Pink Flamingo Day was declared in 2007 by Dean Mazzarella, the mayor of Leominster, MA to honor the work of Don Featherstone, creator of the famous plastic flamingo garden decorations.
Don Featherstone created the iconic flamingo bird piece in 1957 while working for Union Products. He based his design on photographs of greater flamingos from National Geographic because he was unable to get the beautiful birds to use as real-life models. In 1996, Featherstone was awarded the 1996 Ig Nobel Art Prize (a parody of the Nobel Prize) for his creation of the pink flamingo.
Since the plastic garden beauties were created inspired by the actual colorful birds, let’s find out more about them. There are six species of modern flamingos, and most of them live in Asia, Africa, and South America. These pink animals get their color because of carotenoids (naturally occurring pigments) in the food they eat (shrimp, algae, and plankton). If they’re not getting the right diet, their color fades. It takes up to three years for baby flamingos to turn their gray feathers into a colorful coat.
Celebrate this Friday, the 10th annual Pink Flamingo Day, by looking at many beautiful photos of fabulous and very very pink birds.
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Image source: Adrian Borda
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Image source: John Trent
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Image source: pedrosz
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Image source: anthony
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Image source: Alexey Malashin
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Image source: Alena Bednarova
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Image source: Mohammed Alsultan
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Image source: Pedro Jarque Krebs
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Image source: Steve Higgins
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Image source: clairexylau85
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Image source: Paige Klee
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Image source: wrvanstraalen
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Image source: Raj Minhas
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Image source: DJ Pettitt
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Image source: source
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Image source: Ton Hermans
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Image source: Mostafa Ammar
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Image source: mint-images
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Image source: Keeratikarn Wantanorm
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Image source: paulaparicio
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Image source: confusor
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Image source: Pieter Arnolli
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Image source: kentcapture
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Image source: Valentina Politi
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Image source: Dmytro Cherkasov
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Image source: toddlahman
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Image source: Frank Heldt
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Image source: Adrian Borda
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Image source: Arshad Hamza
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Image source: misja2011
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Image source: pix-by-pegisue
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Image source: Christoph Schneider
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Image source: WENQI GAN
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Image source: David Cantu
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Image source: Mustafa Ozturk
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Image source: Nasser Osman
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Image source: Nasser Osman
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Image source: Michael Bies
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Image source: Leah Mccoy Soderblom
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Image source: Marco Mattiussi
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Image source: Lamande Cedrick
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Image source: digitaltargetsardegna1
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Image source: Peter.Cheung
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Image source: bydamanti
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Image source: Michele Truex
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Image source: Michele Truex
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Image source: Odette Holty
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Image source: Thanh Nguyen
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Image source: Rajiur Rahman
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Image source: Hawk Photography
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Image source: Bob Gates
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Image source: jkiesecker
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Image source: Perl Photography
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Image source: DeusXFlorida
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Image source: Nitin Prabhudesai
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Image source: Sonja Probst
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Image source: Nataliya Zemnaya
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Image source: confusor
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Image source: Carl D
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Image source: Diana Robinson
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Image source: Kalyan Peri
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Image source: Simon Phromchat
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Image source: Steve Begin
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Image source: Andrew Savino
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Image source: Assaf Shtilman
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Image source: Ermina Grgic
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Image source: Jeroen Fransen
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Image source: kiekmal
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Image source: Andre Villeneuve
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Image source: Tashi Delek Nakata
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Image source: Scott Weintraub
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