While Fred and I were on the Pelagic Bird Trip (see earlier posts), I met Mary who works with the birds at SeaWorld. She told us, if we came to SeaWorld, not to miss the Flamingo Parade every day at 10:30. We managed to find them (it wasn't really difficult--we looked for flamingos in the middle of the sidewalk and a crowd of people taking photographs.)
These are young flamingos who have been hand-raised. I think they are about six months old at this point and just beginning to get their color, which comes from their diet. In the picture above, you can see a bit of the salmon color under the wing, which Mary said is the first place it appears. Below, Mary is bonding with a flamingo.
This handler was one of the two who hand-raised the flamingos and this one in particular was very bonded to him. It kept approaching him and nudging him with its head. He would mimic the flamingo behavior to include making croaking calls. The flamingos have a strong flock instinct, and when he would leave, they would all follow.
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