A Pink Flamingo Baby Shower

As I said above, if you are planning a baby shower for a little girl who is about to arrive, or has already made her debut, a flamingo theme is a perfect one.

Sure, there are a few other pink members of the animal kingdom, but who wants a corn snake or frog fish theme for a precious little one's shower?  Neither is particularly cute or lovable.  But flamingos are!

They're also a perfect component to incorporate into a tropical themed party.  So, they can stand on their own, or be incorporated into another fun and attractive theme.

Beyond that,  did you know that flamingos are really good parents?  They are! Any expectant mother, should really appreciate that fact!  

Image:  Author's personal photo.

It's a flamingo maternity ward!  The big pink birds in the above photo are getting ready for the arrival of their little ones.

Those 'clumps' of mud are their nests, which mom and dad build together.  The male and female also share the duty of guarding the single egg, which is laid in the top of the nest.  

Once the baby hatches, the pair also shares feeding and baby sitting.  After the baby is about a week old, he or she is allowed to wander out of the nest under the still watchful eyes of the parents.  

Then, in another week or so, the young chick joins a group of baby flamingos, and the parents leave them unattended for peroids.  This group called a 'microcreche.'  (There's strength in numbers!)   For the adults, who've never left their child unattended for a moment until then, this must feel a little like it does for human mothers and fathers when their children go off to kindergarten, don't you think? 

The pairs share in just about all the responsibilities of child rearing, from building the nest, to incubating the egg and watching it hatch, and then defending, tending, and feeding the baby.  All in all, they're extremely attentive parents!

Watch a baby flamingo break out of her egg, stand for the very first time, hear her squeaky little bird voice, and enjoy some truly beautiful footage as she bonds with her mother.  

Choose pink gifts for baby girls, and to tie in with a tropical themed baby shower or a mother who has a love for the tropics, make it a tropical pink gift with flamingo flair. Most of us probably think of pink flamingos as being tropical birds because of the Caribbean Flamingo, which is the species with the most brilliant plumage.

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Everyone loves trivia!  Here are some questions about flamingos.  

Just for fun, see how many of these questions you can answer correctly right now.  (Answers are a bit farther down the page.)

Feel free to use some or all of them as the basis of a trivia game at your shower.  In keeping with the theme, perhaps you might want to pass out pale pink colored paper for everyone to write their answers on. 

Even if you don't choose to have an all-out flamingo themed shower, you could use some flamingos as part of an overall tropical party theme, since they fit in perfectly there.  Flamingo trivia might be one such piece of your party pie.

FLAMINGO TRIVIA QUESTIONS

1. How many species of flamingos are there?
2. Which is the largest species?
3. Which is the smallest?
4. What color eyes do they have?
5. Why do flamingos often stand on one leg with their other knee bent "backwards"?
6. How many eggs does a female lay per year?
7. Which bird builds and tends the nest, male or female?
8. About how long is the incubation period for a flamingo egg?
9. What color are the baby's feathers?
10. What part of the flamingo was considered a delicacy by the ancient Romans?
11. How fast can they fly?
12. What is an eleven letter word for a flock of flamingos?

ANSWERS to TRIVIA QUESTIONS

1.  There are six different species of flamingos in the world.
2. Greater Flamingos can grow to five or more feet tall, making them the largest.
3. At only about three feet tall, the Lesser Flamingo is the smallest species.
4. Their eyes are orange or yellow.
5. Trick question!  That's not their knee.  It's actually their ankle that we see almost halfway up their leg.  Their knee is much farther up, near the body, hidden by feathers.
6. Flamingos normally lay only one egg a year.
7. They both do.  They are true partners in parenting.
8. The egg begins hatching about a month after it is laid.  During that time, the parents take turns sitting on it.
9. Baby's feathers are white or gray.  It takes two to three years for them to grow their beautiful pink plumage.
10. The tongue.
11. After taking a running start, they can fly up to 35 mph.
12. A flamboyance is the correct answer.  Another term for a flock of those beautiful big pink birds is stand.

Did you test yourself by answering the trivia questions above before you peeked at the answers? Some of them were a little more difficult than others.  The answers to a couple of them may have been a bit surprising to a few people.   

One thing that I think is nice about the world of flamingos is how the mother and father cooperate completely in raising the chicks - from the building of the nest to the feeding and baby sitting.  What great role models they are!