In case you ever get the prospect to see flamingos within the wild it’s a sight definitely worth the journey. A bunch of them is known as a flamboyance and their hanging colour, dimension and hanging options do make for a flamboyant and memorable sight. There are actually simply 6 distinct species of flamingos left on the earth, previous to 1900 there have been greater than 22: American flamingo: (also called the Caribbean flamingo), Andean flamingo, Chilean flamingo, Higher flamingo, James’s flamingo: (also called the Puna flamingo), Lesser flamingo. Not all flamingos are pink, some are extra an orangey salmon just like the American flamingo whereas others are pale and largely white just like the Higher flamingo. It doesn’t matter what the colour all flamingos are spectacular of their uniqueness. Meals performs a job of their look, as in you’re what you eat. Shrimp, with their wealthy salmon coloring, is part of their food regimen however in addition they feast on different crustaceans, mollusks, bugs and marine worms which all contribute to their array of pinks and orange.
Historical past of flamingos within the Americas
As soon as ample with numbers starting from tons of to hundreds, they had been typically seen foraging for meals within the south Florida wetlands by scientists and feather hunters previous to the early 1900s. The American flamingo hasn’t persistently been seen right here since their inhabitants was decimated by the feather commerce. Again then an oz of feathers was value greater than an oz of gold and used for hats, garments and ornaments . Within the Caribbean and Mexico flamingo populations are nonetheless sizable. Whereas in some areas it might appear to be they’re flourishing general their numbers have declined from what they had been tons of or hundreds of years in the past, their true historic inhabitants and vary. There simply isn’t sufficient clear water and pristine land left for what had been hundreds of thousands of flamingos residing from the Americas to Africa. Through the years a sighting or two have occurred in Florida of flyovers or a couple of foraging for a few days, till just lately.
It’s accepted by scientists the American flamingo inhabitants is about 150,000 starting from Mexico and Cuba to the Caribbean and northern tip of South America. Nonetheless like all estimates many are over estimations (in September 2025 the inhabitants of Africa’s Wildebeest was regarded as 1.3 million when it’s nearer to 600,000) so one can by no means put an excessive amount of religion in these numbers when accuracy is all the time a query. One other downside with reporting inhabitants in fact is methods to actually rely shifting animals.
I spoke with David Alonzo-Parra who works at FlamencoLab within the Yucatan, Mexico. He research all the pieces from flamingos to estuaries and shared many issues about how scientific knowledge is used. We talked about how the flamingos right here in Florida could be doing and the way observatory findings are typically ignored or the language altered to sound much less damning or pressing. “Some technical studies produced by the administration of protected pure areas are unreliable. Political components are skewing the info and giving us a deceptive thought of the particular situation of untamed populations” Alonzo-Parra mentioned. This can be a large concern many within the science neighborhood cope with when their discoveries of declining populations or degraded water and habitat are put apart or downplayed by these answerable for saving them. This can be a world downside that may have a devastating impact on species in want of restoration from inhabitants decline.
A darker downside is the politics of looking, conservation and economics. When these points intersect estimations are often positioned increased to maintain allowances for looking and improvement which all the time take precedence over conservation. A tragic however true actuality.
Click on right here to learn how the feather commerce practically destroyed heron, egret, spoonbill and flamingo species none of which ever absolutely recovered.
Inhabitants decline all over the world
Estimates for world populations range by species and regardless of the accepted numbers starting from roughly 60,000 (James’s flamingo) to 2 million (Lesser flamingo) on a worldwide scale all species battle as water ranges rise, habitat is each misplaced and degraded, human harassment will increase and lack of meals have all contributed to inhabitants decline. Flamingos as soon as had booming populations of hundreds of thousands till feather hunters killed them and fashionable vitality sources like oil and coal precipitated a rise in world temperatures, resulting in melting glaciers which precipitated rising oceans to wipe out a few of their habitat. Excessive warmth may cause eggs to boil whereas impacting how a lot meals resides within the ocean. Flamingos breeding seasons are based mostly on water ranges and meals availability.
