Pink Flamingo Finds His Flock

Play along with reader activities for this picture book.

“Meow!” The Catbirds are flying Pink Flamingo south.

Pink Flamingo wants to find his flock. But he can’t fly on his own. He only has plastic wings and metal stakes for legs!

The other birds in his garden understand that everyone needs a little help sometimes. They join together to send Pink Flamingo on an adventure to find his true home.

You can print reader activities that go along with this book, including coloring pages, spinners and bookmarks.

You can purchase a copy of this children’s book through Amazon, Barnes and Noble or my Etsy shop, where you will also find one-of-a-kind handmade gifts.

Plastic flamingos may not be able to walk or fly, but Pink Flamingo travels far.

About Plastic Pink Flamingos…

The idea for Pink Flamingo’s journey began on the long drive home after my husband and I visited our son in Ohio. I grew up in Maine and lived in Boston for ten years before we married: my husband spent much of his childhood in Europe before his father retired from the Air Force to become a professor at Fitchburg University (my father-in-law fully credited my mother-in-law for the ground support that made his various careers possible, as well as being, he said, the more intelligent half of their marriage). As my husband and I drove through New York, we talked about what was now our hometown. We hadn’t necessarily planned to stay that long in Leominster, but here it was, over thirty years later.

Even if you have never heard of Leominster, Massachusetts, you’ve seen something that originated there.  Beyond being the birthplace of Johnny Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed), Leominster is home to the authentic plastic pink flamingo.  Back in the 1950s, artist Don Featherstone designed the lawn ornament with two poses, using photos from National Geographic magazines as reference.  Featherstone named his prototype “Diego.” 

Today, there are many flamingo knockoffs, most manufactured overseas.  You can tell if you have a genuine pink flamingo by checking for Don Featherstone’s name embossed on the lower surface of the bird.  

Union Products eventually went out of business as electricity-dependent inflatable lawn decorations with fans and motors became more popular. Some molds of Featherstone’s designs were destroyed during the liquidation. Another Leominster mold maker, Cado (originally Chapdelaine Tool Company), bought the surviving molds and the rights to Union Products and Featherstone’s work. Union is now a subsidiary of Cado. The company has since moved to a repurposed paper mill in Fitchburg, Leominster’s twin city, where it continues to manufacture Featherstone’s flamingos.