RIP pink plastic flamingo

It seems that the plastic pink flamingo is going the way of dodo. The plastic bird, a kitsch icon that has populated the front lawns of American homes since the 1950s, is about to become extinct.



Union Products of Leominster, Massachusetts, which has made the birds since 1957, is going out of business.

"The plant's pink flamingo will be an endangered species," Dennis Plante, the company's president, said.

An estimated 20m of the plastic birds have been sold since the company began production. The line began when a newly-hired art school graduate named Donald Featherstone made a clay model of a flamingo, copied from a photograph in National Geographic.

Mr Featherstone and Mr Plante hope to save the bird from extinction. "It is sad that it is happening, but it may not be dead yet." The two hope to find another company to buy the flamingo moulds and continue production. Wal-Mart has been its biggest customer, selling 250,000 of the birds each year.