Flamingos have popped up in the news this summer by making an
unexpected appearance on Cape Cod and now they are making an appearance in our reading room, too! Visit us from August 8 through September 5 to see the American Flamingo (plate 431) on display in our Audubon case.
Flamingos are not known to travel as far north as New England, and the one depicted by Audubon was from the Florida Keys. His field notes indicated that they are found in Cuba, Florida's western coast, and "accidental as far as South Carolina." Read more in the
Birds of North America Field Guide.
Shown in this print is the "old male" red flamingo in the foreground, with a few other flamingos in the background, in their shoreline habitat. It's true that flamingos attribute their pink color to eating algae and shrimp that contain carotenoid pigments, so the deep pink color of this flamingo means it must have eaten a lot of shrimp and algae in its lifetime! One addition to this print that is not found in all
Birds of America depictions is that it also includes nine intricate sketches of the flamingo's bill, tongue, mandible (lower jaw bone), and webbed foot. These sketches remind us that while we often think of
Birds of America as an artistic achievement, it is also a scientific work that is instrumental to ornithological study.
Elizabeth Roscio
Preservation Librarian
