An American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber ... and algae. Its bizarre beak makes more sense upside down, as it is when the bird is filter feeding, head inverted. For most of my life, I didn ...

This story appears in the April 2012 issue of National Geographic magazine. A flamingo looks like a bird cooked up by an exuberant preschooler—absurdly long legs, knobby ankles (that look like ...