under the feathers.
Most fake flamingos have straight legs, an adaptation to ensure sturdiness for the rigors of suburban life.
Do they eat upside down?
That they do. Real flamingos stick their heads into the water upside down and use their curved-under beaks to slurp up water. The beak has serrated edges that strain the food out of the water, similar to the technique whales use, Evans says.
A flock of plastic flamingos generally includes some feeding birds with graceful necks bent down to the ground, sans the head contortions of their living counterparts.
What's a group of flamingos called?
A colony, if you're talking about real ones. On the ornamental side, you've got a charming display of folk art -- or an eyesore, depending on your perspective.
Are the birds endangered?
Flamingos -- the real ones -- aren't an endangered species, although some types are considered threatened.
Plastic flamingos did fall out of favor during the 1960s and '70s as folks embraced the back-to-nature movement and spurned man-made products. Even today, some neighborhoods reportedly ban yard art crafted of pink plastic.
Yet we're tickled pink that our kitschy birds have bounced back in recent years and show no danger of becoming extinct. Not as long as there are lawns in suburbia crying out for a splash of color and some funky personality.
FLAMINGO FAME
* Baby flamingos are white or gray; they turn pink by age 3.
* Don Featherstone, who invented the plastic yard flamingo in 1957, won the Ig Nobel Prize in 1996.
* Flamingos honk, grunt and growl.
* The word flamingo comes from the Latin word for "flame."
* In "Through the Looking Glass," flamingos act as croquet mallets for Alice and her friends.
* Chicks feed on red crop milk, a liquid regurgitated by the parents.
* TV's "Miami Vice" helped boost sales of plastic flamingos in the 1980s.
* To stir up food in the water, flamingos stomp their feet in the mud.
* Pickled flamingo tongues were a delicacy in Roman times.
* "The Pink Flamingo Murders," by Elaine Viets (Dell, 1999), is the tale of a woman killed by a plastic lawn flamingo.
* Flamingos live to be 20 years old in the wild, up to 50 years in captivity.
The full newspaper story is available Here.
Here's an interesting article from the Ogden (UT) Standard Examiner that Bird highly recommends as a primer on his favorite subject.
Those flashy flamingos, after losing favor in the '60s and '70s, are backNothing like a flamingo to put us in the pink.
They're the icon of summer, these stately birds of bright color and stilty legs. And no one will dispute their decades-long reign as kings and queens of American lawn art.
A classic? Oh yes, some would say. Tacky and tasteless? Ohhh yes, others argue.
Yet there's a fascination to flamingos, be they molded of plastic or fashioned into authentic living birds.
Utah -- a land far removed from ocean waves, sandy beaches and tropical plants -- even boasts a famous flamingo all its own.
Pink Floyd is his name, the Great Salt Lake his claim to fame. Floyd's been hanging out along the lake's salty shores every winter since 1988 when he escaped from Tracy Aviary. Today, in the prime of summer, we pay tribute to this season's quintessential symbol. Time to learn more about this shrimp-eatin', wing-flappin', foot-stompin' bird.
What's in a name?
The greater flamingo is known to scientists as Phoenicopterus ruber roseus. The fake birds are commonly called "Phoenicopteris ruber plasticus," a label bestowed by inventor Don Featherstone.
Who's who?
Real flamingos are the ones with rosy black-tipped feathers, yellow eyes and legs longer than their bodies. There are five species.
Our lawn-loving friends are distinguished by rigid pink wings molded tight against their plastic bodies. Also look for metal legs -- the better to stick the birds into the ground -- and sometimes the authentic signature of the creator stamped on the rump.
Where do flamingos come from?
Living ones come from eggs, like all good birds. Flamingos lay a single egg atop a cone-shaped mound; both parents care for the egg for 30 days until it hatches.
The plastic flamingo was born at Union Products, Inc., of Massachusetts, during the 1950s. Young designer Featherstone -- was that name an omen? -- used National Geographic photos to create a clay flamingo sculpture and then a plaster cast for the lawn ornament.
Where do they hang out?
In the wild, flamingos prefer salty or alkaline lakes and lagoons with plenty of mud and water. They may live inland or near the ocean and are found in the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, India and South America. Utah has a new flock of Chilean flamingos at Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City, part of the recently opened Destination Argentina! exhibit.
