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  • A member of the tribe of 'stiff-tailed ducks', the Ruddy Duck has a spiky tail that it often holds straight up in display. Female ruddy ducks have grayish-brown neck and body plumage. The sides of the head and neck are dull buff-brown with a single dusky horizontal stripe crossing a pale-gray cheek patch. The bill is dark gray and the legs and feet are grayish. Females are relatively silent.
    Adult Female Ruddy Duck.jpg
  • A Monarch Butterfly in Fluid Style Perches atop A Yellow Wildflower During Afternoon Showers.<br />
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The monarch is famous for its southward migration and northward return in summer from Canada to Mexico and Baja California which spans the life of three to four generations of the butterfly<br />
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Monarchs are especially noted for their lengthy annual migration. In North America, they make massive southward migrations starting in August until the first frost. A northward migration takes place in the spring. The monarch is the only butterfly that migrates both north and south as the birds do on a regular basis, but no single individual makes the entire round trip. Female monarchs deposit eggs for the next generation during these migrations.<br />
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Monarch butterflies are poisonous or distasteful to birds and mammals because of the presence of the cardiac glycosides contained in milkweed consumed by the larvae. The bright colors of larvae and adults are thought to function as warning colors. During hibernation, monarch butterflies sometimes suffer losses because hungry birds pick through them looking for the butterflies with the least amount of poison, but in the process kill those they reject.
    Butterfly Striations.jpg
  • A Monarch Butterfly perched on wild chives on a moody overcast morning in a Wentzville, Missouri field
    Moody Monarch.jpg
  • The Pintail or Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) is a duck with wide geographic distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe, Asia and North America.
    Pintail Hen.jpg
  • A flowing Monarch perched on a vibrant chive against a soft blue backdrop. The Monarch butterfly is a milkweed butterfly, in the family Nymphalidae. It is perhaps the best known of all North American butterflies
    Monarch Blues on Chives.jpg
  • The longwing butterflies have unusually long lifespans and high fecundity rates, which largely result from their augmented diet. Instead of surviving on food stores from the larval stage or solely sipping flower nectar, adult longwing butterflies are avid pollen eaters. These trait make them eminently suitable for butterfly farming and butterfly gardening. Also, Adult Longwings may live for several months, much longer than most butterflies.<br />
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The longwing butterflies are also known as Heliconians. They are brightly colored butterflies with long forewings. Once placed in their own family, they are now considered closely related to the fritillaries. Larvae of most longwings  feed on passion vines, and this host plant imparts noxious chemicals to the larvae which are carried over to the adult butterflies. This relationship is identical to the monarch butterflies' reliance on its host plant, milkweed, for defense. Predators find these chemicals distasteful and avoid eating the butterflies.
    Monarch 6.jpg
  • The Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus Leucocephalus) is found only on the North American continent. Adult male eagles generally weigh about 9 pounds. Adult females weigh in at between 12 and 13 pounds. Adult eagles have a wing span of up to 7 feet. Immature eagles are mottled brown and white. The distinct white head and tail of the mature bird is developed between 4-5 years of age. In the wild, bald eagles live to between 30 and 35 years. In captivity, they have been known to live up to 50 years.<br />
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Eagles do not live in isolation! Because they are near the top of the food chain, they become an irreplaceable indicator for measuring the health of the entire ecological system in which they live. After being listed as an endangered species in 1978 following a dramatic drop in population that began at the turn of the century, the Bald Eagle's status was upgraded to Threatened on August 11, 1995. Although efforts to replenish populations of the Bald Eagle have been successful, it continues to be protected under the Endangered Species Act, the Bald Eagle Protection Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
    Spread Eagle.jpg
  • Adults have a long, square-tipped brown tail and are a brown or dull-brown color across the back with some shading into deep gray on the wing feathers. Breast and belly feathers may be streaked; the flanks usually are. In most cases, adult males' heads, necks and shoulders are reddish. This color sometimes extends to the belly and down the back, between the wings. Male coloration varies in intensity with the seasons and is derived from the berries and fruits in its diet. As a result, the colors range from pale straw-yellow through bright orange (both rare) to deep, intense red. Adult females have brown upper-parts and streaked underparts.
