© Dan Presser/Contributed Photo
This photograph, taken by Don Presser of Carmel, shows what could be the world's only "documented" black flamingo, in a salt pond in Eilat, Israel. Other photos have been taken in the Middle East of what is believed to be the same bird.
When he couldn't find any snakes on a desert plain, a Carmel man turned his camera lens to a salt pond and captured an even rarer sight - a black-feathered flamingo.
Don Presser, 70, photographed what he said could be the "one and only black flamingo in the world" on a trip to Eilat, Israel, in February. Presser sent the image to Monterey County bird experts who identified it as a rare melanistic Greater Flamingo.
Other photographs of a darkly-hued flamingo in Eilat first appeared on birding websites last spring, and some sites also claimed the bird is one of a kind. It's unclear if what Presser saw is the same bird.
"I think there's only one, but there might be more," he said. "Let's put it this way: it's very rare."
Bird experts at the San Diego Zoo have heard reports of the melanistic - or darkly colored - flamingo, although none was familiar enough with the case to comment on it further, said Christina Simmons, a public relations officer at the zoo.
Comment: Another "rare" hailstorm hit Dubai on the same day.