Is the pink flamingo an endangered species?

"The flamingo is an icon of Florida, and harkens back to a past when there were wild flamingos in large numbers in south Florida," McCarthy said.

But the birds also came to symbolize bad taste. They became the namesake of the 1972 John Waters film "Pink Flamingos," an epic to excess that celebrated a wide range of perversions. Some residential developments even banned flamingo ornaments from lawns.

The bird also became a target of pranksters, some of whom swiped the ornaments from front yards, took them on the road, and then sent photos to their owners showing the kidnapped birds in front of sights like Paris' Eiffel Tower.

The pink flamingo enjoyed a resurgence in the 1980s with the popularity of the television police show "Miami Vice," whose opening credits featured images of real birds. Today, the flamingo image is found on everything from doormats to swizzle sticks to roadside motel signs.

Featherstone originals remain a top seller in the gift shop at the National Plastics Center, a museum in Leominster that tells the story of the plastics industry both locally and internationally, including the pink flamingo.

"What started out as a fun fad turned into the ultimate in tacky, and evolved into kitsch art on your front lawn," said Marjorie Weiner, the museum's outreach coordinator. "You really can't help but smile when you look at them, and giggle, because they're funny."

Whatever the Featherstone flamingo's fate, Leominster's mayor plans to hold a party celebrating the creation's 50th birthday next June on the Town Common, which he hopes to fill with flamingos. Mazzarella said his city of 46,000 has purchased the rights to the Internet domain name flamingocity.net in hopes of capitalizing on its legacy.

"I don't think the pink flamingo is dead at all," said the mayor of the city. "But whatever happens, he was born here — that can't be taken away from us."

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