Have you ever seen this before?
Flamingos in Georgia [VIDEO]

Rangers and guests of Javakheti Protected Areas in southern Georgia are enjoying a rare opportunity only few people have seen – migrating flamingos crossing the blue sky.

Today Georgia’s Agency of Protected Areas shared a video of a flamingo walking freely on a green field, looking carefully as it explores its surroundings.

This video was the first time flamingos have been filmed in Georgia.

It was known that flamingoes were in Georgia as rangers sometimes caught sight of them however the birds are quite shy creatures and try to avoid being seen, hence no one has managed to take a photo or video of the birds, until now.

After the video was released on Facebook, people noticed the flamingo was not pink, as typically imagined. The birds are white and grey, which raised many questions from viewers.

Their colour can be easily explained. Flamingos are not pink but are born with grey feathers that gradually turn pink in the wild because of a natural pink dye called canthaxanthin that they obtain from their diet of brine shrimp and blue-green algae. Since their menu is slightly different in Georgia, their colour is also different.

Administration Director of the Javakheti Protected Areas Tamaz Karapetiani told Agenda.ge every year in late September and October flamingos crossed the Georgian sky in groups of five or six as they migrated towards the south in search of warmer climates.

The Javakheti Protected Areas is Georgia’s top bird-watching destination. About 240 species of birds can be seen there.

But birds are not the only thing adventure-enthusiasts love about Javakheti – it is also Georgia’s top fishing destination where more than 160 species of fish live in southern Georgian lakes.