Environment

Have you seen a giant pink bird? Audubon Florida is holding a flamingo 'census'

WUSF | By Steve Newborn

Published February 16, 2024 at 9:07 AM EST

They're bright pink, huge and hard to miss.

For decades, flamingos have been seen mostly as plastic lawn ornaments. Hurricane Idalia blew in scores of the birds back to our shores. But how many are out there?

We ask Julie Wraithmell, executive director of Audubon Florida, about their first-ever flamingo census, which starts Sunday.

WUSF: A big census is being held during the upcoming week. Is this a first time for this and why is this happening?

Wraithmell: This is a first. The next Sunday to Sunday, the 18th to the 25th, will be a range-wide survey of flamingos, and anybody can contribute their sighting. After Hurricane Idalia blew through, we actually picked up quite a few flamingos that were likely moving between Cuba and the Yucatan, where they breed, and carried them to Florida. So not only did we have a lot of flamingos in Florida, but they actually swept up the East Coast.

And we're seeing in as far-flung places as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And of course, the big question is, will they go back? Will they stay? What's their fate? So it's unlikely that those birds would remain as far north as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania through the winter, of course, but Florida is perfectly well suited for them.

Folks may recall that there was an individual flamingo blown over by Hurricane Michael, that has stayed at St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge south of Tallahassee for several years. And of course, flamingos used to breed in Florida historically, but they were extirpated around 1900 as a result of shooting for the plume trade as well as, frankly, for consumption.

So the idea is, will these individuals here in Florida say, gosh, this place is kind of nice, they've fixed it up a bit. And you know, they've put in some effort with restoration, and maybe we should give it a go. So we expect that a lot of those birds that went way far north will move back south and have moved back south with the winter. But have they decamped and gone back to the Yucatan?

We know that there's flamingos still knocking around the state. They're still sightings, with some frequency in southwest Florida, Tampa Bay, the Big Bend over by Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in the Indian River Lagoon, but how many are there really? And so that's what we're trying to get a handle on.

Do we have a rough estimate of maybe how many there are in Florida?

This will establish that, which is why it's so exciting. So at the time after Hurricane Idalia, when they were sweeping through, we probably would have guessed a couple hundred. But it was also difficult because the sightings were so diffuse, so people weren't necessarily telling you exactly how many they saw on what date in what location.

Florida has enjoyed in the last few winters an increasing number of sightings in South Florida. So particularly in the central Everglades, these are birds that are coming over from the Yucatan or Cuba, spending a little time here in the winter, but then they go back to breed. And so we've been seeing that increasing.

So where do flamingos usually breed?

They typically breed coastally. And so of course they are feeders that forage in that shallow water for shrimp and fish and other small prey. Right now they breed in the Yucatan and in Cuba. They did breed in Florida historically, and the habitat persists. So there is a chance, stands to reason, that there could be some pioneering young flamingo couple that could decide to make a go of it and gosh, what a sense of redemption that would be for us in Florida.

I grew up knowing that flamingos occurred in Florida, but that we had kind of blown our shot with them in the 1900s. And to think we get a second chance and that Florida could be known for more than just flamingos of the plastic lawn variety. That's exciting.

"I grew up knowing that flamingos occurred in Florida, but that we had kind of blown our shot with them in the 1900s. And to think we get a second chance and that Florida could be known for more than just flamingos of the plastic lawn variety. That's exciting."

Julie Wraithmell, Audubon of Florida

This should be an easy sell for people to take part in the census. Flamingos aren't like tiny birds. You don’t have to use binoculars to see them. They're very visible and they're fun, right?

People want to see them. Yeah, they're huge. They're pink. And you're right. They are fun. People want to see them. It's great to love them. It's great to see them. Be sure you don't get too close to them. We did see in the wake of Hurricane Idalia, with people's enthusiasm for the birds, they were getting way too close. And you know, it puts the birds at great risk. So, no census shouldn't harm the birds. And so we're asking people, if you happen to see them, snap a photo with your phone, make a note of where you're located.

If you have your phone's geolocator on, it'll put the latitude and longitude in the metadata of your image. Go to our website and share that information there so that we can get a better snapshot of what is the status of flamingos in Florida and what their future might be.

There is a push to make flamingos the state bird. Is that going to have wings?

There is a bill in the legislature that has been proposed. I will say people asked me often who does Audubon back for the state bird and, you know, officially, we don't choose between our kids.

And what we tell people is, if you care about public lands and making sure they're well managed with prescribed fire, you should be Team Scrub Jay. If you care about wetland restoration in the Everglades, you may be Team Flamingo.