Rare Black Flamingo Seen in Cyprus

It's hard to miss among its peers
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 9, 2015 6:15 PM CDT
Rare Black Flamingo Seen in Cyprus
A black flamingo is seen in sharp contrast to other flamingos at a salt lake at the Akrotiri area near Limassol, Cyprus.   (AP Photo/Pavlos Vrionides)

Bird watchers in Cyprus were doing double-takes this week at the sight of a black flamingo feeding at a salt lake. The bird was impossible to miss among its peers, and one conservation expert tells the Telegraph that it's the first one to visit the Mediterranean island in, well, nobody can quite remember ever seeing one there before. Reuters calls it an "exceedlngly rare" bird, period, adding that this might be the same one spotted in Israel last year. The best guess is that it suffers from a genetic condition called melanism that makes it dark instead of pink. (More Cyprus stories.)

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