    Red Male House Finch-D.jpg
  • Monarch butterflies embark on a marvelous migratory phenomenon. They travel between 1,200 and 2,800 miles or more from the United States and Canada to central Mexican forests. There the butterflies hibernate in the mountain forests, where a less extreme climate provides them a better chance to survive. The monarch butterfly is known by scientists as Danaus plexippus, which in Greek literally means "sleepy transformation." The name evokes the species' ability to hibernate and metamorphize. Adult monarch butterflies possess two pairs of brilliant orange-red wings, featuring black veins and white spots along the edges. Males, who possess distinguishing black dots along the veins of their wings, are slightly bigger than females. Each adult butterfly lives only about four to five weeks.
    Morning Monarch Glow.jpg
  • A Double-Crested Cormorant casts a shadow against textured peeling paint at the Saint Louis Zoo. The Double-crested Cormorant is a member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It occurs along inland waterways as well as in coastal areas, and is widely distributed across North America. he Double-crested Cormorant is a large waterbird with a stocky body, long neck, medium-sized tail, webbed feet and a medium sized hooked bill.<br />
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Recently the population of Double-crested Cormorants has increased. Some studies have concluded that the recovery was allowed by the decrease of contaminants, particularly the discontinued use of DDT. The population may have also increased because of aquaculture ponds in its southern wintering grounds. The ponds favor good over-winter survival and growth.<br />
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Adult Double-crested Cormorants are black or dark brown and have an orange-yellow patch of skin at the base of their bills. In breeding plumage, adults have two whitish tufts behind their eyes, hence the description 'double-crested.' First-year birds are pale on the upper breast and darker on the belly. Double-crested Cormorants have slender, hook-tipped bills that are often tipped up at an angle as they swim. They can be distinguished from the other two Washington cormorant species by their thicker bills and by the pronounced kink in their long necks in flight.
    Cormorant By Cracked Paint.jpg
  • Pterois, commonly known as lionfish, is a genus of venomous marine fish found mostly in the Indo-Pacific. Pterois is characterized by conspicuous warning coloration with red, white, creamy, or black bands, showy pectoral fins and venomous spiky fin rays. Aside from instances of larger lionfish individuals engaging in cannibalism on smaller individuals, adult lionfish have few identified natural predators. This is likely due to the effectiveness of their venomous spines. Lionfish are known for their venomous fin rays, a feature that is uncommon among marine fish in the East Coast coral reefs. The potency of their venom makes them excellent predators and poisonous to fishermen and divers.<br />
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Pterois venom produced negative inotropic and chronotropic effects when tested in both frog and clam hearts and has a depressing effect on rabbit blood pressure. These results are thought to be due to nitric oxide release. In humans, Pterois venom can cause systemic effects such as extreme pain, nausea, vomiting, fever, breathing difficulties, convulsions, dizziness, redness on the affected area, headache, numbness, paresthesia (pins and needles), heartburn, diarrhea, and sweating. Rarely, such stings can cause temporary paralysis of the limbs, heart failure and even death. Fatalities are common in very young children, the elderly, those with a weak immune system or those who are allergic to their venom. Their venom is rarely fatal to healthy humans, but some species have enough venom to produce extreme discomfort for over a period of several days.
    Lionfish.jpg
  • For their first 3 to 5 years, Juvenile Bald Eagles are a subdued mixture of chocolate brown with varying amounts of white over the body, tail and underwings. Adult plumage develops with sexual maturity. Both Adults and Juveniles can weigh 7 to 14 pounds with a 7 foot wing span. Their physical features are identical.
    Immature Baldy.jpg
  • Loons are found on lakes throughout central and northeastern Minnesota. In September, Minnesota's adult loons travel to their winter home along the Atlantic coast from North Carolina south to Florida, or on the Gulf of Mexico.
    Common Loons.jpg
  • The adult female Brown-headed Cowbird is slightly smaller than the male and is dull grey with a pale throat and very fine streaking on the underparts.
    Flowing Female Cowbird.jpg
  • he Brown-headed Cowbird is well known--and widely disliked--for its practice of laying eggs in the nests of other species. Males are black birds with dull brown heads. Adult males are shiny black, while first-year males are duller black. Females are much smaller and solid brown with a whitish throat and light streaking on their undersides. Juveniles look similar to females, but are more heavily streaked with lighter bellies and light edging on their wing feathers. Cowbirds have more finch-like conical beaks than other blackbirds.
