Does anyone know why flamingos are pink?
Aren't they sweet? I love them. People make fun of them, but they are just birds, ungainly and funky looking with long legs that look like sticks, backward beaks with which they gather their food from the water... but it is their color which makes them so unique.
In fact, they gain their color from their diet of pink brine shrimps, which are high in alpha and beta-carotene. People eat beta-carotene when they eat carrots. At zoos, or if left to eat food without the pigment, the flamingos would be white. Not so striking.
They look like they are in love - nice pose :-)
22 comments:
that's so weird about the shrimp thing...
at first when i didnt know what the photo
was (cuz flamingos arent usually all tucked away
all compact like that!) i thought, "those look
like shrimp..." the colour, the shape...funny.
i knew a guy when i worked at the post office
in my 20's who ate a ton of carrots and his skin
had a kind of orange-ish hue to it...the beta
carotene, i reckon...hey its a good thing
i dont eat a lot of broccoli...or beets...
actually those dont turn your skin a colour,
do they...
Where in the world do you pick up random facts like that? I am totally stealing this for the next blank spot that comes up in a dinner conversation!
Ha ha - One time when I was pregnant I craved carrots - seems like I ate millions of them daily. Lisa - unfortunately, my skin actually did begin to get an orange tinge to it - it was horrible! Of course, I was eating way more or them than I should have been - I used to cut them up at lunch and call them my french fries in a lame attempt to simulate my favorite forbidden food at the time... :-) I was trying to obstain from fatty foods.
Angela - doesn't EVERYBODY know this?? HA HA.
The pale scandinavians do this (at least many that I know), eat a lot of carrots to give the skin some colour.
You craved carrots? :-) Nice and healthy, and not icky at all. Not like most of the rest of us, I shudder to think. Actually I didn't crave anything whilst I was pregnant, but I did after (whilst breast-feeding), strawberry youghurt and pickled herring no less (here it comes...*shudder*!)
Sweet picture - you always find the nicest ones!
Yeppers I knew that. Do I get a prize now??? Huh huh? :P
Yes, this is a nice pose; great shot! They do have such gorgeous color.
Thank you for stopping by my blog, and your kind words :)
I generally just see the plastic yard ones myself.
Oh man...pickeled herring! My grandmother ate that every year Autumn during the holidays...YEEEKKKK! I know what eating too many carrots can do, I was getting an orange tinge to the palms of my hands one time! I was eating a small bag of the baby carrots everyday. Hey...had to offset all the crap I ate inbetween...lol!
Love the picture Terry! Oh by the way...haven't even STARTED my shopping yet! lol
At first I thought these were some rare flowers :) So beautiful!
Flamingoes and any kind of bird and animal have their unique beauty.
Keshi.
Gorgeous photo Terry. You always find the best ones.
funny about the carrots theme here....
sarah too, when she was in her
extreme vegetable eating phase
would down a big bag of those
baby carrots at one sitting,
and she was starting to turn
orange too...
maybe if i ate carrots
(i prefer french fries
or junk food cheesies)
it would offset my olive green colour...
ew, thats just TMI...
Autumn - LOL healthy? I craved sand too... you know, that damp earthy dirt smell? It made my mouth water... not exactly a healthy craving :-D Yummy yummy - pickeled herring is delisch.
Gareth - yup, woo hooo lets hear it for the Winner! Grand prize? Hmm - one bag of carrots coming up for correctly having known that wonderful bit of obscure factoid. :-D
Stargazer: I loved having you stop by - I also like your beautiful images. :-)
:P Fuzzbox - I've seen quite a few of those unique plastic variety myself. They are rather a classic item to see on hanging out on the lawn :-D But they don't eat.
Jillie - LOL about the baby carrots! I ate the full grown kind - skin on and all. It was that great special earthy taste they had that I wanted. And turning orange was rather unfortunate. I love pickled herring - and herring most ways period. (You probably don't like sushi either, right?) And not just during the holidays - I'll eat it any day of the year. Yum. Christmas shopping? Ugh.
I remember seeing some white flamings in a zoo as a kid.
LOL something is telling me that I may never see those carrots ;)
imfredshand - most zoos have them. They look more exciting when pink - like something out of a Dr. Suess story :-D
Gareth - you never know. In the virtual world, all things are possible...
And now ladies and gentlemen, please proceed to the following link in order to see Gareth receive his well-won prize
If they were white, well they´d look like skinny swans!
I like flamingos. ANythign colourful in nature deserves a stare...They are sleeping actually on this picture. Remember teh days when we used to be so bendy we could turn our necks almost 60 degrees and not cause a fracture?
Ah...those days :)
like something out of a Dr. Suess story!!!
Ha! yes, and it would involve ink and errr zinc and something that goes clink!!
Fantastic shot!
Minka - LOL - yeah - like swans except that their legs are 3 times as long :-) Ah hem - I don't think I was EVER that bendy - perhaps maybe when I was in gymnastics as a 10 year old...
imfredshand: Looks like you are a Dr. Suess apprentice... LOL except you forgot the word pink...
Thanks annonymous...
Post a Comment