Running baby flamingos

There are baby flamingos at the Oregon Zoo and they are running around with their human caretakers, much to the delight of zoo and online visitors alike. Watch as these little off-white birds hop and dash in the grass.

If these are flamingos, why aren’ they pink? From Wikipedia:

Young flamingos hatch with greyish-red plumage, but adults range from light pink to bright red due to aqueous bacteria and beta-carotene obtained from their food supply. A well-fed, healthy flamingo is more vibrantly colored, thus a more desirable mate; a white or pale flamingo, however, is usually unhealthy or malnourished. Captive flamingos are a notable exception; they may turn a pale pink if they are not fed carotene at levels comparable to the wild…

For the first six days after the chicks hatch, the adults and chicks stay in the nesting sites. At around 7–12 days old, the chicks begin to move out of their nests and explore their surroundings. When they are two weeks old, the chicks congregate in groups, called “microcrèches,” and their parents leave them alone. After a while, the microcrèches merge into “crèches” containing thousands of chicks.

Watch this next to learn more: How do baby flamingos become pink?