As for the faux birds, you'll see them strutting across lawns or through gardens all over the Top of Utah, including Diane Belvedere's front yard in Riverdale.
"They're just different," says Belvedere, who has six long-legged birds posed among her petunias and marigolds. "People know where I live; it's the house with the flamingos."
What color are flamingos?
Pink, pinker and very pink. Caribbean flamingos are the brightest; Chilean birds are pale in color.
The hallmark lawn flamingo is hot pink as well, although some birds fade after too much fun in the sun. Other plastic colors are available, including blue or white, known as a "snomingo."
Why pink?
Real flamingos eat foods high in carotene, which make their feathers turn pink. On the menu are mollusks, algae and brine shrimp.
At Tracy Aviary, the flamingos get special pellets with carotene-like additives, says Jennifer Evans, aviculturist and intern coordinator. Zoos learned the hard way -- when captive birds turned white -- about flamingos' dietary needs, Evans says.
It was only natural that man-made flamingos would copy the color of real birds, but the new-fangled plastics of the 1950s also lent themselves to bold, bright colors such as vivid green.
Why do flamingos stand on one leg?
Sometimes, they just want to keep their leg and foot warm by pulling it up under their feathers, says Evans. Or it's also a way for the birds to rest their legs, she says, a benefit since standing up is always safer for wild critters than lying down.
As for those plastic flamingos, standing on one foot is all part of the attitude.
How big are flamingos?
From 2 1/2 feet to nearly 5 feet tall, depending on the species. The largest ones have wingspans of 55 to 65 inches. Yet these big birds weigh only 6 to 8 pounds due to all of those hollow bones and feathers.
Our plastic pals generally stand 2 to 3 feet tall, although you may see some baby birds under 12 inches high skittering about.
Why do their "knees" bend backward?
That visible joint on the flamingo's leg is actually an ankle, says Evans, and it's supposed to bend that way. Most of the time, the birds are actually walking on tiptoe; when they bend their ankle, or hock, they are standing on their whole foot instead of the toes.
Flamingos do have knees, Evans says, but you can't see them because they are high up the leg, under the feathers.
Most fake flamingos have straight legs, an adaptation to ensure sturdiness for the rigors of suburban life.
Do they eat upside down?
That they do. Real flamingos stick their heads into the water upside down and use their curved-under beaks to slurp up water. The beak has serrated edges that strain the food out of the water, similar to the technique whales use, Evans says.
A flock of plastic flamingos generally includes some feeding birds with graceful necks bent down to the ground, sans the head contortions of their living counterparts.
What's a group of flamingos called?
A colony, if you're talking about real ones. On the ornamental side, you've got a charming display of folk art -- or an eyesore, depending on your perspective.
Are the birds endangered?
Flamingos -- the real ones -- aren't an endangered species, although some types are considered threatened.
Plastic flamingos did fall out of favor during the 1960s and '70s as folks embraced the back-to-nature movement and spurned man-made products. Even today, some neighborhoods reportedly ban yard art crafted of pink plastic.
Yet we're tickled pink that our kitschy birds have bounced back in recent years and show no danger of becoming extinct. Not as long as there are lawns in suburbia crying out for a splash of color and some funky personality.
FLAMINGO FAME
* Baby flamingos are white or gray; they turn pink by age 3.
* Don Featherstone, who invented the plastic yard flamingo in 1957, won the Ig Nobel Prize in 1996.
* Flamingos honk, grunt and growl.
* The word flamingo comes from the Latin word for "flame."
* In "Through the Looking Glass," flamingos act as croquet mallets for Alice and her friends.
* Chicks feed on red crop milk, a liquid regurgitated by the parents.
* TV's "Miami Vice" helped boost sales of plastic flamingos in the 1980s.
* To stir up food in the water, flamingos stomp their feet in the mud.
* Pickled flamingo tongues were a delicacy in Roman times.
* "The Pink Flamingo Murders," by Elaine Viets (Dell, 1999), is the tale of a woman killed by a plastic lawn flamingo.
* Flamingos live to be 20 years old in the wild, up to 50 years in captivity.
The full newspaper story is available Here.
Comments:
Post a Comment
