“What can we do for these birds?” he said. They have the magic sauce to spread the bigger mission, Lorenz said: protecting habitats. Go on, be excited! Flamingos are strong ambassadors for conservation, with sweet and friendly dispositions (though please keep your distance). Seeing wild flamingos in Tampa Bay, or anywhere in Florida, is a good thing. “I try to think like a bird as often as I can, but I’m never successful,” he said. I asked him where these icons might go next, as if the answer could be my house for daiquiris. It’s hard to tell if it’s one flock or multiples moving around Tampa Bay, he said each sighting is counted separately. “It just kept forcing them further and further north.” He speculates the ones spotted this week could have been flying from the Yucatán to Cuba. Lorenz had never heard of flamingos in Tampa Bay until now, though. But Lorenz said with climate change, more and more tropical birds are moving north for instance, one solitary flamingo has lived in the Panhandle for years. You’ll notice Tampa Bay is not on that list. They’re based mostly in places like South Florida, Florida Bay and the Florida Keys. The state now recognizes flamingos as a native species. For many years, researchers considered them non-native.īut sightings eventually became so plentiful that the data showed a different story: Flamingos were indeed native to Florida, and they were finding their way back. When flamingos were spotted in the wild, they were presumed escapees. All of these birds with their beautiful plumage were being hunted to put on hats.”įlash-forward to the 1920s, when enterprising types started buying chicks from Cuba and the Bahamas, breeding colonies to show off at attractions like the Hialeah Park Race Track north of Miami. “It got to be outrageous,” Lorenz said, “The feathers were worth more than their weight in gold, seriously, at the time. People ate them, but the bigger culprit was the plume trade, primarily for ladies’ hats. ![]() Why do people have the mailboxes? Because they are so rare.”įlamingos were plentiful in Florida around the late 1800s, Lorenz said, but were hunted to obsolescence. He went on: “What I don’t understand is why they’re so prominent on the lotto. ![]() “They’re big, tall and gorgeous,” said Jerry Lorenz, state research director for Audubon Florida. I flew to Griffin with the speed of storm-force winds. Her mom - yes, Kathy - had photos of the flamingos in her possession. Closed.ĭuring a coffee break in which I contemplated failure, Times editor Justine Griffin messaged. I drove to Anclote River Park, in case they had decided to find new scenery. I considered hopping the fence but decided that was not the way to get in the newspaper. I headed to Fred Howard Park, where cyclists saw them Wednesday, but the park was closed post-storm. Can you imagine rolling by one on a bike? Flamingos are so ubiquitously associated with Florida kitsch and culture and yet remain largely a mystery outside of zoos and theme parks. I wondered if I could find these birds and bask in their majesty. They were spotted on the Sanibel Causeway, then at Fred Howard Park in Tarpon Springs, later on Treasure Island Beach. ![]() The theory is that Hurricane Idalia swept up the pink birds, a literal wind beneath their wings, and pushed them farther north than they intended to go. Over the past week, folks around Florida have photographed groups of flamingos - a “flamboyance,” for your next trivia night - and posted photos online. “I thought we might get lucky and they’d be back,” Griffin said, teetering along a sea wall.
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