    Male BHCB Profile.jpg
  • Yes even a robin can have some majesty and prowess.<br />
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The quintessential early bird, American Robins are common sights on lawns across North America, where you often see them tugging earthworms out of the ground. Robins are popular birds for their warm orange breast, cheery song, and early appearance at the end of winter. Though they're familiar town and city birds, American Robins are at home in wilder areas, too, including mountain forests and Alaskan wilderness. <br />
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The American Robin or North American Robin is a migratory songbird of the thrush family. It is named after the European Robin because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are not closely<br />
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A distinctive, potbellied bird. Forages on lawns and other areas of short vegetation for earthworms and other invertebrates in a run-and-stop pattern typical of terrestrial thrushes. Adult: depending on sex and subspecies, head, with white eye arcs, varies from jet black to gray, with white supercilia and throat, blackish lores and lateral throat stripe. Underparts vary, often in tandem with head color, from deep, rich reddish maroon to gray-scalloped, peachy orange. Males tend to be darker, females grayer, but overlap makes determining sex of many problematic.
    Majestic Robin Blues.jpg
  • Adult Vanessa virginiensis feed on nectar almost exclusively, including dogbane, aster, goldenrod, marigold, selfheal, common milkweed, and vetch.
    American Painted Lady on Dead Daisie...jpg
  • The Halloween Pennant has been described as looking very similar to a butterfly. Its wings are orange-yellow in color, though its markings are dark brown, not black as is commonly believed; the entirely orange-yellow wings with dark brown bands are what has given it its Halloween common name and its typical position of being perched at the tip of a weed stalk, waving in the breeze like a pennant contributes to the remainder of its common name. The young has yellow markings, including a stripe on its back, and adult males develop pale red markings, particularly on the face, though females will occasionally get these red markings too. Halloween Pennants are normally between 38 and 42 mm (approx. 1.5 inches) in size. They feed on other insects, and they are able to fly in rain and strong wind. On hot days, it will often shade its thorax using its wings.
    Female Calico Pennant 6.jpg
  • Harriet is the oldest eagle ambassador and arrived at the National Eagle Center in 2000. In 1998, a vehicle collision left her left wing badly dislocated and part of it was subsequently amputated.<br />
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Although she was fully adult at the time of her injury, we know that she hatched in 1981. Harriet was banded as an eaglet in her nest in northern Wisconsin. A researcher placed a small aluminum band on her leg, and she lived in the wild for 17 years before her accident in 1998.<br />
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Harriet has a feather tuft atop her head that makes her easy to identify. We can't be certain, but suspect that this distinctive feather growth is the result of scar tissue and damage to feather follicles.<br />
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As an eagle ambassador with the National Eagle Center, Harriet has made appearances across the country. She's been featured on the Today Show and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. In 2007, Harriet was in Washington DC to celebrate the removal of the bald eagle from the endangered species list.<br />
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Much of Harriet's work over the years has been with veterans. She has visited VA hospitals and been a part of numerous veterans honor ceremonies. Harriet is the eagle featured on the Minnesota Support Our Troops license plate.
    Bald Eagle Eating Fish.jpg
  • Columbia, an adult female bald eagle, came to the National Eagle Center in 2003 as a juvenile. She hatched in the spring of 2001.<br />
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After feeding on road kill near Dunbar, WI, Columbia was struck by a van. This accident left her with an open fracture near her right shoulder. While this wound was significant and would render her unable to fly again, the accident most likely saved Columbia's life. During treatment for her injuries, Columbia was found to have nearly twice the lethal dose of lead in her blood.<br />
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Lead is extremely dangerous for eagles. Just a tiny amount of lead can be lethal in 4-5 days. She was able to be treated for lead poisoning, but any damage already incurred would be irreversible.<br />
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Columbia arrived at the National Eagle Center just a few months before the Space Shuttle Columbia mission that ended in tragedy. Columbia was named in honor of the commander and crew of this shuttle.
