Contributed by Cindi Pearce, Catalogs.com Info Guru

Flamingos, the bright pink bird with the graceful long neck and spindly legs has a charm that evokes resorts, sunny Florida and exotic venues.

Flamingos are found in more places than the Sunshine State’s lovely resorts and retirement villages. Flamingos are the centerpiece of zoos around the country, including Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo. But the lovely pink flamingo pops up in other random places.

Many establishments have made the flamingo part of their logo or identity, and one large department store specializes in flamingo-themed items.

Here is our list ten places to find flamingos:

10. At cocktail hour

Use pink flamingo cocktail forks, which are perfect for appetizers and snacks. Flamingo cocktail napkins are fun.

9. Bedroom

Perk up your bedroom with pillows that feature flamingos. During the holidays, opt for humorous flamingos wearing Santa hats or other appropriate attire. This will get you in the – holiday – mood.

8. Dining table

Accessorize your table with flamingos. Find napkins, placemats, napkin rings and a variety of other colorful linens in flamingo-laden patterns. Dishes, glassware and centerpieces can all feature flamingos in all their pink-ness.

7. Living room

Get yourself a plush, cuddly, soft lounger that keeps you warm all winter. One that features a pink flamingo print will help you dream of warmer climates. How cute!

6. Bathroom

Flamingos are a natural in the bathroom. First of all, they are pink, and what color is more often used in the bathroom – other than white? Pink! Try flamingos on your towels, your bathroom accessories or the walls. Go Pink.

5. Bar

Top off your beverage bottles with flamingo and palm tree stoppers. Your guests will enjoy this little extra pizzazz.

4. Kitchen table

Flamingo salt and pepper shakers are just the thing for your vacation home. Or any home for that matter. Every time you salt your chicken, you can say, “We should vacation in Florida this winter.”

3. Natural habitat

Flamingos are indigenous to Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Flamingos live to a ripe old age: 44 years! How remarkable to be a pink bird, with a lean and long curved neck and black tipped bills. No wonder the plastic version is so popular. They’re pretty.

Flamingos thrive in water, warm regions and like alkaline or saline lakes. Flamingos are very good swimmers. They breed in mud flats. The reason flamingos are pink is because of the shrimp-like crustaceans they eat. When flamingos are in captivity and their diet is compromised their color will pale. In fact, flamingos are not pink at birth. They are gray and white (how boring!) and don’t turn pink until they are two-years-old.

Flamingos lived in groups called colonies or flocks, which is a necessary arrangement so that they can protect one another from predators while their heads are down in the mud, eating, and they can’t see what is going on. The other flamingos have got their back, literally.

2. Las Vegas

Find Flamingos at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, where lagoons and ponds are stocked with exotic creatures, including Chilean flamingos.

1. Next door

Look no further to find flamingos. They are in my neighbor’s front yard. Plastic ones, of course.