The art of pinkness. It is acquired, as flamingos are born gray. I'm a California girl in my heart, but having been raised in St. Petersburg, there's lots of Florida in my soul. And this is my favorite Florida bird. This shot: a juvenile Flamingo with lots of gray coloring but beginning that transition to pink. They turn pink because of a natural pink dye called canthaxanthin that they obtain from their diet brine shrimp and blue-green algae.