    Columbia - Eagle.jpg
  • The Canvasback (Aythya valisineria) is the largest of the North American diving ducks. The adult male (drake) has a black bill, a chestnut red head and neck, a black breast, a grayish back, black rump, and a blackish brown tail. The drake's sides, back, and belly are white with fine vermiculation resembling the weave of a canvas, which gave rise to the bird's common name
    Canvasback Drake.jpg
  • Adult male Hooded Mergansers are black above, with a white breast and rich chestnut flanks. The black head has a large white patch that varies in size when the crest is raised or lowered, but is always prominent. Females and immatures are gray and brown, with warm tawny-cinnamon tones on the head.
    Male Hooded Merganser.jpg
  • Meet Donald. Donald is the first Golden Eagle Ambassador and we are proud to have both eagle species that are native to North America represented at the National Eagle Center.<br />
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Donald came to the National Eagle Center after being treated at the California Raptor Center. He had been hit by a car near the town of Placerville, CA, breaking his right wing in two places. Donald is no longer able to sustain flight.<br />
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We are unsure of Donald's exact age. His fully adult plumage suggests he was at least five years of age when he was injured, so he hatched sometime before 2002.<br />
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Donald arrived at the National Eagle Center on January 8, 2008 and was named for the Donald Weesner Charitable Trust, whose generous donation made his arrival and training possible. During his first year, he continued to be bashful among the other eagles and with guests. He often spent the day looking only at the murals with quick glances toward people. Today, Donald often displays quite relaxed postures in the mews.<br />
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Golden eagles can be found around the world in the northern hemisphere, and Donald's presence at the National Eagle Center has ignited new interest in understanding the life and habitat of golden eagles.
    Golden Eagle - Donald.jpg
  • The East African Crowned Crane (Grey Crowned Crane) gets its name from the distinctive golden crown of feathers on its head. The Grey Crowned Crane is a bird in the crane family Gruidae. It occurs in dry savannah in Africa south of the Sahara, although it nests in somewhat wetter habitats.They can also be found in marshes. This photo was taken at the Saint Louis Zoo<br />
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This species and the closely related Black Crowned Crane are the only cranes that can roost in trees, because of a long hind toe that can grasp branches. This habit, amongst other things, is a reason why the relatively small Balearica cranes are believed to closely resemble the ancestral members of the Gruidae.<br />
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The body of the Grey Crowned Crane is mainly gray. The wings are predominantly white, but contain feathers with colors ranging from white to brown to gold. The head is topped with a crown of stiff golden feathers. Cheek patches are white, and a red gular sack is present under the chin. The gular sack is similar to a wattle, except that it can be inflated. Legs and toes are black. The bill is short and dark gray. <br />
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West African crowned cranes are monogamous birds that form pairs for life. Pairs can be seen together even in the middle of a large flock, which suggests an exceptionally strong pair bond. Adult cranes reinforce their pair bond by dancing for and with each other. They perform ritualistic dance displays that include bows, leaps, runs, wing flapping, short flights, jerky bouncing, running, and stick tossing. Cranes of all ages dance. Among younger birds, dancing may serve to reduce aggression with other cranes, provide physical exercise, and possibly relieve anxiety.
    Crowned Crane Consistency.jpg
  • A Sleepy Amur Tiger at the Saint Louis Zoo. Tigers are the biggest cats in the world, and Amur tigers are the biggest subspecies (type) of tigers. They stand about three feet tall at the shoulder. This isn't quite as tall as a lion, but Amur tigers are longer and usually weigh more. Adult males can grow up to 11 feet long and weigh over 600 pounds; females are smaller -- up to nine feet long and about 370 pounds. Now those are some big kitties!
    Sleepy Amur Tiger.jpg
  • Immature bald eagles have mostly dark heads and tails; their brown wings and bodies are mottled with white in varying amounts. Young birds attain adult plumage in about five years.
