We conclude our Nile journey with some fish, and the two most colorful citizens of the Nile.

Here we have the last Ibis we'll see on our tour, the magnificent Scarlet Ibis. Yes, it does look a lot like a Flamingo. But apart from the color, they look nothing alike. The Flamingo is much larger, has a longer neck and legs, and a shorter bill than the Scarlet Ibis. And yes, Flamingoes are found in Egypt. Quite a few of them, in fact.

I'm sorry I couldn't find a picture of these fish in their natural habitat, but it does get very dark down where these fish are found. The Tilapia (the two silvery fish are Tilapia) is also known as the Egyptian Mouth-Breeder. It's an unusual nickname, but it's for good reason. When Tilapia are born, the parents incubate the tiny fry by holding them (and there are lots of the little ones!) in their mouths. They take turns alternatively holding the fry and eating, that way they don't accidentally swallow any during dinner!

The Tilapia has been fished in Egypt for hundreds of years, and even the modern-day Egyptians who fish for a living often use much the same methods as their ancestors did. The Tilapia is such a popular food fish that it is sent all over the world to stock lakes, even in America.

This beautiful fish, on the other hand, is fished for food quite often. This is the Nile Perch. Like other species of perch, they can grow quite large very quickly, and so have been a source of food for the Egyptians for centuries, much like the Tilapia above.

And here they are, mobbing the camera. Now stop making jokes about my front lawn. You'll note that the color is different from the Ibis, making them easy to tell apart. That's because the Scarlet Ibis' color is natural plumage, while a Flamingo's color is the result of eating tiny shrimp that literally turn them pink if they eat enough of them. The true color of a Flamingo is white, and many Flamingoes seen in Egypt are only a very pale pink, as brine shrimp are only found in a few Egyptian lakes. Flamingoes are not native to Egypt, but they migrate here every winter.

The Flamingo feeds by "skimming" its beak in the water and picking up the sludge at the bottom. Then they use their large tongues to squeeze out the water. What is left is a healthy (for Flamingoes at least) soup of tiny crustaceans and mollusks, as well as waterborne insects and even plankton if the Flamingoes happen to be nesting in a salt-water area (Egypt's Lake Qarun is a perfect place for them).

Well, here's a good picture of one of the types of catfish in the Nile. The Red-Tailed Nile Catfish is closely related to other catfish all over the world. It is a bottom-feeder, that is, it lives in the mud on the bottom of the Nile and eats things that filter down from above The long "whiskers" allow it to find its way in the darkness.

Catfish are not often fished for in Egypt, as they are regarded by many of the cultures there to be unsuitable for food. As a result, there are a lot of catfish in the Nile, especially in Lake Nasser where the dam holds back the mud and silt that the catfish like to live in.