A flamingo’s bright pink feathers may look like a permanent feature of its biology, but science reveals something unusual: the bird’s color is closely connected to its diet. Flamingos do not simply hatch with their famous pink plumage. Instead, pigments obtained through food are processed by their bodies and eventually deposited into feathers, skin and other tissues.
The chemistry behind that transformation involves a group of natural compounds called carotenoids, which are responsible for many of the red, orange and yellow colors found throughout nature.