    Immature Bald Eagle Square.jpg
  • This Blue Hyacinth Macaw Strikes A Funny Pose.<br />
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The large Hyacinth Macaw Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus is a majestic beauty. Visually it appears to be the largest parrot in the world. But that is not quite so. The elongated body of the Hyacinth reaches about 37' (95 cm) in length and it has an impressive wingspan up to about 42 inches across, which is the most expansive parrot in the world. But the Hyacinth is not all that hefty, it only weighs up to about 3.7 lb.<br />
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The worlds largest parrot is actually a flightless, ground-dwelling bird. It is the species Strigops habroptila, commonly called Kakapo which means night parrot. This hefty bird only extends to 24' (61 cm) in length, but in weight a mature adult can be up to 9 pounds (4 kg)! The Kakapo is endemic to New Zealand and is quite a pretty bird in its own right. Rather than being blue like the Hyacinth, it is a yellowish green color mottled with dark stripes and spots giving it an owlish appearance. Its scientific name actually means 'owl-faced soft feathers'.<br />
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The beautiful Hyacinth is pretty much an all blue large Macaw. The rich cobalt blue of its coloring is what influenced its name. It is a calm Macaw and known to make an excellent pet. Hyacinth Macaws have a very even temperament. They are sweet, extremely gentle, and are not inclined to make a great deal of noise. They are affectionate and playful, and become quite attached to their human families.
    Hyacinth Pose.jpg
  • An Eagle grabs a fishy snack to cure a powerful appetite. The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed Eagle.<br />
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The Bald Eagle is an opportunistic feeder which subsists mainly on fish, which it swoops down and snatches from the water with its talons. It builds the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for any animal species.<br />
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The plumage of an adult Bald Eagle is evenly dark brown with a white head and tail. The tail is moderately long and slightly wedge-shaped. Males and females are identical in plumage coloration, but sexual dimorphism is evident in the species in that females are 25 percent larger than males. The beak, feet and irides are bright yellow.<br />
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There are two subspecies of bald eagles. The "southern" bald eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus leucocephalus, is found in the Gulf States from Texas and Baja California across to South Carolina and Florida, south of 40 degrees north latitude. The "northern" bald eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus alascanus, is found north of 40 degrees north latitude across the entire continent. The largest numbers of northern bald eagles are in the Northwest, especially in Alaska. The "northern" bald eagle is slightly larger than the "southern" bald eagle. Studies have shown that "northern" bald eagles fly into the southern states and Mexico, and the "southern" bald eagles fly north into Canada. Because of these finding, the subspecies of "northern" and "southern" bald eagles has been discontinued in recent literature.
    Bald Eagle Snacks.jpg
  • The double-crested cormorant is a little more than two feet long with a wingspan of about four feet. It has dark brown to black feathers, a long hooked bill with an orange throat pouch, a long tail, and webbed black feet. Adults have tufts of feathers over their eyes. Males and females look alike.<br />
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The double-crested cormorant nests in colonies. Both the male and female will build a nest of sticks, twigs and seaweed. Nests are built in trees and shrubs and on the ground of rocky cliffs and islands. The female lays three to five eggs. Both parents incubate the eggs for about a month. Both parents also feed and take care of the chicks. The chicks fledge in 35-40 days.<br />
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The double-crested cormorant breeds from the coast of Alaska and Nova Scotia south to Mexico and the Bahamas. It winters on both coasts north to southern Alaska and southern New England.<br />
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The bird family Phalacrocoracidae or the cormorants is represented by some 40 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number of genera is disputed.
    Cormorant Peek.jpg
  • The Snow Goose has two color plumage morphs, white (snow) or gray/blue (blue), thus the common description as snows and blues. White-morph birds are white except for black wing tips, but blue-morph geese have bluish-grey plumage replacing the white except on the head, neck and tail tip. The immature blue phase is drab or slate-gray with little to no white on the head, neck, or belly.<br />
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Outside of the nesting season, they usually feed in flocks. In winter, snow geese feed on left-over grain in fields. They migrate in large flocks, often visiting traditional stopover habitats in spectacular numbers. Snow Geese often travel and feed alongside Greater White-fronted Geese; in contrast, the two tend to avoid travelling and feeding alongside Canada Geese, which are often heavier birds.<br />
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The breeding population of the Lesser Snow Goose exceeds 5 million birds, an increase of more than 300 percent since the mid-1970s. The population is increasing at a rate of more than 5 percent per year. Non-breeding geese (juveniles or adults that fail to nest successfully) are not included in this estimate, so the total number of geese is even higher. Lesser Snow Goose population indices are the highest they have been since population records have been kept, and evidence suggests that large breeding populations are spreading to previously untouched sections of the Hudson Bay coastline.
