This is bird note.

With fancy pink feathers, legs like stilts and a beak shaped like a boomerang,

few birds were as wildly distinctive as flamingos.

We may picture them wading in tropical lagoons on the Caribbean, but the world's six species

are far-flung, found across much of South America, Africa,

Southern Europe, and Western India.

The bird's pink color is derived from the beta carotene in the tiny crustaceans, algae, and plankton that are the flamingos main source of food.

Just looking at this waiting bird with extra long legs and neck, you might think it's related to other birds with those features. Herons, perhaps. Scientists once grouped flamingos with storks and ibises,

but looks can be deceiving.

A study of their DNA delivered a stunning surprise.

Flamingo's closest living relatives appear to be the smallish waterbirds known as Griebs.

An even bigger surprise, DNA indicates that Flamingos and Griebs share an ancestry not with other water birds, but with very

different looking land birds, like doves.

So flamingos evolved long legs and necks, just as herons and storks did, but they belong on a completely

different branch of the tree of life. You can see amazing photos of flamingos when you visit

our website,

Bird Note.org.

I'm Mary McCann.