Inhabitants decline is rarely about one trigger however many that every exponentially make the others worse till the domino impact ends the species. Massive animals want extra meals and house and have a tendency to dwell longer. As their meals provide dwindles and habitat shrinks the inevitable occurs. Flamingos are giant birds that stand a number of toes tall and nest in giant flocks, so plentiful meals and nesting grounds is a premium. Nesting on mudflats and saltpans means the nests are extra liable to being flooded resulting from elevated sea ranges. Hotter oceans can imply much less meals which dictates the survival price of chicks. A feminine lays only one egg, like penguins, so all their hope lies with only one probability their egg will hatch and their chick will develop sturdy sufficient to fledge. Even with a useful mate survival relies on issues out of their management.
How do they fare in captivity
A flock of untamed flamingos lives in a sanctuary in south Florida. Their house is a on line casino that has since closed down its racetrack. Although the flamingos are free to fly and breed they’re fed by people and their habitat is surrounded by condos, automobiles and trains. It’s noisy and polluted. Some have flown the coup however since none of those flamingos are banded or tracked it’s unknown the place the escaped birds went, in the event that they migrated again to a different space or got here again to the Florida racetrack sanctuary. They had been introduced right here a long time in the past and have discovered to remain as a result of there isn’t any open house close by for them. Throughout the protected space there’s little concern of predators. Regardless of flying over the racetrack throughout sundown , the place they’ve an aerial view of their environment, they lack their wild intuition emigrate. Not all cages have bars.
Dwelling in a zoo as one can think about is worse. Birds that aren’t saved in cages have their wings clipped to stop flight, many pet homeowners do the identical with their birds. Flamingos are social birds so life in a zoo could be troublesome except their habitat was giant sufficient to incorporate contemporary water and meals with sufficient land for a large flock. Zoos at the moment don’t provide something close to that so life for a flamingo caught there’s dreadful. Fashionable zoos could also be ‘higher’ than they had been fifty years in the past however that doesn’t elevate the usual a lot. Life expectancy is about 10 years within the wild and that may be a very long time with nowhere to go once you’re a migratory world traveler.
Captivity strips away each wild intuition and offers the identical sterile setting day in and time out with no change of the menu. Most people would hate that but we don’t relay the identical compassion to animals once we see them in a zoo. It’s time to rethink the necessity for zoos and watching the flamingos held there carefully is an efficient place to start out.
The wild isn’t so wild anymore
Even in a wildlife refuge there’s all the time a hint of human encroachment. As soon as distant areas just like the Arctic now present indicators of human disturbance and trash left behind. Since 2023 a small group had been blown off beam and landed in northern Florida. They’ve been residing there ever since although haven’t had a breeding season. Their present residence is Merritt Island Nationwide Wildlife Refuge. The refuge permits fishing and looking which begs the query what’s the true level of a refuge if not full safety from any harassment from people. Because the human inhabitants continues to blow up past capability it can inevitably have an effect on all different species in a unfavourable manner. There’s solely a lot land and water out there and for big birds in giant flocks that doesn’t bode properly for the long run if we proceed to place our personal species first as an alternative of defending all the ecosystem for all species.
That is Merritt Island Nationwide Wildlife refuge within the spring of 2025. This boat is manner too shut however there isn’t any one to implement legal guidelines designed to guard wildlife from harassment, even a protected species
Methods to assist save them
The primary manner could be to get entangled with a nonprofit that genuinely is attempting to avoid wasting the species and their habitat. Concentrate on the flamingos complete ecosystem moderately than simply the species itself. Get entangled with improvement initiatives no matter how distant they appear and assist to both cease, sluggish or shrink them as a result of the planet is already over developed and non human species all the time take a again seat to human wants. Working to guard wetlands is important not just for flamingos and different species however for we people as properly.
