A Marvel in Pink

A flaming bird! That is how the ancient Greeks described the phoenix, a mythical bird that ended its life in flames and later emerged from the ashes. Centuries ago, the name of the phoenix was transferred to a real bird, the flamingo. It lives up to the name better than a legend ever could. A flock on the wing is a sight beyond the spectacular​—a whirring, honking, “fire storm” of pink, black, and vermilion filling the sky.

And a single flamingo is a marvel of design, from head to foot. Consider the beak, an oblong, lidded box, turned down at the end so that it is parallel to the bottom of the pond as the head sweeps back and forth searching for food in the shallow water. Inside, the beak is lined with bristles that keep larger objects out while trapping small, edible bits of algae and such, as the tongue pumps water in and out. Only whales feed similarly, filtering tiny shrimps through their baleen.

The flamingo’s neck and legs are, in proportion, the longest of any bird’s. The flamingo may stand over six feet [1.8 m] tall. Its stiltlike legs are suited to life in shallow, salty lakes. It even rests while standing in the water, safe from predators, and in the unlikeliest of positions​—standing on one leg! Experts say that a flamingo stands on one leg in order to rest the other. A special tendon enables the bird to lock the leg rigidly in place, like a pole. A superb sense of balance helps too.

Evolutionists have a hard time with the flamingo’s origin. To them, it is in some ways like a goose, in others like a stork, in still others like a heron. We might add that it eats like a whale and sleeps like a standing lamp. But we don’t need to puzzle over where it came from. Only an intelligent Designer could devise such a marvel.