Jun 9, 2008

Frankenbird

At first glance you thought I had posted on a flamingo, didn't you? But then you saw that head and frowned. It looks like someone affixed a spatula onto a vulture's face, and then grafted it onto a flamingo body. But this isn't a frankenbird. It's a roseate spoonbill.

Much like its cousin, whose plastic iterations decorate many a lawn, the spoonbill uses its beak to sift through shallow waters to catch small fish, insects, crustaceans, etc. Also like the flamingo, the roseate spoonbill gets its coloring from what it eats. Or rather, from what its food eats. Some of the crustaceans the bird dines on eat algae, thus causing the pink coloration.

Unlike the flamingo, the roseate spoonbill has the good fortune of soaring through the digital skies of Ugly Overload.

Thanks for the photo, Jade.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Awww....Even his eyes are pink. x3

I, personally, find him to be quite beautiful. And the spatula bit of his beak reminds me of a platypus. <3

Anonymous said...

Spooonbill! I live in Florida so I yelled spoonbill. It being a flamingo didn't even occur to me. They are so pretty <3