If you’re fortunate sufficient to see wild flamingos give them quite a lot of house. Getting too shut forces them to desert their nests and meals and waste priceless vitality eluding you after they might be utilizing that to forage and relaxation. In case you occur to see a band on a flamingo you possibly can Google what the band seems like to seek out no matter group did the banding and phone them with date/time and site of your sighting. This helps maintain observe of migratory birds and their habitat and infrequently helps defend a species.
Within the spring of 2025 I acquired the prospect to see a small flock that had arrived on the winds of a hurricane in 2023. They’ve made north Florida their house for 2 years however nobody can predict if they are going to settle in and begin a brand new colony or migrate. One of many flamingos was banded and after performing some analysis I discovered the group and acquired the background story. I despatched a photograph of grownup flamingo DHDH to David Alonzo-Parra at FlamecoLab in Mexico and acquired this flamingo’s attention-grabbing life story again.
“The Story of DHDH
The title of our marketing campaign to lift funds and proceed the work of integrating, analyzing, and sharing info from banded flamingo monitoring is: “Bands That Inform Tales.” And indisputably, the story of the flamingo with band code DHDH is without doubt one of the most fascinating ones now we have to share.
This flamingo was banded as a chick on September 7, 2014, in a spot referred to as Angostura, situated inside the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, on the jap coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. Angostura is a hypersaline wetland that, in some years, has confronted challenges for nesting resulting from local weather variability and the presence of feral canines. Regardless of these threats, in 2014, an estimated 22,000 chicks hatched, of which 500 had been banded, together with DHDH.
This particular person, born in Yucatán, was first recorded in Florida, USA, on September 2, 2023, and in accordance with our database, remained within the area till its final sighting on April 23, 2025, (that might be my sighting) with no confirmed data of a return to Yucatán up to now.
Between 2015 and 2024, we documented 1,417 banded flamingo data, permitting us to estimate that the common lifespan within the wild for flamingos born in Yucatán is 9.46 years. Our pal DHDH has been reported 9 instances, all in Florida, and on the time of the final sighting, was 11 years previous—with the final two years spent in Florida’s wetlands, over 700 km away from its birthplace.
Generally, it’s common for flamingos born in Yucatán to be noticed in different nations. A current case is the one you talked about, the place six people had been recorded in Florida following Hurricane Idalia, between September 1 and October 21, 2023. These flamingos had been banded as chicks in Ría Lagartos 23, 21, 18, and seven years in the past, respectively. Their sudden reappearance after years with out sightings raises some key questions:
- How lengthy will they continue to be in Florida?
- Will they return to Yucatán?
- Will they transfer on to different nations?
That is the tagged American Flamingo DHDH whose story remains to be unfinished.
The remainder of the flock…..for now
Will DHDH and this small flock keep within the US and colonize or depart? Will the American Flamingo make a house right here or stay an informal customer? Nobody is aware of how this story will unfold however many are hoping for his or her everlasting return. In June 2025 a flock of 122 flamingos had been seen foraging within the Everglades, they solely stayed a couple of days however give hope that sometime flamingos will return house to Florida for good.
If you’re out the place there are flamingo search for this huge yellow tag (ring) across the left leg with 4 numbers. These are bands from the Yucatan and a few of these flamingo have come to Florida
To report a tag seen on a flamingo click on this hyperlink
https://www.flamencoyucatan.org/membrespercentC3percentADa
To be taught extra about American Flamingo click on right here
https://www.flamencoyucatan.org/
The Andean Flamingo Conservation displays the rarest inhabitants, the Andean Flamingo which is endemic to the Andes Mountains, to see how mining results them (central Andes are house to a number of the largest lithium reserves on the planet and that most likely spells catastrophe) Click on right here to be taught extra about this uncommon species
https://kentfarm.indiana.edu/analysis/flamingos.html
The face of the American Flamingo
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This submit was beforehand revealed on Actuality Checks with Staci-lee.
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The submit Is the American Flamingo Making a Comeback in Florida? appeared first on The Good Males Mission.