This black flamingo was spotted in Cyprus. It is just the second black flamingo ever seen. The first one was seen in Israel in 2014 but experts believe they may be the same bird, meaning that only one black flamingo has ever been seen. The black flamingo is affected with melanism, which is a condition caused by an overproduction of melanin, darkening the skin. An animal with melanism is a very rare sight.
So some of you who have been around a while know I used to work at a small, privately-owned, bird-focused pet store, right? And some of those of you might remember that we had a black palmed cockatoo, Artie, there. He was wild-caught illegally back in the ‘80s–the shipment was seized by Fish & Wildlife, some of the birds were sent back to Indonesia, but some were not. Artie bounced around to a few places–a zoo, a couple private people, and eventually ended up at our store (the owner was heavily involved in the bird community and was involved with all this somehow, idk I wasn’t around). Anyway, he had been with us for more than a decade, and since he was wild caught he was never really tame, and the owner always wanted to find a breeder to take him, since black palms are so endangered. She figured since he’s here, and being wild caught his genetics would be diverse from captive populations here, it would be awesome to help propagate the species.
ANYWAY a year or so ago, he finally went to a breeder, and he almost IMMEDIATELY hit it off with one of her females, and they laid an egg very soon after. The breeder & Ruth weren’t sure it would be fertile, since it was so fast and all, BUT IT WAS AND IT HATCHED AND LOOK HOW CUTE THIS BABY IS IM CRYING.
A picture of Artie (eating a macadamia nut, his very favorite treat), for anyone who wasn’t around/doesn’t remember. He was (well, still is!) a good old man. As mentioned, was never really tame, didn’t want to be touched and would bite your fingers off if you tried, but he would take treats (even tiny cheerios) oh-so-gently from your hand if he knew & liked you, and spray baths were his absolute FAVORITE thing. One time I had to stop in the middle of giving him a spray bath to help a customer, and he pouted at me for like an hour afterwards, wouldn’t take treats from me or interact with me at all. I finally was able to come finish his bath, and then he whistled at me every time I walked by for the rest of the day 🙄🙄❤️
today's bird 