    Snow Goose Flight.jpg
  • The gangly Double-crested Cormorant is a prehistoric-looking, matte-black fishing bird with yellow-orange facial skin. Though they look like a combination of a goose and a loon, they are relatives of frigatebirds and boobies and are a common sight around fresh and salt water across North America?perhaps attracting the most attention when they stand on docks, rocky islands, and channel markers, their wings spread out to dry. These solid, heavy-boned birds are experts at diving to catch small fish.<br />
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Adults are brown-black with a small patch of yellow-orange skin on the face. Immatures are browner overall, palest on the neck and breast. In the breeding season, adults develop a small double crest of stringy black or white feathers.<br />
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The Double-crested Cormorant is a member of the cormorant family of seabirds. It occurs along inland waterways as well as in coastal areas, and is widely distributed across North America.
    Cormorant Curves.jpg
  • A Black-crowned Night Heron in Green Waters. The Black-crowned Night Heron, commonly abbreviated to just Night Heron in Eurasia, is a medium-sized heron found throughout a large part of the world, except in the coldest regions and Australasia. Black-crowned Night-Herons are stocky birds compared to many of their long-limbed heron relatives. They're most active at night or at dusk, when you may see their ghostly forms flapping out from daytime roosts to forage in wetlands. In the light of day adults are striking in gray-and-black plumage and long white head plumes. These social birds breed in colonies of stick nests usually built over water. They live in fresh, salt, and brackish wetlands and are the most widespread heron in the world. <br />
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Black-crowned Night-Herons often spend their days perched on tree limbs or concealed among foliage and branches. They forage in the evening and at night, in water, on mudflats, and on land. In flight they fold their head back against their shoulders, almost making the neck disappear.<br />
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These are social birds that tend to roost and nest in groups, although they typically forage on their own. Look for them in most wetland habitats across North America, including estuaries, marshes, streams, lakes, and reservoirs.
    Black-crowned Night Heron 2.jpg
  • A banded Wood Duck Hen (female) swims ever so gently throught he stream with a display of vibrant plumage.<br />
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The Wood Duck is a medium-sized perching duck. The female, less colourful, has a white eye-ring and a whitish throat. Both adults have crested heads. Females line their nests with feathers and other soft materials, and the elevation provides some protection from predators. Unlike most other ducks, the Wood Duck has sharp claws for perching in trees and can, in southern regions, produce two broods in a single season--the only North American duck that can do so.<br />
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Female Wood Ducks breed during their first year. The breeding season begins in April in the southern portion of the range. In northern areas, Wood Ducks arrive on the breeding ground soon after the ice thaws, usually in early May. There are, however, reports of Wood Ducks in Canada beginning to nest as early as the second week of April.
    Waterfowl Flow.jpg
  • I took this shot of the male and female House Finch just hanging out in my front yard. <br />
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The House Finch is a bird in the finch family Fringillidae, which is found in North America. Adults have a long, square-tipped brown tail and are a brown or dull-brown color across the back with some shading into deep gray on the wing feathers. Breast and belly feathers may be streaked; the flanks usually are.
    male_female_house_finch.jpg
  • Two pink flamingos highlighted in blue and purple fantasy lighting, taken at the Saint Louis Zoo.<br />
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Flamingos often stand on one leg, the other leg tucked beneath the body. The reason for this behavior is not fully understood. Recent research indicates that standing on one leg may allow the birds to conserve more body heat, given that they spend a significant amount of time wading in cold water. However, the behavior also takes place in warm water. As well as standing in the water, flamingos may stamp their webbed feet in the mud to stir up food from the bottom.<br />
Young flamingos hatch with grayish reddish plumage, but adults range from light pink to bright red due to aqueous bacteria and beta-Carotene obtained from their food supply. A well-fed, healthy flamingo is more vibrantly colored and thus a more desirable mate; a white or pale flamingo, however, is usually unhealthy or malnourished. Captive flamingos are a notable exception; many turn a pale pink as they are not fed carotene at levels comparable to the wild
    Flamingos In Fantast Lights.jpg