Omiya Flamingoes
Around Tokyo there’s a score of small and relatively unknown places to see animals. Behind the huge Hikawa Shrine in Saitama prefecture’s Omiya, there’s a tiny zoo barely known even to locals and yesterday I was in the area so I went there to have a look at the flamingoes. It was biting cold and just a few days earlier I had seen ice along the rivers of western Saitama prefecture so I was hoping to see something I have always imagines: flamingoes hanging out in snow! Sadly enough for me but lucky enough for them there was no snow nor ice yesterday, but I still enjoyed seeing these gorgeous birds. The zoo itself is really old and run down but they have some interesting animals, a trio of Hyena for example, and until a couple of weeks ago, a talking crow who showed his temper by greeting visitors to his cage with a hoarse “bye-bye”! Sadly though, the crow recently passed away.
Best of all the zoo is free to visit! If you are in Omiya with nothing to do, you can impress your Japanese friends by taking them to a double treat of the beautiful Hikawa Shrine and the mini-zoo!
R.I.P talking crow! i’m surprised the flamingo’s were able to keep their pinkish color despite not being out in the wild
I’m sure they feed them the correctly colored shrimp! (^-^)
That would do it ^_^
Wow, they are the most brightly-colored flamingos I’ve seen! How cute that their bills (billsだったっけ?) are hot pink!
I love flamingoes! (^-^)
Soft feathered and shrimp coloured – really like your photos. They are quite extraordinary creatures, aren’t they? (The yellow tag leg band really does clash, tho
)
Haha… yes the leg band! Wish they had made it pink! (^-^;) Thank you for the kind comment!
They are such gorgeous creatures ^_^
How close were you to them? From your photographs it looked like you were quite close without any fencing blocking the view.
Thanks! Yes, I was very close, there’s just a low rail. I could have leaned in and touched the closest one of them if I was had someone keeping me from falling over! (^-^)
Reblogged this on Ann Novek–With the Sky as the Ceiling and the Heart Outdoors.
Gorgeous, gorgeous photos and birds.
I wonder if flamingoes have the same sorts of bad tempers as swans and peacocks?
Thanks Val! Swans are dangerous. peacocks are annoying but flamingoes are cool. (^-^)
I’m wondering if I’ve ever seen a flamingo in person. I want to say yes as a child, but I can’t immediately recall unfortunately. They’re such a lovely color scheme. Nature is fantastic, no?
Nature is the best! As much as I love Tokyo, everyday I am away from nature is a day I fail at life…
Oh no, that makes me sad. I wish there was a way we could coexist with nature but still have mod-cons.
I guess they are one of the few I don’t mind being all pink
It is like living art 
Haha… yes! They seem to be a common motif in modern art! (^-^)